It is difficult to analyse a film when one has dozed off while watching it. This is what happened to me in the second half of Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013). Normally, if I fall asleep during a film, I would be prompted to say that it was boring and I didn't like it. But I can't say that about this film. Even if it slowed down in the second half, ambling towards a predictable ending, it was still an engaging film, making a strong comment on the deeply suspicious and xenophobic times we are living in. The film is based on Mohsin Hamid's novel of the same name, and this was one of the few times that I have picked up a book after watching a film based on it. I'm glad I did that, because although I did enjoy Nair's movie, unfortunately it did not do justice to the thriller-like treatment and gripping pace of Hamid's novel.
Riz Ahmed does a fabulously layered job of playing Changez Khan - the enthusiastic and driven youngster who gradually transforms into an intellectual and a fundamentalist. His coming-of-age story unfolds against the backdrop of the terrorist attacks famously dubbed the "9/11 attacks". He is also able to bring out the anguish felt by an innocent bystander when he is falsely implicated by association for a crime that he neither planned nor executed. We understand Changez's journey in the film, and we also sympathize. But this is very different from the reaction that you feel for Hamid's protagonist in the book.
Nair treats her Changez as a typical "hero", not unlike the angry young man trope of popular Hindi cinema - a young man who has been unfairly wronged and as a result looks for payback. Hamid paints a far more sinister picture of Changez. One does not react with sympathy to the Chagez of the book at all. Instead, one feels a bit unsettled by this slightly dangerous and sly individual, whose next move cannot be predicted.
In the book, Changez narrates his story to an American over tea and a typically Pakistani meal. The entire novel is a monologue and we never really get to know what Changez's American acquaintance is thinking and feeling. His actions and questions are filtered to us only through Changez's narration. Ironically, Changez's confessional style of telling his story does not enable us to empathize with him. In fact, it makes us more suspicious - we never really know if he is telling us the whole truth or not. Two episodes are especially suspect - Changez's relationship with Erica and his encounter with a publisher in Chile.
Nair alters quite a bit for the movie. Erica (played by Kate Hudson) and Changez's love story in the film is completely different from the one in the book. The film is, perhaps, better for this. Erica in the book is touchingly poetic and ethereal, and she would have probably come off as vague in the film. In the film, she has a stronger presence and a voice. The film is as much about her struggle with her past as it is about Changez's struggle with his present. Plus, Nair packs Changez's story within a kidnapping plot which distracts one from the main plot. And I couldn't figure out what Imad Shah and Chandrachur Singh were doing in itty-bitty, inconsequential parts.
Still, I would not recommend one over the other. Both the book and the movie have their own respective strengths and shortcomings. In fact, I would say watch the movie and read the book - in that order. You will definitely enjoy the book, and if you've not had a very heavy meal, will also remain awake to enjoy the movie.
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