IDENTITY CRISIS (MOGUL MOWGLI)

  

Every now and again, an actor whose talent has been apparent for some time starts to command even more attention.

At various stages in their careers, Harvey Keitel, Daniel Auteuil, Viola Davis, Frances McDormand and Morgan Freeman have emerged from solid supporting roles with eye catching lead performances.

Now Riz Ahmed is staking his claim in a similar way to be regarded as one of the finest actors of his generation.

The 38-year-old Londoner is being tipped to be a Best Actor nominee in several awards for his performance as a drummer with hearing difficulties in Darius Marder's 'Sound of Metal'.

But this is on the back of collecting awards like a Berlin Film Festival Shooting Star for his performance in Plan B's 2012 movie 'Ill Manors,' and an Emmy in 2016 for his work on the HBO series 'The Night Of'.

There have also been acclaimed performances in TV shows like Peter Kominsky's Channel 4 drama 'Britz,' Yann Demange and Charlie Brooker's reality TV spoof 'Dead Set' on E4 and movies like Michael Winterbottom's 'The Road to Guantanamo,' Chris Morris' 'Four Lions,' Dan Gilroy's 'Nightcrawler' Paul Greengrass's 'Jason Bourne' and Gareth Edwards''Star Wars' spin-off 'Rogue One'.

Not only that but Ahmed has carved out a musical career as a hip hop artist under the stage name of the Riz MC and collaborated with the Asian Dub Foundation on their opera 'Gaddafi'.

These two strands of his career as a rapper and as an actor collide in Pakistani American director Bassam Tariq's 'Mogul Mowgli' - a movie which marks a further shifting of the gears in Ahmed's development as a leading man.

Ahmed begins the film in electrifying form, spitting out rhymes as Zed, a British Pakastani rapper onstage in a US nightclub 

Zed is on the cusp of great things, landing a coveted support role on a European tour of a major hip hop artist.

But that means breaking up with his American girlfriend, Alysha Hart's Bina who makes it absolutely clear that she will not conduct a relationship over Skype.

Bina pierces his pride by also observing that for an artists who raps an awful lot about London life, how come he hasn't been home in two years?

Zed turns up at his family home where he is greeted by his mother, Sudha Bhuchar's Nasra in Urdu and later by his father Alyy Khan's restaurant owner Bashir.

But then events start to take a surreal and disturbing turn.

Zed begins to develop a stiffness in his leg and have visions of a Sufi mystic, Tarek Tek Singh.

The illness develops, he is hospitalised and is diagnosed as being an autoimmune condition with his white blood cells attacking his muscles.

With his wild hallucinations and unable to walk, Zed not only faces the prospect of losing his support slot to Nabhaan Rizwan's rival rapper RPG but is in a battle to recover again.

Working from a script co-writtem with Ahmed, Tariq, whose previous film was the 2013 documentary 'These Birds Walk' about a runaway boy in Pakistan, announces himself as a fictional director of considerable ability.

Fusing mysticism with surrealism and harsh reality, Tariq places 'Mogul Mowgli' in the magical realist tradition of world cinema and the result is a visually arresting concoction.

Ahmed and Tariq use Zed's tale to explore what it means to be a second generation Pakistani in Britain.

Zed feels a disconnect from the older generation's tales of the partition of India and Pakistan and dodging skinheads as innigrants in London.

Dream sequences raise questions about his own insecurity about taking what was initially an African American artform and givjng hip hop a British Pakistani twist.

But at the core of the film is his relationship with his own father who has had a succession of business failures and also harbours a dark secret.

All of this makes 'Mogul Mowgli' an intense experience, with Ahmed's committed performance dominating proceedings.

Aided and abetted by Anika Summerson's naturalistic cinematography, Ahmed turns in a highly charged performance as a rapper on the brink of either huge fame or tragic misfortube who suffers more than one identity crisis.

You can see how comfortable Ahmed is onstage as a hip hop performer.

But what is even more impressive is how he handles the demands of a role that sees Zed physically deteriorate.

Every lift of an arm or straining of the muscle to walk or even get off the toilet is deeply felt.

Equally, every nightmarish vision takes its toll on Zed.

Ahmed is ably supported by Khan, Bhuchar, Rizwan and Anjana Vassan who portrays Zed's increasingly shocked manager Vassem.

Alysha Hart also gets to deliver some devastating lines as Bina and is an eye catching presence.

Thrillingly edited by Adam Biskupski and Hazel Baillie, 'Mogul Mowgli' will make you eagerly anticipate Bassam Tariq's next work as s feature film director.

But it also announces Ahmed's coming of age as a lead man.

If he chooses his roles wisely, he could be in the front rank of cinema's top performers for many years to come.

('Mogul Mowgli' premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on February 21, 2020 and was released simultaneously in UK cinemas and premium streaming services on October 30, 2020 and on DVD on February 22, 2021)