Having never interviewed foreign filmmakers, I would not know if any film based on a real story or event abroad has had elements of fictionalization added or not, though the needs of cinema suggest there must be such dramatizations. When I met the director of this film, Shivam Nair (known for exceptional work in Naam Shabana and of course, the TV epic series Special Ops), he revealed that a mere 5 to 10 percent of what was shown here has been dramatized for cinema.

In that sense, The Diplomat is real, very real, but no less thrilling for that. And that’s the great part about this latest film in the increasing series of real stories presented in our movies like The Kashmir Files, The Kerala Story, John Abraham’s Parmanu, Article 370 and more.

Uzma Ahmed (Sadia Khateeb) is a young Indian girl (who has a daughter from a failed marriage, afflicted by Thalassemia) who visits Malaysia for a potential job and encounters a cute youth, Tahir, who promises her great things if she visits him in Pakistan. She crosses the Wagah border and is taken by him to Buner, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a remote Pakistani district where even normal Pakistanis shy from visiting.

She realizes that she has been inveigled into a horrendous life where she, like so many other women amidst anti-social elements with weapons, is like a slave. She becomes a victim of endless torture and indignities, and a sexual commodity. She has no contact with the outside world as her phone and all documents were taken away too.

A sympathetic captive female there gives her a chance to make a call and Uzma dials her friend in Malaysia, who suggests that her only way to freedom will be if she contacts the Indian High Commission there. How she does so when things seem so hopeless and what happens before she is repatriated is what the rest of the film is all about.

The story is a matter of personal triumph for India, the then-External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj, who took a personal interest in this unique case, and real-life diplomat J.P. Singh, who risked a lot in Pakistan with not just the authorities (who were not all straight as expected!) but also the mob of Tahir’s supporters who even thronged the court and made open and brazen demands.

How a diplomat, who cannot possibly indulge in heroics or action, went out of his way with his valiant team to protect the girl and make sure she returned home is the high-point of this thriller-with-a-difference that exposes the depravity in such men, especially in Pakistan. The script graphically not only describes the challenging hurdles faced by Singh but also shows, no-holds-barred, the hugely disturbed state-of-mind of the mortally terrified Uzma.

It is this look at psychology, humanity and diplomacy’s pros and cons that gives The Diplomat its great strength, rescuing it from fictional embellishing that would have not only looked blatantly fake but seemed like needless pandering to box-office “compulsions”. It is interesting that the macho action man (also co-producer) John Abraham does not so much as lift a hand, except twice and that too only to smack a table hard! John plays the straight J.P. Singh to perfection, sans gimmicks, sans filmi or other frills.

There is no female star either, with Sadia Khateeb (Shikara, Raksha Bandhan) playing Uzma with a fervent and laudable passion. And frills like songs are not there either.

The supporting cast is strong, with Vidhatri Bandi standing out as Seerat, Singh’s team member who is like a ferocious supporter of Uzma even when Singh is verifying her credentials. Jagjeet Sandhu as Tahir and Muzammil Bhawani as his companion Bashir are excellent too, as is Kumud Mishra as the golden-hearted and humorous N.M. Sayyed, a senior Pakistani advocate. Shining in small roles are Farheen Prabhakar as Sayyed’s wife, Amitoj Mann as Paramjeet and Vishal Vashishtha as Ayush from Singh’s team. But Sharib Hashmi as Tiwary is wasted. The actress playing the captive woman who helps Uzma out with a phone is impressive in her cameo, and I liked the sly and vicious turn by Ashwath Bhatt as ISI officer Malik.

Finally. after a cavalcade of Indira Gandhis on screen, it was truly rewarding to watch the formidable Revathy essay the even-more-formidable Sushma Swaraj with great decorum and just the right emotional feel.

Technically, the film is marked by splendid camerawork (Dimo Popov), awesome production design (Ravi Srivastava) and astute editing (Kunal Walve). The VFX and other aspects are also state-of-the-art, as is action director Mohammad Amin Khatib’s work. The thematic score by Ishaan Chhabria is also apt.

Full marks to the director also for keeping us almost on tenterhooks during that last ride to the Indian border. 10 years after Bajrangi Bhaijaan, this was another amazing travel back home from a neighboring country that, at best, can be called volatile.

Rating: ****

T-Series Films’, Wakaoo Films’, JA Entertainment’s, Seeta Films’ & Fortune Pictures’ The Diplomat Produced by: Bhushan Kumar, Ashwin Varde, Krishan Kumar, John Abraham, Vipul D. Shah, Rajesh Bahl, Samir Dixit, Jatish Varma & Rakesh Dang  Directed by: Shivam Nair Written by: Ritesh Shah  Music: A.R. Rahman, Manan Bharadwaj & Anurag Saikia  Starring: John Abraham, Sadia Khateeb, Revathy, Kumud Mishra, Sharib Hashmi, Vidhatri Bandi, Muzamil Bhawani, Farheen Prabhakar, Amitoj Maan, Vishal Vashishtha, Jagjeet Sandhu, Ashwath Bhatt, Shriswara, Shaunak Duggal, Maryam Patel & others

(Used with permission)

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