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Mogul Mowgli

Country: united_kingdom, united_states

Year: 2021

Running time: 89

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9892094/reference

Toni says: “Riz Ahmed collaborated with a co-writing credit, with director Bassam Tariq, writing all of the songs on Mogul Mowgli, which explores similar themes to his previous SOUND OF METAL. In MOGUL MOWGLI, he plays an aspiring rapper Zed, struck by a genetic auto-immune condition threatening his livelihood.  The film deals with themes of conflict between Pakistiani and western culture, particularly with respect to family relations, as his family is supportive of his health struggles but not his career choices.

“The film detours from the depiction of his sickness with several hallucinatory and dream sequences, getting into Zed’s mind and deepest fears via vivid imagery, flashbacks, and wild imagination, with a green-blue color scheme and haunting characters.

“The film crosses into genre film territory blended with humor and use of music from stages to the powerful bathroom closing scene. 4 Cats
“Screened virtually at Provincetown International Film Festival“

Michael says: “Expectations were high for MOGUL MOWGLI, after the success of SOUND OF METAL, the last film Riz Ahmed starred in, sharing the Trudy for Best Actor with AND THEN WE DANCED’s Levan Gelbakhiani, with many similarities; it’s about a musician who suffers a debilitating ailment. Sadly, MOGUL MOWGLI suffers greatly from more is less syndrome. Add to the examination of Riz Ahmed’s Zed as an immigrant, and a rap artist, an auto-immune disease that attacks Zed’s muscular system, with a treatment that has potentially devastating side-effects, a family dynamic, especially between father and son that could have powered an entire movie, and a cultural struggle focusing on Pakistani and Indians and the western world… and lace it all with concert performances, hospital drama, and out-of-nowhere, illness-induced, hallucinatory, dream sequences, and it’s a lot to take.

“The film sadly felt disjointed and impenetrable in several ways. Zed is the most defined character, even though his bull-headed single-mindedness is a little hard to take. The other characters, with the possible exception of Zed’s father, Bashir, get pretty short shrift. If you like rap, you may enjoy the concert scenes of Zed performing his music. All the lyrics were written by Riz, who spent time as a rap performer before he turned to acting. It left me rather cold. Ultimately, I found MOGUL MOWGLI to be a bit of a cluttered mess that didn’t do much for me. Ahmed gave a good performance, sure, but it was buried under so much, I could barely find it. I blame the director for trying to wrap his arms around much too much. 2 cats“
“Screened virtually at Provincetown International Film Festival“
Chris says: “I know, it’s too easy (and maybe a little unfair) to compare this to SOUND OF METAL, but how can one not when you have Riz Ahmed playing another musician suddenly beset with a mysterious affliction that derails his life and career? Although Ahmed is predictably great, drawing on his own experience as a rapper and delving into his Pakistani background, this is about half the film of its hearing-loss predecessor. Clumsily constructed and littered with half-assed attempts at satire, it also lacks a single relationship nearly as effective and meaningful as, say, the one in SOM between Ahmed and Paul Raci. 2.5 cats
“Screened virtually at Provincetown International Film Festival“
Mogul Mowgli

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