A Muslim family’s struggle to prove their innocence, Mulk is about blind faith, religion, blind faith and a broken home. Shahid Mohammed(Prateik Babbar) is proven guilty for a bomb blast that killed many innocent lives and his family tries to reclaim their honour when fingers are pointed at them for being terrorists. The family fights to prove that even though one of their family members turned out to be a terrorist, they are innocent and not terrorists. The film is based on a real-life story.
The movie begins with visuals of a calm and harmonious Benaras. We are introduced to the simple Muslim family Murad Ali Mohammed (Rishi Kapoor) and his family which includes his wife (Neena Gupta) son (Indraneil Sengupta), daughter in law, Aarti Mohammed (Taapsee Pannu), brother (Manoj Pahwa), sister in law,niece and nephew (Prateik Babbar). The first half gives us a glimpse of the family and their happy and peaceful life together until one of their family members, Shahid Mohammed (Prateik ) turns out to be a terrorist.
The second half has a sense of gloom as the court drama unfolds and the screenplay gets more intense. Murad and Aarti fight hard to prove the family’s innocence in court. The prosecution team has Santosh Anand (Ashutosh Rana) who tries equally hard to prove the point about the family being terrorists. The dialogues, especially in the court scenes, are hard-hitting.
Mulk gives the audience an insight into the kind of pain and humiliation such families have to go through in life in spite of being innocent just because one member of their family has turned out that way and mainly just because they are Muslims!
Image Credit: Movie – Mulk
Even though some of the scenes seem a little stretched, the film is an eye-opener. The scene where Shahid’s dead body being dragged on the streets for everyone to see not only leaves the onscreen onlookers in fear but even hits the audience sitting in the theatres hard. Also, the scene where Murad refuses to accept his nephew Shahid’s dead body because he was a terrorist is poignant and one can feel the sense of the pain of losing someone they loved along with the hatred for what he did.
Image Credit: Movie – Mulk
There are times when you forget that you are watching Rishi Kapoor in the film, he is so convincing that you forget he’s the same guy who sported those fancy sweaters and romanced and danced around trees in most of his films! He looks every bit the patriarch of a Muslim family. Your heart goes out to the family especially Manoj who plays Shahid’s father. Neena Gupta as Murad’s wife and Prachee Shah Pandya as Choti Tabassum has also done a brilliant job. Taapsee as Aarti pulls off another applause-worthy performance with her strong dialogue delivery and acting. Prateik Babbar manages to leave a mark even though he has the minimum screen presence. Ashutosh Rana as the prosecutor is good too. Rajat Kapoor as Danish Javed has a small role as a Muslim anti-terror police officer who has turned against his own community to cleanse its reputation but makes quite an impact.
Even though the film does get a little preachy at parts, with Mulk director Anubhav Sinha makes us sit up and ponder. It is a film that every Indian must watch because Anubhav Sinha has a point to make and it will definitely make you think!
