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Dhokha Review |
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Sunday, 02 September 2007 |
Dhokha
Cast: Muzamil Ibrahim, Tulip Joshi, Anupam Kher, Gulshan Grover and others
Director: Pooja Bhatt
Rating: **
 The subject is red hot — the recent blasts in Hyderabad make it extra topical too.
But the question of Islamic fundamentalism and how it affects the liberal Muslim can’t be simplified to a college level debate between a terrorist and a cop. There are layers and layers to the problem — not just in India, but worldwide — so Pooja Bhatt needed to put a lot more thought into Dhokha.
It begins well enough. A cop Zaid Ahmed Khan (Muzamil Ibrahim) hears of a blast in a club, then he finds that his wife Sara (Tulip Joshi) was killed and finally that she was the suicide bomber. Even when he is arrested by Anti Terrorist Cell officer Raj Mehra (Gulshan Grover) his reaction is that of shocked disbelief and denial. How could the angelic looking Sara be a terrorist? Much like the pathetic cries of the terrorists’ families who wonder how can their son be a killer?
Zaid is faced with public rage (a clumsy sequence in which his neighbours stone him and his best friend denounces him) and private horror. He learns from Sara’s grandfather (Anupam Kher- always effective in dramatic roles) of the family’s gruesome past that was hidden from him. The kind of humiliation and brutality they faced at the hand of cops in Kashmir turned Sara and her brother into militants, under the influence of a Mulla (Munish Makhija) who talks impressionable young Muslims into acts of terrorism with promises of martyrdom and heaven.
What is the place of a secular/liberal Muslim in such a scenario? When some of their community are attracted to fundamentalist ideology, leaving the rest vulnerable to hate and mistrust. Pooja Bhatt does attempt to find some answers, but in a very superficial manner. All terrorism was not born of police or state oppression and the America-Iraq imbroglio cannot be dragged as an excuse for what is happening in India. To even reach the first layer of the issue needed deeper contemplation than Bhatt and her writers have managed. Still, it’s an earnest attempt.
Muzamil Ibrahim gets a tough part; he has an attractive screen presence, but Bhatt gets one-note performance out of him. Instead of intensity, he delivers a weepy, wimpy character. Tulip Joshi is impressive. A major irritant is the character of Zaid’s former girlfriend played by a shrill, badly dressed Aushima Sawhney.
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