Ashdoc's movie review---Mulk

'Mulk' is the archetypal Bollywood view about the involvement of muslims in terrorism . Nothing more was expected from Bollywood than the usual stuff 'proving' that muslims are honest to God citizens who are victims of a prejudiced mindset of the majority hindu community . This , inspite of the fact that the family that is focus of the movie has one member actively involved in terrorism .

The member of the family who is actively involved in terrorism is Shahid Mohammad ( played by Prateik Babbar ) , who is son of Bilal (played by Manoj Pahwa ) and nephew of head of the family Murad Ali Mohammad ( played by Rishi Kapoor ) . Shahid is under the influence of a terrorist called Mehfooz Alam ( played by Sumit Kaul ) and takes part in a bomb blast that kills 16 people . He spews total jihadi rhetoric from his mouth before he is packed to hell by police officer Danish Javed ( played by Rajat Kapoor ) in his hideout where the shootout takes place . Danish orders Shahid's body to be dragged on the street to make an example of him before the assembled muslim crowd , so that they realise the fate of anyone who joins the path of terror .

The whole drama is played out mostly in Varanasi . Naturally Shahid's family is under suspicion and the police arrest his father Bilal and even try to implicate his uncle Murad in terror charges . But the family has a hindu daughter in law called Aarti ( played by Tapsee Pannu ) who is also fortuitously a lawyer . She decides to fight the case defending the two brothers---Bilal and Murad . This inspite of her parents warning her not to get involved .

Outside the courtroom hindu nationalists have already begun targeting the family and 'Go to Pak' is written on the walls of the house after it is pelted with stones . Some of their hindu neighbours also begin to taunt them and their children are joining the hindu nationalist brigade . Sinister music is played wherever the hindu nationalists make their appearance .

In the courtroom the prosecuting lawyer Santosh Anand ( played by Ashutosh Rana ) is allowed to spout the usual clichés against muslims---that they have 4 wives , that they breed too many children , that they do not educate themselves , that it is customary among muslims to send one of their family into terrorism activities , that because of low education they are jobless . He glares his eyes wide while spouting his words and has probably been instructed by the director ( Anubhav Sinha ) to deliberately overact and make loud melodramatic statements and gestures . Actually such clichés are commonly said only in living room discussions and would not be permissible in court . But amazingly the judge ( played by Kumud Mishra ) allows this type of talk even though repeated objections are raised against this by the defence counsel . Obviously the whole idea is to show that anti muslim prejudice is inbuilt among lawyers and judiciary in India and that the whole system is against muslims . The director creates a false picture that these kind of clichés about muslims are allowed to be mouthed in Indian courts , thereby vilifying Indian lawyers and their mindset through the character of Santosh Anand .

But Aarti makes an effective defence and disproves every accusation of Santosh by pointing out the charges against the two brothers are not backed by real evidence but by the suspicion that a muslim terrorist's family must also be terrorist . That if we remove the idea of painting every muslim as terrorist from our mind then we will realise that all charges are due to our prejudices . She proves that even muslim police officer Danish Javed has prejudice against his own community in his mind and that is why he killed Shahid and had his body dragged through the street even though he could have simply arrested him . Murad makes a dramatic speech in court asking Santosh ( who had earlier said that muslims are welcome in India ) not to welcome him into his own country as if he is a guest . The judge does come to understand this point of view and dismisses the charges . Murad's son had earlier asked him to shift to London , but Murad had refused saying that this 'mulk' ( nation ) is his and he has every right to stay . Murad's stand is thus vindicated .

Acting wise , Rishi Kapoor acts well as Murad and throws some passion into his acting . Tapsee Pannu is okay . Background music is decent and colours and photography are okay . The atmosphere of a mohalla of Benaras is well created . But one wonders what was wrong in killing Shahid and dragging his body through the street . As Danish says before killing Shahid , if he is kept alive Shahid will become a media star like Kasab became . And my opinion concurs with that ; in fact the Indian police will be reduced to feeding him biryani like Kasab was fed daily .

Verdict---Decent .

Three stars out of five .