It is quite noticeable that John Abram’s script selection has matured from romcoms to public-facilitated films on true issues. After hit films like Parmanu and Batla House, he’s back on screen with Netflix’s trending No.1 film “The Diplomat,” inspired by the real-life events. Let’s go into a detailed review and discuss if it’s a grand hit or a large miss!
The Indo-Pak Refugee
Indian girl Uzma Ahmed, aka Sadia Khateeb, suffering from a failed marriage, travels to Malaysia for employment. There, she meets Pakistani citizen Tahir immediately falls in love and proceeds with marriage. However, the sweet honeymoon trip to his remote hometown near Afghanistan transforms into bizarre kidnapping and abuse as he traps her hostage. She seeks refuge from J.P. Singh, aka John Abraham, an Indian diplomat who works at Islamabad’s High Commission. How will he help her, and India’s promise to save her amid the political tensions forms the rest of the film.
Mission to Save
The narrative is very good compared to recent political films. They stayed loyal to every feature that happened in real life to Uzma Ahmed. Of course, they have conveniently included some scenes to create patriotism. Also, it’s slow-paced, but the contemporary background narration as a timeseries lead us to increased tension. Further, it does keep us in hook till end to see whether the government can protect her or not.
Concluding, we are left bedazzled as Ahmed’s character is cut short. The film rushed to the end, but they didn’t show her life after post-repatriation in India. Also, the very low efforts on media promotions haven’t initially reached to audience.
Crafting Characters
The Diplomat is a one-man show by John Abraham. He outdid all his previous roles with a strong comeback, and his look as a diplomat is the perfect casting for this storyline. His costars, Sadia Khateeb & Jagjeet Sandh, have given decent performances in their limited roles. Likewise, the veteran actor Revathi as foreign exchange minister “Sushma Swaraj” is appreciatble. Overall, the casting crew is good and does the job in the lacking story.
Also Read…
Facts Vs Screenplay
As the film is a political drama rescue situation, the makers focused on the essence of the event, not much on the open truth. They tried to nationalize the film with a simple screenplay, which neither urges the real complexity of her struggles nor conveys any trauma or her emotional depth they involved. On the surface level, it works for the audience, but if you go deep into researching, you can easily find the loopholes that diminish the film’s value.
Final Verdict
Just like Batla House, this film is also a decent one-time watch. The crew sustains a good degree of politics between countries, which is quite far from real situations today. The film is released at the correct time, as we are in a hard war against terrorism in Pakistan. So this is the right time to binge-watch and learn about the real services of patriotism.
My Ratings: 3.5/5 IMDb: 7.2/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
Written by: Meghana Pinninti