Muslim, Pakistan, America: Why Reluctant Fundamentalist's release is important

New York: Indian filmmaker Mira Nair’s provocative movie of Mohsin Hamid’s novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist takes on an even more timely quality in the shocking aftermath of the bombings in Boston. The movie arrives amid intense debate on the alienation of immigrants in the US.

The film has opened to critical acclaim in New York and Los Angeles and will release in other US cities on 3 May. It opens later in May in India, Pakistan, Canada and Europe.

Film critic Kenneth Turan points out that the themes found in The Reluctant Fundamentalist couldn’t be more up-to-the-minute. After the Boston Marathon bombing, President Barack Obama verbalized what most Americans were thinking: “Why did young men who grew up and studied here, as part of our communities and our country, resort to such violence?”

Perhaps, the answer lies in The Reluctant Fundamentalist which sheds some light on the 21st century’s most volatile culture clash. The film captures a developing bitterness and mutual lack of trust between America and the Muslim world.

“Over the last few years, we have seen many films about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but always told from the American point of view,” said Nair, 55, who inhabits three worlds (India, New York and Kampala).

“In our story, the encounter between the characters of Changez and Bobby mirrors the mutual suspicion with which America and Pakistan (or the Muslim world) look at one another. We learn that as a result of America’s war on terror, Changez experiences a seismic shift in his own attitude, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love,” said Nair.

The American dream seems well within the grasp of the film’s protagonist Changez, an intelligent Princeton-educated young Pakistani. He has a romance with America, complete with a smart and gorgeous artist girlfriend, Erica (Kate Hudson).

But when the Twin Towers are attacked, a cultural divide slowly cracks open between Changez and Erica. Changez’s dream soon begins to slip into nightmare: profiled, wrongfully arrested, strip-searched and interrogated, he is transformed from a Wall Street star analyst to a perceived enemy. He returns home to Pakistan disillusioned, spreading anti-American sentiment.

There are hard shards of brutal honesty in the film that haven’t been lost on US audiences.

“Changez confesses that his first reaction to the planes hitting the towers was… pleasure,” noted CNN. “It’s a brave acknowledgment of an unspeakable emotion, a moment that will repel many in the audience…but which is worth hearing not because it’s provocative, but because it rings true.”

After 9/11, ordinary Muslims faced discrimination, and many were deported. The Wall Street Journal asked Nair if she was speaking up for them.

“Every film is a political act, it’s how you see the world. I’m not raising the flag but holding a mirror to make a tapestry that will affect you, so you put yourself in Changez’s shoes and experience what is common for anyone who is considered the “other.” And there are many of us who are,” said Nair.

The filmmaker said she was shining a light on the commonality between the American and Pakistani worlds that she knew intimately and loved.

Watch the trailer of The Reluctant Fundamentalist here:

America now confronts a very different terrorist threat than it did a decade ago on 9/11. As seen in the Boston bombing, the threat of homegrown terrorists in the US now rivals that of plots hatched overseas. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, told interrogators that he and his elder brother Tamerlan attacked the marathon in their hometown because of anger at the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The US wars and racial profiling at airports and other US border security checks have inflamed Muslim opinion. Actor Shah Rukh Khan can probably vouch for the fact that airport security in post-9/11 America has become nightmarish for passengers with Muslim surnames and brown skin.

Nair has her own airport story. She was on a routine cross-country business trip, shuffling through security procedures at LaGuardia airport in the early morning.

“My bangles beeped,” Nair, told the Tribeca Film Festival.

After removing the bracelets, “they gave me the most intimate pat-down I’ve ever had, with blue gloves,” Nair said. “Then they put the gloves in the machine and the machine started beeping. The woman yells across the airport, ‘This woman is alarming!’”

Nair said she was forced to hold her arms spread eagle for 20 minutes, joking that it was a good thing she practices yoga so often. (Nair reportedly starts shoots with a yoga session for her cast and crew.) A supervisor was called over and Nair asked whether she could finish a conference call.

“He said, ‘Who answers conference calls at 6 in the morning?’”

Nair said she replied, “You know, there are other countries in the world and other time zones?”