The Diplomat
Starring: John Abraham, Sadia Khateeb, Kumud Mishra
Director: Shivam Nair
There is a sense of mounting tension in The Diplomat that sets it apart from most political thrillers, which either get embroiled in too much jingoism or end up tying themselves in knots in trying to please everyone.
Although this is a story of an unsung hero, there are no trumpets blaring from rooftops. Director Shivam Nair(where has he been hiding himself?) keeps the proceedings brisk but never over-the-top as he pierces into a slice of recent history: in 2017, India’s deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan, J.P.Singh found himself in an unprecedented situation when an Indian woman Uzma rushed into the Indian High Commission in Islamabad seeking asylum and passage to freedom back home.
From this intriguing beginning, writer Ritesh Shah constructs a narrative that is at once topical and tactile. There are no rough edges, no diversion, and, believe it or not, no songs in the background until the end when Hariharan’s sonority suffuses the soundtrack with the heartrending ‘Bharat hum ko jaan se pyaara hai’.
That said(and sung), there is no overt aggressive flag-waving in the storytelling. The editing is largely brusque; like its no-nonsense protagonist, there is no room for faffing in this hard-edged steely survival drama.
Admittedly, the narrative takes time to take off, but the plot build-up is done with more than passing care. By the time Uzma makes her escape from Pakistan, we are on our feet cheering.
Yes, the film does demonize some of the Pakistani characters. As they say, when making an omelette, you have to break eggs. Director Shivam Nair takes a real-life diplomatic crisis at the Indo-Pak border and converts it into hard currency. The pace is sometimes uneven. But the narration never flags down to a dead end.
The two principal performances by John Abraham and Sadia Khateeb are adequate. But it is the supportive cast that gives the narrative its cutting edge. From the ever-dependable Kumud Mishra(playing an affable Pakistani lawyer) to an unknown actor called Vishal, who plays Ayush, the man who presses the button to facilitate Uzma Ahmed’s battle to escape her captivity, not to forget Revathy as the elegant Sushma Swaraj, the actors prove how much a solid thriller relies on the actors to make a true-life drama look true.
