Blood simple… Mogul Mowgli (2020)

 

Half moghul half mowgli

Raised like a concrete jungli

And a junglist and a Londonist

But my DNA wonder where my home should be

Brown steps under the black panthers

Like Bagheera on Mowgli?

My only heroes were black rappers

So to me 2Pac was a true Paki

 

At one point in this film Riz Ahmed’s character, talks about the conflicts of blood; his heritage and his passions seemingly irreconcilable at a time when his own blood is threatening his health and career. This is a film that gets under your skin, and the mixture of performance and cinematic dexterity makes for the most intimate of connections between the watcher in the stalls – oh yes! – and the screen.

This, courtesy of the BFI, was my first trip to the cinema since early March and I gave it the big build up by walking across London streets from St Pancras through a subdued Soho and strangely sad West End to the South Bank where I noticed the old National Film Theatre signage for the first time… maybe because I didn’t have crowds of people to steer through? A sign of the times.

Riz Ahmed

Mogul Mowgli does not let the returning cineaste down, opening with the most striking of cinematic sequences as we see Riz Ahmed’s rapper Zed, almost whispering his lines in intimate close up before turning to face a crowded auditorium in full rhyme. Now, I may have seen Public Enemy, Eric B and Rakim and LL Cool J at the Hammersmith Odeon back in ‘87 and be followed by Mr Chuck D on Twitter, but I’m no expert on rap. It matters not because this is a film about many things that just happens to feature a rap musician and when Zed is performing we can all recognise the intense, shared experience of a great gig and, being a pro himself as Riz MC, Ahmed is more than convincing; you hang on his every couplet, poetry at its most compelling with the literate and literal beats powerfully synchronised.

Ahmed describes the film as the most personal work he’s ever made and you really feel this not just with his unguarded expression – he’s the most febrile of actors - but also in the story of family, identity and the bottom line of health that so preoccupies us in 2020. There are scenes in hospital that disarm you and disturb the fragile deceptions that keep many from despair: good health is no longer a given, you need to find a new vitality and a new hope. It’s brutal, visceral and without giving anything away, ultimately optimistic in that, whatever becomes of us, acceptance and love transcend all.

The film’s title is taken from Riz’s Swet Shop Boys track, Half Mogul, Half Mowgli – quoted above - and signifies the battle for the soul between Western ideals and Eastern tradition, one that is fought out within families as well as on the streets and in the digital whirl of the culture wars. You can’t take your country back when some question your right of place and when you are no longer just “from” anywhere or any one nation.

Back home?

Zed is London born and rap-raised, of Pakistani Muslim heritage and ferociously driven to make a career doing what he loves. This idea of self-actualisation clashes not just with his friendships but also, obviously, with his family’s faith and devotion. As his girlfriend, Bina (Aiysha Hart) says he’s always rapping about where he’s from but it’s been a long time since he’s been back there.

Zed is making a decent living in New York but is still awaiting a bigger break and this comes in the after-gig party when his manager, Vaseem (Anjana Vasan) lines him up with a support slot on a lucrative, high profile tour which is due to start in a few weeks. This comes as Bina tells him time’s up on a relationship imbalanced by his need to succeed. He returns home to London for the first time in two years to scenes that make it clear exactly why…

Bassam Tariq, who co-scripted with Ahmed, directs with intensity allowing the visuals to speak as directly as Riz’s rhymes, with the adrenal New York scenes replaced by an almost dreamlike atmosphere as Zed is subsumed by family relationships, his heritage and obligations all conflicting with his professional focus. He constantly has flashbacks to his father Bashir’s (a superb Alyy Khan) flight from India, a terrified young boy looking into a dust-filled train carriage, whilst at the same time clashing with him about his own thwarted ambition and faith.

Zed is out of step with even some of his own generation, who have their own interpretation of Muslim strictures and as he attends mosque with his father he starts to have visions of a man with a veil of flowers covering his face; a childhood memory, an emblem of his background faith.

Then the Zed discovers that he has a degenerative disease, a blood condition where the white cells attack his healthy ones resulting in his losing muscle mass so that he can no longer walk. In denial at first, Zed keeps on hoping he can make the tour and then he is offered a stem-cell derived infusion which may help to treat his condition… His father brings in a faith healer who administers a “cupping” remedy which fails and Zed has no option but western science.

The scenes in the hospital are hard to watch as Zed tries to walk and struggles with even the most basic of bathroom routines, and with his father on hand to help, it’s almost funny but still painful for anyone who has had to care for a loved one. The film reaches a feverish pitch as Zed fights to stay on the tour and pushes his parents away as the visions increase and the narrative becomes focused on more basic struggles… the world of the well is so far from that of the unwell.

Alyy Khan

Mogul Mowgli illustrates just why Riz Ahmed is a national treasure both as an actor and a passionate communicator of the need for cultural understanding and advancement. As a marketer I give it five stars but as a cinema lover it has the higher rating of making me feel and think. 

It is exactly the kind of film that makes you realise what we've all been missing. Therefore... it is indeed, unmissable!

Mogul Mowgli is on general release from October 30^th and is distributed by the BFI – full details on their website.

Also, Near the Jugular, a season of films curated by Bassam Tariq and Riz Ahmed, runs at BFI Southbank and on BFI Player from 19th October – 30th November. It features screenings of films that both have found influential in their lives, and those that have inspired Mogul Mowgli.