‘The Diplomat’ movie review: Diplomacy for the Dummies

John Abraham in a still from ‘The Diplomat’
| Photo Credit: T-Series/YouTube

In 2017, Uzma Ahmed made headlines when she was rescued from her abusive Pakistani husband by the Indian High Commission officials under the supervision of the then Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj. Director Shivam Nair joins forces with actor-producer John Abraham to recreate the diplomatic maneuver from the point of view of diplomat JP Singh, who led the rescue mission to bring the Delhi girl home.

However, as it turns out, it is yet another addition to the trend where filmmakers flaunt the placard of ‘based on a true story’ but develop cold feet in digging the truth of the story. It thanks the top of the ministry for support, but it is hard to take a film on diplomacy seriously that can’t differentiate between an embassy and a high commission. It is difficult to root for a nationalist narrative when the makers don’t get the designation of a former foreign minister right.

Recreating the sarkari version of the events, The Diplomat sounds contrived and simplistic. It reminds one of John’s last production, Vedaa, where masala diluted the integrity of the story. The makers seem to have spent more time designing the disclaimer than crafting the screenplay. The elaborate disclaimer is more intricate than the storyline. It tries to bind our viewing experience into a series of dos and don’ts, but what one eventually experiences is not in sync with the disclaimer’s logic. It says that the film is based on information available in the public domain but then conjures up an attack on Indian diplomats on Pakistani soil. Ironically, the last line of the disclaimer suggests that the film doesn’t seek to spoil relations with neighbouring countries.

A single mother, Uzma (Sadia Khateeb), meets a taxi driver, Tahir (Jagjeet Sandhu), in Kuala Lampur. The two fall in love, and the next thing we know is that Uzma lands in Buner in the hills of the geo-politically sensitive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan because she thinks the sparsely developed place known for mining is ideal for the naturopathy treatment of her daughter. Her bubble bursts when the much-married Tahir turns out to be a beast. She tricks him into knocking at the doors of the Indian High Commission, and then John takes charge.

Even with creative license, Uzma’s backstory doesn’t sound plausible. It is hard to buy the gaps in her statement as just a huge error of judgment. The film is conspicuously silent on her parents and her first husband, and it feels strange that even the conservative Pakistani characters don’t question her marital status vis-a-vis Tahir’s.

Moreover, the commentary and tone reduce the complexity of the situation to answer a popular social media question: the difference between India and Pakistan. The good thing is Nair keeps it moving, papering over the cracks with some style. To his credit, screenwriter Ritesh Shah attempts different shades of Pakistani characters, however, they remain swimming between hysterical and stereotypical. A helpful lawyer (Kumud Mishra), a law-upholding judge, and a slimy ISI officer (Ashwath Bhatt) all behave like stock characters with predictable lines. Bollywood has reduced the versatile Ashwath into a single-note specimen of vile from across the border whose motives can be seen from a distance.

Sadia Khateeb in a still from ‘The Diplomat’
| Photo Credit:
T-Series/YouTube

It goes without saying that Pakistan is a difficult terrain for foreign service officers, but one is not sure whether our officers keep stating the obvious. Talking of diplomatic language, in his conversations, Singh twice emphasises that Uzma is a Muslim girl. Ritesh tries to create variety in the Indian diplomatic set-up by pitching a Pakistan-fearing Tiwari (Sharib Hashmi), but the character’s potential remains unrealised.

Known for keeping a straight face even in the most evocative of scenarios, John is a great choice to play a diplomat, and he does a decent job in a role that limits his muscle power to forcefully punching the table. He channels his inherent swag to make his way through a sketchy script. Jagjeet blends into the atavistic ways of patriarchy. In a short appearance as Swaraj, Revathy captures the grace and charm of the politician who earned respect across the political divide. In its tense moments, the film, however, belongs to Sadia Khateeb, who creates a poignant portrait of a woman suffering for believing a stranger. Except for the sloppy courtroom sequence, she remains a picture of poise and tenderness amidst suspecting men. Unfortunately, the nuance of her performance, like much else, gets lost in the sanitised screenplay.

The Diplomat is currently running in theatres.