LONDON. Remember Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer in “24”? I mostly remember getting little sleep when I watched the first three seasons during long Moscow nights. I did not care so much about criticism that “24” had a slightly negative attitude towards Muslims. “24” was gripping and Sutherland pretty cool.
I thought of Jack Bauer again when I went to a preview of “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” at the Gate Cinema in Notting Hill. The film is based on a book by British-Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid and tells the story of a young Pakistani trying to make it in America - until 9/11 shatters his dream, he returns to Pakistan and radicalizes fast and furiously. Riz Ahmed takes on the leading role. Riz, a British national with Pakistani roots, already played a wannabe terrorist in the sad and funny “Four Lions”.
“The Reluctant Fundamentalist” opens with a scene of brilliantly composed tension, which sets the stage for a pretty good thriller. But the film offers much more than that: it is a colourful feast for the eyes, a sociodrama, a political study. Indian born Mira Nair has shown again what a great director she is. (Her 2001 box office hit “Monsoon Wedding” will open as musical on Broadway next year.)
After the preview, Nair, Ahmed and Hamid assembled for a debate on stage. Did Hamid like the film? The author of “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” replied: “I don’t believe you can make a film which is exactly like the book anyway. I wanted a film that could stand on its own.”
It certainly does. But while the book’s plot is substantially changed, the message remains the same. “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” belongs to the latest wave of books, films and dramas about Muslims between old and new world and their struggle to integrate after 9/11. And it says, in the words of Mohsin Hamid: “I am opposed to retreating into our community ghettos.”
Last December I saw one of those new works in New York at the Lincoln Centre. “Disgraced” was written by Ayad Akhtar (an American whose parents came from Pakistan), and starred Aasif Mandvi (born in India, raised in Britain, Florida and Disney World, a popular TV star from “The Daily Show”). Like “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, “Disgraced” deals with the discomfort of Western Muslims after 9/11. Their dream of successful integration turns into a nightmare when racism and discrimination takes mainstream America hostage.
Both in “Disgraced” and in the “Reluctant Fundamentalist”, the central characters struggle with not feeling home at home. Not totally at ease with their Muslim families, whose members all search for a place in multicultural New York or traditional Lahore; nor in their New York firms, where they are just about to become partners. And also not in the relationships with their all-American girlfriends, who turn their romanticised views of Islam into degrading ethno-art.
Salman Rushdie and his generation of authors have been there before. But the young generation of Western authors with Pakistani-Indian backgrounds and their post-Muslim or modern Muslim identity have moved further into the Western mainstream.
Firstly, they talk the same language, metaphorically and literally. (It is hard to tell fiction from reality. Riz Ahmed had to learn a Pakistani accent for example, because he normally speaks Oxford English.) Secondly, these young authors and film makers not only dare to criticise their own communities, their own resentments and their own doubts. They also show their contempt for the racism in their new home countries.
“The Reluctant Fundamentalist” opened the Venice film Festival 2012 out of competition. It will be a favourite at award nominations. For the Pakistanis in England and America have become - in terms of the Western mainstream movie industry - the new Jews or the new Blacks. We had Barbara Streisand, then Denzel Washington. Now it’s time for Riz Ahmed. If that sounds unlikely, consider this: Kiefer “24” Sutherland is also in Mira Nair’s new film -- as supporting actor to the Reluctant Fundamentalist.
“The Reluctant Fundamentalist” will be shown in India in 650 cinemas at once. In the UK it opens in May.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2032557/
Mohsin Hamid’s new novel “How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia” has just been published:
...and "Disgraced" won the Pulitzer-Prize on April 16:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/apr/16/pulitzer-prize-drama-2013-disgraced
Excellent piece about Riz Ahmed:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/apr/27/riz-ahmed-actor-rapper-ranter