Mogul Mowgli review: One of the funniest, darkest and smartest movies of the year
The plot of this movie couldn’t be simpler. Man gets ill. Man doesn’t like it. As an experience, though, Riz Ahmed’s passion project (which he co-wrote, produced and stars in), could hardly be more layered. Ahmed is British-Pakistani rapper Zed and the film explores what it means to be a bright young thing, with dark skin.
The script touches on Islamic lore and cultural appropriation — as well as premature baldness, constipation and the horror of discovering, midway through a conversation, that your girlfriend views you as an “ex”.
Mogul Mowgli is one of the funniest, darkest and smartest movies of the year, which is great news for anyone who loves Ahmed. Whether you’re into his music (he’s a fab rapper in real life), or his acting, this film feels like a summation, as well as a canny dismantling, of everything that’s gone before.
When we first meet Zed he’s riding high but during a visit to his family home, he discovers he’s suffering from an autoimmune disease and that his body, if it doesn’t get help, will essentially implode. His father Bashir (Alyy Khan), wants to prop him up but Bashir’s own tortured history adds to Zed’s woes. Drugged up to the eyeballs, he has nightmarish visions of his father’s journey from India to Pakistan.
The disease eats away at his sense of himself as virile. As he fearfully examines his scalp, it’s like he’s accelerated into old age, yet, as he lies dreaming, he’s also at one with the child his father used to be. If there’s a formula for “sexy” film-making, Ahmed and director Bassam Tariq flout the rules at every turn.
In cinemas from October 30
