The Diplomat Review

A woman bursts into the Indian embassy at Islamabad and begs for protection. She says that her name is Uzma Ahmed, and that she is an Indian citizen being retained against her will in Pakistan and wants to go home. It is a tense standoff between the nervous embassy staff suspecting she may be a false flag operative carrying a bomb and the panicked Uzma (Sadia Khateeb), pleading to be saved from her Pakistani husband Tayir who is waiting.

Order is restored when J P Singh (John Abraham), the Deputy High Commissioner of the embassy, is summoned. Within minutes, he must decide whether she is a terrorist or a refugee. At the back of his mind, fragments of the repressed memory of a bomb blast play out. This is diplomacy in its most urgent form and the stakes are enormous.

Shivam Nair's The Diplomat starring John Abraham as a clean-cut, high-level diplomat negotiating a woman's return to India is based on a real-life story of an Uzma Ahmed. The year is 2017, and Sushma Swaraj (played by Revathi) is the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Relations between India and Pakistan are as fragile as ever, and JP's every move has the potential to be magnified on the national canvas.

Nair's film is a procedural dive into the inner workings of the diplomatic machine, but don't expect an earthy, pacey thriller in the vein of Steven Soderbergh. Instead, Nair opts for a visual and narrative style reminiscent of mainstream Bollywood - flat cinematic lighting, tight close-ups, lofty dialogue, and a screenplay that rushes through key moments.

Watching Uzma in the interrogation room, JP says rather high-mindedly to his aide Tiwari (Sharib Hashmi) that he must choose between his head and heart. The camera pans to capture his reflection in the window. Later when he is contemplating his decision to let Uzma stay at the embassy - an unprecedented move and one that carries a high degree of risk - the camera frames JP looking down from his office window at the bronze statue of Gandhi, as rousing music plays.

The essential work of a diplomat is negotiation but that appears to be easy for JP, who secures Uzma's return after making a few calls and shaking a few hands. The real wildcard isn't the diplomatic process, which appears to working like a well-oiled machine, but Uzma herself, traumatized to the point of being suicidal, and her husband, Tayir, who rallies supporters to block her return. Uzma is a compelling subject, but the film's divided focus - between its cinematic protagonist JP and its true protagonist Uzma - creates a leaky plot that hesitates to fully commit to her story, raising more questions than it answers.

More intriguing than Uzma's future is her past - how she fell into Tayir's trap and, more crucially, how she escaped. Flashback scenes attempt to piece together their rushed courtship in Malaysia, but they feel unconvincing and offer little insight into her state of mind. The depiction of Uzma's calculated ploy to lure Tayir into the embassy is just as half-hearted. She seems as naive in her journey to Pakistan as Tayir is in unwittingly leading her to safety.

Instead, the film lingers for a long time on Uzma's suffering, indulging in gratuitous depictions of her trauma. While her ordeal is a central theme, the film overemphasizes it to the point of excess. Uzma's distress is obvious the moment she shows the embassy staff her bruised body, making it clear that Tayir has treated her monstrously. Yet, the film reinforces this through an extended sequence of trauma porn set in Tayir's village in the hinterlands of Pakistan, where Uzma and other women are shown trapped and assaulted. As if there were still any doubt about the inhumanity of the place, the film adds a shot of a young village boy using women as target practice.

The performances are a mixed bag, with varying tones and acting abilities. Some actors, like Kumud Mishra, inject much-needed energy into the otherwise stale proceedings. He portrays Syed, a diplomatic advocate for Uzma, who must navigate his Pakistani counterparts with a disarming smile and an effortless charm. Sharib Hashmi too gives a lived-in performance as JP's nervous aide. Some actors, though, like the ones playing Uzma's Malaysian friends, look like last-minute casting choices with their stifled, amateurish acting.

The performances that feel just a hair off-kilter come from the leading pair. Sadia Khateeb delivers a visceral portrayal of the terrified Uzma, but in unguarded moments, her natural self-assurance seeps through, undermining the illusion of Uzma as a helpless refugee. It's difficult to fully buy into her abject terror within the safe confines of the embassy, especially when Tayir comes across more as a jilted misogynist than a state-backed, scheming terrorist.

John Abraham's portrayal of JP with glinty eyes and a ready manner are more reminiscent of a young politician than a desk-bound diplomat. At one point, his character commandeers a vehicle and drives right through a volley of bullets. Such cinematic flourishes are nevertheless done sheepishly, and are neither here nor there, diluting what may have been a more authentically-told, hard-nosed procedural.

Ruthless editing, tighter camerawork and a more focused screenplay might have turned Diplomat into the political thriller it aspires to be. As it stands, it's a sluggish drama with too few redeeming moments.