LFF Review: ‘Mogul Mowgli’
An invigorating, electrifying character study of a man fighting an unexpected illness and cultural displacement, anchored by a powerful performance from Riz Ahmed.
Marking Bassam Tariq’s dramatic directorial debut, Mogul Mowgli centers on Zed (Riz Ahmed), a British-Pakistani rapper who is set to embark on a career-changing tour alongside a popular mainstream musician, all but ensuring a much needed breakthrough for his career. During a quick trip back home to visit his family, Zed suddenly falls, prompting an emergency hospital visit that reveals an autoimmune disease diagnosis, all but forcing him to put his career on the backburner as he struggles to adapt and recover.
Riz Ahmed, who co-wrote the script alongside Tariq, has mentioned that this is his most personal film to date and it couldn’t be more evident, his real life experiences lending an air of authenticity to his performance rarely captured in other similar roles. Ahmed is in top form here, perfectly encapsulating his character’s tumultuous journey from guarded to open and vulnerable, as well as his innermost fears and insecurities. With a career full of incredible performances from 2014’s Nightcrawler to his Emmy-winning turn in HBO’s The Night Of, this may be one of his best so far.
Zed is a complex character who is hard to crack at first, his demeanor stiff and cold before it gradually starts melting throughout the course of the film. He is incredibly emotionally stunted, refusing to open up to his family or his girlfriend. His only outlet is his rapping; as he lays in bed, too caught up in both the past and the future, he starts forming words and sentences together, delivering lines of pure poetry that only give us more insight into his struggles and insecurities. Zed only ever feels on top of the world when he’s performing live for an audience and his return home presents a bit of a shock to his system; the fanfare that greets him as he steps off the stage completely dissipates as he arrives back to Pakistan, his religious father ashamed of his choice in career which he thinks is at odds with their cultural and religious leanings.
It’s hard not to draw any comparisons to Ahmed’s real life experiences. He has spoken at length about his troubles at finding the perfect medium between his Pakistani culture and his British upbringing. Mogul Mowgli is at once both completely personal and incredibly universal; anyone who comes from an immigrant family will be able to relate to Zed’s inner turmoil despite the specificity of the story. By evoking on their own personal experiences and struggles, Ahmed and Tariq have managed to create a work of art that perfectly captures the immigrant experience and the cultural displacement that usually accompanies it.
The entire cast is top notch, with Alyy Khan in particular turning in a stunning performance as Zed’s conservative father. Newcomer Nabhaan Rizwan, meanwhile, almost steals the show as up-and-coming rapper RPG, a hilarious sendup of mumble rappers. Mogul Mowgli also features some odd stylistic choices – a cropped aspect ratio that doesn’t seem to serve a specific purpose and hallucinatory dream sequences that pop up every few minutes – but they end up adding some charm to the film, differentiating it from other musical-based films in the process.
Overall, Mogul Mowgli is an electrifying, invigorating and mesmerizing dramatic debut from Bassam Tariq with a wonderful performance from Riz Ahmed at its center.
Mogul Mowgli screened at the 2020 London Film Festival and is now playing in theaters across the UK.