Movie
Review - The Reluctant Fundamentalist
This blog is a part of my classroom activity of
Postcolonial Studies: Film Screening: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Director – Mira Niar
Screenplay – William Wheeler
Writer – Javed Akhtar (eulogy in
Urdu)
Mohsin Hamid (Screen
Story and Novel) Ami Boghani
(Screen
story)
Starring – Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson,
Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland
The movie “The Reluctant
Fundamentalist” focuses upon the theme of racism and an American Dream of a
young man Changez Khan and his journey of becoming a reluctant fundamentalist.
There are two meanings of fundamentals have been used, first in business and
another is in terrorism. The word has same meaning but in different context.
The life journey of Changez Khan is the plot
of film which switches between past and present. Boby Lincon takes an interview
of Changez Khan, he come to know the whole story of 9/11 attack with the view
of a “Pakistani human”.
Post colonial aspects can be seen in many
scenes of the movie, there are two perspectives which go parallel, first is the
view of Boby Lincon and his views about Changez and another is of Changez Khan
and his views about Americans.
The American colleague of Changez Khan has
been kidnapped and the main suspect of this kidnapping was Changez because he
was a Muslim tutor. He tells his story to the interviewer.
Changez Khan was an ambitious man and when
he went for an interview, first Jim (the owner of Underwood Samson) makes fun
of Changez which defines that the mentality of white people towards Indians or
Pakistani.
When Changez was talking with Erica about
his feelings towards the painting, she said that,
“Would I have to wear burkha?”
which suggests
the point of view of an American woman about Pakistani women.
After 9/11 the life of Changez has been
changed and everyone from his colleague and other American looking towards him
differently, and Changez has also changed in his perception towards people. There
are many scenes which suggests that people are having a strong mindset that
every Muslim and Pakistani is involved in 9/11 attack.
For the first time Changez felt that he
is an outsider and a Muslim in America when police has treated him as a terrorist,
and in that scene we can see that there is a reflection of Changez on glass and
WTC tower is blasting, which suggests the blast of an American dream of
Changez.
Changez was also having love with
America but when he felt that Americans are showing their patriotism by hating
and hurting Islamic population of America he felt very inferior and also he
confesses this when one White man calls him “Osama”, Changez said,
“What was soft inside me fell away, what was
hard became harder”
The feeling of being “Other” in an America
becaming stronger for Changez, as his beard has became his identity of being Muslim.
Before 9/11 he was a clean shaved guy, but when everyone make him feel that he
is a Muslim, he started keeping beard, maybe he was also showing a kind of patriotism
towards his country as Americans were showing.
Changez
quit himself from America when his beloved has also called him Pakistani. The perspective
of Changez towards the Pakistani has changes from the national identity to
terroristic identity. Whenever he identified as a Pakistani he felt that he is
being objectify as a terrorist. This was his mental colonialism which has
dragged him into the college of Lahore as professor. There he come to know that
the rationality and fundamentals of American business and the rational
fundamentals of “Mujahir” of being terrorist was similar, to use people for one’s
own purpose and Changez was comparing American Dream with Pakistani Dream,
ultimately he stop dreaming and accepted the present.
There is a good use of music and songs
as per situations, in the kidnapping of the white professor Rainier there was a
loud Sufi music, and in the meeting of Changez and Erica, where Changez tries
to convince Erica to forget everything, the lyrics of background songs matches
very well, “I want you to be..”. When
Changez was upset with the way he was treated in America and when he came back
he had an arguments with his parents, and the background song was, “you say
thing to burn the heart, yet I must smile” (Dil jala ne ki baat krte ho, fir
bhi muskurane ko kehte ho) it defines the condition of Changez. When Changez left the job, there was so much
contradiction was in mind, and the song was reflecting it well, “All I want is
a grain of respect”.
The movie is worth watching with the
perspective of post colonialism, terrorism and how racism takes place in the
mind of people. The music and songs also gives enough justice to the
situations.
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