Straight Outta Lahore
A young Pakistani man in love with American dream slowly begins to resent his oppressors and finds living in a nightmare in the politically-charged drama, The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
Around the globe, terror threats have become a part of our daily lives. In most occasions, we demonize this men and women who seek to bring harm to our American way of life. Director Mira Nair’s heroic story examines how the seeds of discontent are easily planted and how we are hypocritical in our refusal and blind ignorance of the results as they flourish and spread.
When an American professor is kidnapped in downtown Lahore, a journalist Bobby (Liev Schreiber) sits down for an interview with a Pakistani professor, Changez (Riz Ahmed) who supposedly teaches radical fundamental teachings to his students. Asking for silence and patience while he tells his story, Changez unspools a passionate tale about his trials and tribulations in the land of Milk and Honey.
The film flashbacks to 1998 and our apple pie, American dream loving student is quietly assimilating into Princeton with dreams of conquering the financial sector. Hanging out with friends, sharing their hopes and studying hard, Changez lands his dream job upon graduation with the powerhouse financial house, Underwood Sampson when he impresses the company’s recruiter and executive, Jim (Kiefer Sutherland) with his special gift of his sharp and intuitive reasoning.
Now a soldier in the economic army on Wall Street, Changez fortune’s take a turn for the better when he finds love when he accidentally meets and falls for a beautiful photographer and performance artist, Erica (Kate Hudson). Clearly on the fast track, soon he is promoted and becomes the youngest Associate Director in the company’s history. Unfortunately for him, looking out of his corner office, Changez can’t see that soon the winds of change would blow his comfortable world cold.
When 9/11 occurs, suddenly his ethnicity which was tolerated in the past becomes his scarlet letter. He suffers the first of several humiliating incidents when he is unfairly racially profiled culminating in an embarrassing cavity search that was unsettling for the audience as for the unfortunate victim. Changez begins to associate the American Dream with American Arrogance as he slowly feels that he disconnected from his Pakistani roots. Growing a beard to honor his culture, his colleagues begin to grow unsettled at his appearance and his sudden change of personality. Even his safe haven with Erica erupts in anger when she uses their personal life as a peace of performance art.
Soon he reaches the point of no return when events converge that force him to answer the enduring call to his homeland and return to his roots to create a new reality for the young Pakistani people.
Based on Mohsin Hamid’s award-winning book, Nair’s film is very adept at examining Changez’s chronology and the key points when he slowly goes through the process of abandoning his faith in his adopted homeland. In many regards, the story is universal and would be equally effective in any time period with any ethnicity.
While the supporting cast of Hudson, Sutherland, Schreiber and even Nelsan Ellis in a brief role are all capable players, the film rides on the broad shoulders of Ahmed who gives an emphatic but effective performance as the eager foreigner who innocence is shattered as he transforms from American-loving dreamer into an Enemy of the State. As a credit of his ability and a good screenplay credited to Mohsin Hamid, Ami Boghani and William Wheeler succeeds in making us feel sympathetic to Changez yet ultimately feeling his anger and pain.
Nair, who rose to prominence with her 1988 breakthrough, Salaam Bombay!, has created a eclectic but winning collection of work that includes Mississippi Masala, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, Vanity Fair, The Namesake and Amelia. Her take on the The Reluctant Fundamentalist shows that she has become an accomplished filmmaker after a quarter of a century in the game. Her film should be a wake-up call to examine the dynamics that create and breed opposition to our way of life as well as a closer examination of the real meaning of freedom.
Grade B+