The Diplomat Movie Review: John Abraham tests his acting chops in sporadically pacy thriller

The Diplomat is a different movie in the 'patriotism genre', which is usually inundated with chest-thumping propaganda films. It belongs to something I would call ‘liberal-proof’ cinema. The film opens in the snow-capped picturesque mountains of Pakistan. An Arabic tune plays in the background and a teenager is toying with a gun and one is quick to make up their mind as to what kind of film they are in for. But soon you are informed that this is happening in the hills of Khyber Pakhtunwa, home to hardliners and a place where even Pak civilians dare not venture. The Diplomat is cautious as to not demonise either the Pakistani populace or the politician. In the film, a Muslim woman is honey-trapped by a Muslim man and both liberals and right-wingers may find themselves in a fix. But there are scenes where the said woman is slapped, sexually assaulted, forced to wear a burqa and Muslim men look at her lecherously. The audience in the theatre I went to got a little tense during such sequences. The film, based on a real incident, stuck to facts, but in the volatile India of today, any imagery of Muslim radicalism unfortunately adds more to bigotry than to furthering the need for rationalism.

Cast: John Abraham, Sadia Khateeb, Sharib Hashmi, Kumud Mishra

Directed by: Shivam Nair

A burqa-clad woman, Uzma Ahmed (Sadia Khateeb) barges into the Indian High Commission in Pakistan pleading for help. Sharp-suited and sharply observant diplomat JP Singh (John Abraham) is sceptical at first. She is minutely interrogated and her background is thoroughly checked. Turns out the woman wasn’t lying after all. She met Tahir (Jagjeet Sandhu), a taxi driver in Kuala Lumpur and they eventually fell in love. Uzma has a daughter suffering from Thalassemia and Tahir asked her to come visit his hometown of Buner in Pakistan, and claimed that her child’s disease could be cured there by naturopathy. Once Uzma landed in Pakistan, she was forced to become Tahir’s sex slave and was eventually married to him at gunpoint. She somehow escaped to the Indian Embassy, from where John’s JP takes charge. The rest of the film is about how JP pulls strings to get Uzma back to her homeland with the ISI close on his heels.

The Diplomat is John leading an Akshay Kumar film. It’s him playing the saviour with the movie telling the sarkari version of events. However, it’s interesting to see John be more brain than brawn this time. His expressions are limited but his performance is competent. The movie is contained and stays on track without delving into unnecessary jingoism. Shivam Nair’s direction is pacy in the beginning but runs off steam on occasion. The Diplomat is told linearly and is sadly without many surprises. The diplomatic “manoeuvres” are mostly people making calls.

The Diplomat is the patriotic film for the intellectual deshbhakt. It’s not blaring with nationalism, sticks to the plot, but is also a soft ad for India’s diplomatic prowess. What it lacks is the thrill element, the threat. That’s a major issue with films based on true stories, you already know the ending.