Accidental Hero:
A key character in Hansal Mehta’s Faraaz accuses another of being a “Twitter debater”. The film, with all its earnestness and attempt to walk a tightrope between ideological differences, unfortunately remains at the level of a Twitter debate. Mehta shoots with the detachment of a TV news cameraman, perhaps because the film is based on a true incident, and he decided not to embellish the drama and tragedy that unfolds over its relatively compact 112-minute runtime
In 2016, a swanky café in Dhaka, with the odd name of Holey Artisan, was attacked by five terrorists, who gunned down all foreigners and non-Muslims over an all-night bloodbath.
Right at the start the contrast between the two young men on opposite sides of the divide is established; Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain (Zahan Kapoor), belongs to a wealthy family and has a world of choices before him; the other radicalized young man Nibras (Aditya Rawal), used to be his football mate and has turned into a sadistic, hate-filled fanatic.
Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki has already made a film, Shonibar Bikel (Saturday Afternoon – 2019), a mostly fictionalized version of the horrific incident, shot mostly in one take, and starring Indian actor, Parambrata Chatterjee as the leader of the terrorists. The film that made a plea for religious tolerance, made festival rounds and was praised by critics, but was banned in Bangladesh, for damaging the reputation of the country. (It has just been passed by the censors, but is yet to get an official clearance for release).
Faraaz also faced it share of troubles—an attempt by parents of some of the victims to block its release. It could be seen as the third of Mehta’s trilogy exploring the lives of Muslims today, after Shahid (2012) and Omerta (2017), but leaves one with mixed feelings, mainly because there has been a glut of films about Muslim youth being indoctrinated and sent out into the world to attack anti-Islamic ideas and practices.
After a few scenes in Faraaz ‘s lavish home, and the five young men being prepared for the mission by their handler, the film plunges right into the carnage at the café (reminiscent of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in 2008).
Nibras and his heavily armed comrades separate the terrified survivors into Bangladeshi Muslims and others, leaving no doubt that the others would be massacred too, once they served their purpose as human shields standing by the windows to prevent snipers from picking out the attackers.
Faraaz had come to the café with two female friends, and even though Nibras is willing to let him go, he does not want to abandon the young women. After an aborted attempt to storm the café, and losing a few men, the cops and commandos are seen bumbling around, as Faraaz’s mother (Juhi Babbar Soni) tries to pull strings to have her son rescued.
For a large chunk of the film, the hostages are seen cowering, as the five men swagger about, reveling in the power of the weapons they carry; there is nothing edifying about watching people being mowed down with bullets. Mehta and his writers (Ritesh Shah, Kashyap Kapoor, Raghav Kakkar), do not give the killers back stories, maybe to avoid humanizing them, but that also makes them look like pre-programmed zombies.
Nibras behaves like a moody psychopath, who speaks sweetly to children, gets a singer to strum his guitar to relieve the tension, orders the chef to cook the sehri meal, but also kills without compunction. (Surprisingly, people feel hungry and thirsty, but nobody needs to go to the bathroom?)
Since the action remains mainly in the café, that too with the lights off, the atmosphere of tension is maintained to an extent, even more, because the cops are portrayed as totally incompetent. At one point, Nibras goes to the terrace to smoke, and the deck had wide open doors and no commandos keeping an eye on the rear of the lake-side property. The terrorists do not care to negotiate or send out any demands, that baffles the police into inaction.
Much too late in the film, Faraaz stands up and has a very clichéd good Muslim-bad Muslim discussion with Nibras. The film is named for Faraaz, but Zahan Kapoor is given very little to do, but he acts with confidence; Aditya Rawal, on the other hand, gets more screen time, and more shades to project, which he does well, giving the despicable Nibras the misguided nobility of a man who believes he is fighting for a just cause. There is not a strong enough statement to counter his conviction.
There are periodic, loose cannon attacks all over the world—random shootings, bombings, driving cars into crowds—so there is undoubtedly a need to understand why educated Muslims from rich families are so easily radicalized. The most scary bit of Faraaz is the realization that the handler of these terrorists is an ordinary-looking call centre employee—the typical ‘enemy among us’ trope that ends up demonizing all Muslims. The film does say this, but not too vehemently, and since it is based on a real event, Hansal Mehta can claim objectivity. At the very least the film will generate a Twitter debate, which is probably better than not addressing the problem at all.
(A slightly modified version of this piece appeared in scroll.in)
