The Diplomat review: John Abraham starrer is actually, a 10-minute news reel

The DiplomatUA Action thrillerDir Shivam NairCast John Abraham Sadia KhateebRating 155I can make an educated guess canrsquot promise obviously But knowing a bit about how people working in the pictures predictably thinkmdashI suspect this film got greenlit primarily because a crappola called The Kerala Story with a similar premise became a sleeper superhitThat is an Indian woman trapped among Islamic fundamentalists Which was almost a freak case for the boxoffice in 2023Plus this film follows flagwaving nationalism that as an onscreen narrative device if played right often unequivocally unites audiences into theatresEspecially if it concerns India pitted against its errantdevious neighbour Pakistan in a Gadar kinda way if you likeOf all the ginjoints hencemdashunless the other way aroundmdashthe ideascript altogether more aestheticrealistic lands in the hands of John Abraham whorsquos both actor and producer His best work as the latter Vicky Donor is the one where he chose not to cast himselfJohn picks up the main part of Indian deputy high commissioner in Islamabad On the face of it otherwisemdashthis would seem an odd casting choiceGiven the lead actor has over the years bulked up enough to render himself almost unsuitable for most regularguy roles Least of all for a sincere studious diplomat one JP Singh with his tight suits bursting at the seams from his bicepsIf you overlook all of that eventuallymdashhe can be likeable onscreen on occasion of courseThis picture appears to be pretty much from his PoV This protagonist gets flashes from a bomb blast at another embassy Kabul he was once posted inItrsquos a recurring setup Only without a payoff that may be even vaguely related to this filmrsquos larger story Let alone anything elseWhatrsquos that larger or rather singular story this film follows Itrsquos quite wellknown as in widely reported actually That of an Indian citizen Uzma Ahmed 28 who got forcibly married to a violent Pakistani crook shersquod met as a taxi driver in MalaysiaShe found herself in a hamlet called Buner in the deep interiors of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa KPK surrounded by mountains and men with KalashnikovsJust as citizens deserve consular access if detained abroadmdashthis woman under housearrest by supposedly terroristtype dements in 2017 somehow planned her escape reached Islamabad sought help from the Indian embassy thereWhich is where she remained lodged for quite a few days with her crazy husband and his mates still hovering outside Indiarsquos then external affairs minister much loved late Sushma Swaraj had personally tracked Uzmarsquos safe passageThis was a simple humanitarian case Pakistanrsquos local courts saw that and favoured Uzma in their judgement too She returned through the Wagah border the same routetransport shersquod entered Pakistan wersquore told thatrsquos the law I didnrsquot knowEnd of story Full of bravery and compassion No doubt How do you expand this straightup 10minute documentarynews reel into a feature film for over two hours Good questionIrsquom guessing through backstories after backstories apart from context what else You got one job and one lead character too noItrsquos odd then that I left the theatre with enough questions in my head to learn more about Uzma from basic internet searches than this film That she iswas apparently a sufficiently educated upper middleclass Delhi woman with estranged parents in the NetherlandsOr that she had a child from a previous marriage Therersquos reference in the movie to her taking ldquokid Noor for naturopathy to Khyber Pakhtunkhwardquo Just a mention No followupLikewise itrsquos hard to tell anything about the KPK crook once a Kuala Lumpur cabbie who entraps her Besides that he lives in a barren farm where women get treated like slaughterhouse animalsBut maybemdashthatrsquos not the point This film is titled The Diplomat after allNot to be confused with the American series by the same name that sexes up the foreign service Which in turn I guess inspired the thoroughly delulu Ulajh 2024 starring Janhvi KapoorItrsquos equally hard still to figure what is it that Pakistanrsquos sanesounding spies from ISI or the deep state have to gainmdashgoing after a lonely battered girl wishing to head back home Surely there are reasons Just canrsquot tell whatThe simultaneously ongoing Kulbhushan Jadhav allegedespionage case at the International Court of Justice is touched upon but totally left aloneJohnrsquos character is involved in nonstop negotiations over Uzma We look on clueless as he simply goes ldquoYeh Pakistan haihellip Yeh Pakistan haihelliprdquo Implying being surrounded by loonies in a lawless landIncluding of course scenes of domestic ultraviolence mercifully shot with closeup lens on the eyes of the Indian survivor You do wanna feel for this woman Uzma with actor Sadia Khateeb such a gorgeous presence wonderfully picked for the partBut you feel somethinganything at all only once the climax courtroom scene onward kicks inUzma in the conclusion literally touches downmdashIndian soil across the border her hands feeling the concrete and a version of AR Rahmanrsquos lsquoBharat humko jaan se pyara hairsquo from Roja for background scoreThe filmmakers of course had a premisebeginning They genuinely tried their best in the end to push some cinematic energy into a vacuumhollowness thenceI guess you can try your best to sit through rest of the film too Well I didYUCK WHATEVER GOOD SUPER AWESOME

The Diplomat review: John Abraham starrer is actually, a 10-minute news reel

The Diplomat
U/A: Action, thriller
Dir: Shivam Nair
Cast: John Abraham, Sadia Khateeb
Rating: 1.5/5

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Home / Entertainment / Bollywood News / Article / The Diplomat review: John Abraham starrer is actually, a 10-minute news reel

The Diplomat review: John Abraham starrer is actually, a 10-minute news reel

The DiplomatU/A: Action, thrillerDir: Shivam NairCast: John Abraham, Sadia KhateebRating: 1.5/5

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

The Diplomat
U/A: Action, thriller
Dir: Shivam Nair
Cast: John Abraham, Sadia Khateeb
Rating: 1.5/5