The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Tage des Zorns

This beautiful movie is about how the new era of fear is dividing East and West, featuring UK-based writer Mohsim Hamid's critically acclaimed book, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, about the impact of Sept 11th on Muslims living abroad post 9/11 attacks & its psychological and political damage. It's a tale of mixed loyalties and one man's journey into the heart of the conflict.

Hamid has published a novel about the aftermath of September 11th. It's based on a character whose life mirrors his own accomplishments, but whose subsequent journey and fate is very different. The book is entitled "The Reluctant Fundamentalist".

The main character, Chengez, is living in New York at the time of the attacks. The new western hostility towards his country, to his people, and to an ancient and complex civilization shocks Chengez, to the core. He feels as though he has to take sides. Then, quite simply, he has a crackup, followed by a mysterious journey back to Pakistan that may or may not lead to the embrace of fundamentalism.

At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful encounter . . .

Changez is living an immigrant's dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he works at the elite valuation firm of Underwood Samson. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his budding romance with elegant, beautiful Erica promises entry into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore.

But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his budding relationship with Erica eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. The romance is negligible; Erica is emotionally unavailable, endlessly grieving the death of her lifelong friend and boyfriend, Chris. And Changez's own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love.

Told in a single monologue, the narrative never flags. Changez is by turn's naive, sinister, unctuous, mildly threatening, overbearing, insulting, angry, resentful, and sad.

Changez is in Manila on 9/11 and sees the towers come down on TV. He tells the American, "...I smiled. Yes, despicable as it may sound, my initial reaction was to be remarkably pleased... I was caught up in the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought America to her knees..." When he returns to New York, there is a palpable change in attitudes toward him, starting right at immigration. His name and his face render him suspect.

He exorcises that feeling and once again appreciates his home for its "unmistakable personality and idiosyncratic charm." While at home, he lets his beard grow. Advised to shave it, even by his mother, he refuses.

His company sends him to Istanbul for another business valuation; his mind filled with the troubles in Pakistan and the U.S. involvement with India that keeps the pressure on. Beautiful screenplay and great Urdu- English blend of dialogues makes it really worth a watch on the big screen.

The aftermath of 9/11 is an ongoing process: For Americans, the hardening of the heart and the strengthening of its defenses is a given; for a Pakistani like Changez (Riz Ahmed) his love of America is challenged in his professional and personal life. The Reluctant Fundamentalist, adapted from the Moshin Hamid novel, is a cultural deconstruction of values, beliefs, and patriotism framed in a formulaic thriller.

The character arc for Changez extends relentlessly throughout the film. Changez's "change" is the heart of the film, and director Mira Nair doesn't disappoint as she exposes the fraying nerves underlying both commerce and politics in these volatile times.

Nair is weak only in having a thesis to prove, most notably that when family, profession, and nationalism collide in parlous times, few will emerge unscathed but all will fiercely protect their own values. For instance, while Changez, the son of a Pakistani poet, achieves the American Dream as a business analyst for a prominent financial advisory company, aka corporate morticians (see Romney's Bain), that success wears on this young man with a fundamental belief in fairness. As a professor, he teaches "the importance of fundamentals." The abduction of a fellow academic seriously challenges his allegiances.

Nair, maybe too obviously, parallels the corporate turmoil with his love of SoHo artist Erica (Kate Hudson) and his love of his country. Add those competing life elements to aggressive American security (Changez's encounter with the TSA should chill any of us who travel and wonder what it would be like to be targeted), and you have a young man changing by the minute.

If for nothing else, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a story about fundamental beliefs, none more glaringly different than the West and Islam. The action, framed by a story of journalist Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber) interviewing Changez about the hostage situation, becomes multileveled and allegorical, ending in more of a thriller with a banal surprise than a thoughtful treatise on the complicated nature of modern foreign affairs.

As we did for Argo, forget the hokey ending and enjoy the clash of cultures. It's worth the trip.

For those who have read Mohsin Hamid's brilliant novel on which this film is based the story will be easier to follow than the somewhat disconnected screenplay that was written by Hamid with Ami Boghani and William Wheeler. Mira Nair directs, and knowing her previous work suggests that it is this very disconnect that she wishes to emphasize in this profoundly moving film - in these times of global unrest and fear because of terrorist acts we don't know who to trust and who to dislike, but the answer is that there is no right or wrong. Nair achieves this by beginning her film with a conversation between an American journalist Bobby (Liev Schreiber) and a Pakistani professor Changez (Riz Ahmed) in a setting of high tension in a bar in Lahore and our initial belief is that the Bobby represents the core we trust and with whom we identify, that Changez is the unknown 'different culture' stranger who is suspect. In the course of the film that position is deeply altered. And that is where the power of the message is so affecting. But we must go through flashbacks of eleven years to understand the real drama.

Changez Khan (the very handsome and very fine actor Riz Ahmed) lives with his poet father Abu (Om Purl) and mother Ammi (Shabana Azmi) in Pakistan. The family is poor but educated and Changez decides to go to America to find his place in the corporate world of money and success - and help support his family (his sister is ready to marry but the family can ill afford a traditional wedding). Changez arrives in America, attends university, and rises rapidly, gaining a position with a Wall Street company that specializes in financial advising for business internationally. The head of the company Jim Cross (Kiefer Sutherland) personally picks Changez after testing his skills and sends Changez on missions to the Philippines etc where he examines the finances, cuts waste (and jobs of workers) and makes the businesses run efficiently, increase profits, but sacrificing the working class. On one such mission Changez is asked to analyze a publishing house in Istantbul, the owner Nazmi (Haluk Bilginer) has translated Changez' fathers poetry into Turkish, and pleads with Changez not to destroy his publishing house. Cross demands Changez shut it down and Changez refuses and submits his resignation. As he prepares to pack to return, jobless, to the US he is watching television and the twin towers of 9/11 are being attacked. His attempts to return to the US are met with police and airport interrogations since he is not a native born American, and this allows the viewer to witness the horrible and demeaning treatment 'foreigners' received in the wake of 9/11.

Changez does return to New York and has another setback with his photographer artist girlfriend Erica (Kate Hudson), herself deeply bruised by the loss of her lover in a car crash she caused in the recent past, who has an art opening that includes videos and images of bits of conversation she has shared with Changez - information which in the exhibition further underlines the concept of Changez as a potential terrorist. Changez flees to Pakistan, becomes an anti-violence but fiery professor whose students seek to rid their Pakistan of the American intruders. And this is where the conversation at film's beginning ultimately makes sense (it is now 2011). The manner in which the film ends is left for the viewer to experience. As in the book there are many sidebar stories and characters that underline the stories of both Bobby (who has been talked into joining the CIA) and Changez who moves from his love of the American Dream and his sweetheart, to his spiritual commitment to his Pakistan. These characters, as well as many others in this film, allow us to see there is no one way to view acts as right or wrong. It is all perception and hopefully this brilliant film will assist us in understanding the confusion that deeply affects us all everyday as we walk around the topic of terrorism. Grady Harp, May 13

Off late, it seems that there's a new genre of films, both in India and in the West. As varied as they may be in their narratives, they share certain broad elements-a Muslim immigrant to the West facing the hostility and suspicion of a post-9/11 world and gradually becoming disillusioned with the once sought-after Western way of life and seeking solace in his/her own roots. 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' is the latest addition to that particular genre and yet, unlike many of the others, it doesn't have a lot to do with terrorism. Sure, terrorism and its consequences do drive the plot to a significant extent; but above all, this is a very human story about identity, self-doubt, and internal conflict.

The protagonist Changez Khan is a man living in two worlds, and throughout the story, he is never really able to pick a side, despite his assertion that his side has picked for him. In that regard, he is perhaps the most realistic reflection of a modern Muslim youth placed in a similar situation. Without spoiling anything much, I will say that this isn't your sundry story about young people feeling victimized and turning to radicalism-this is something far more complex...something you need to see the whole movie to truly appreciate.

Riz Ahmed does a great job portraying the multi-faceted and conflicted protagonist Changez, and Liev Schreiber is brilliant as Bobby Lincoln, the enigmatic American whose conversation with Changez forms the backbone of the narrative. Less impressive is Kate Hudson as Changez's American lover Erika.

As soon as I saw the early credits running right to left I was grabbed by the intelligent Mira Nair, then the rousing singers, sumptuous visuals, disparate actors woven together in this complex, compelling story... wow. The Reluctant Fundamentalist is why I love cinema. This movies imperfections are perfection.

I read Mohsin Hamids exquisite book prior to viewing this fine movie and I almost side- stepped this movie because I didn't feel Hamids books subtle yet intense conversation would be translated onto the big screen. How wrong I was - thank you Mira Nair and all those involved.

I walked out of this movie and clicked my heels - the sun was shining and the world was travelling just fine in far more places than most realise.