The Diplomat Is A Competent Thriller With Avoidable Missteps

On paper, Shivam Nair’s The Diplomat comes in the long line of rousing nationalist films that John Abraham has been headlining for a while. Based on a real-life story, it is about how an Indian government and a diplomat posted in Pakistan helped a girl back to the country. That Abraham is the protagonist only reinforces the prejudice. But it is also an exception given how the premise is entwined with nationalism mitigating dependence on embellishments. Real names of politicians are used and their contributions are highlighted without running the risk of exaggeration. 

The Diplomat unfolds attuned to this but it also overcompensates for the muted patriotism that the story demands with slight excess. Written by Ritesh Shah (writer of the masterful I Want to Talk), the film takes place in Pakistan where an Indian girl, Uzma Ahmeda (Sadia Khateeb), desperately enters the Indian embassy looking for help and gets the officials, mainly JP Singh (Abraham) involved. 

She was brought to the country under false pretence by Tahir Ali (Jagjeet Sandhu). They had met in Malaysia, fell in love and, on being persuaded, she went to Pakistan for him. But when she reached, his promise was revealed to be a sham. Uzma was held in Buner, a volatile region, with the other women he had done the same with. 

Such an incident had occured in 2017 and the girl was aided by the Indian embassy along with Sushma Swaraj, the former Minister of External Affairs to come to India. The film sticks to this (Revathy plays Swaraj) and while duly conveying the promptness of the Indian government also infuses the screenplay with constant snide remarks against Pakistan. It comes across as unnecessary detours from what is otherwise a capable thriller that resists trappings of cliches till it doesn’t. Pakistani officers, save one, are not unnecessarily villainised (Kumud Mishra has a wonderful cameo as a lawyer). But this humanisation runs into a roadblock every time the officials from the Indian embassy choose to highlight the greatness of the country by deriding Pakistan. We hear Abraham, as J P Singh saying things to the effecto of, “This is Pakistan, only threats work here”, or “This is not India that court orders will be followed”. 

In the larger picture, this slackens the pace and appears heedless because none of this was required. India’s triumph inadvertently gets underlined even when not pitted against Pakistan. For the rest, Nair goes the Argo (2012) way where a man rescued six US hostages from Iran. In The Diplomat, the person is JP Singh (Abraham) who arranges for Uzma’s homecoming within a couple of weeks through diplomacy and tact. Most scenes take place indoors, inside the embassy where Uzma was provided shelter, and a sense of tension runs through them for Tahir and his men are always depicted to be hovering outside. 

The filmmaker includes their presence to retain the tension without leaning on excess which could dilute the central crisis. He does the same while showcasing the abuse she faced at his hands. The camera remains on her face, her eyes and while scenes get repeated, it never becomes The Kerala Story where a similar setting was amplified and instances of rape were recurringly depicted through exploitative filmmaking. 

It is not much but it is still something. Given the times we have come to inhabit, what the filmmaker chooses not to do is more revealing of their intent than they do. The potency of The Diplomat also resides in the terrific performances, especially from actors like Sandhu. He is haunting as Tahir and gives a more memorable turn than most actors this year. He uses his eyes with tremendous effect for a role that has no shades. Khateeb too gives a noteworthy performance as a woman who gets tied up in her aspiration for a better life. The role of a diplomat makes space for Abraham to use the limitations of his skill as an actor without making it a bad thing. He is effective throughout, using the stiffness of his body with impressive results. 

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What is more impressive is his restraint. The Diplomat is the second consecutive film after Vedaa (2024) where Abraham is saving a girl. This is not an unusual premise but in both cases, heroism is designed as less self-involved than how generally it is shown to be. The men at the centre fight with, and not for, the women; although Vedaa was caught in the mix and leaned on convention, The Diplomat resists easy tropes, resulting in an engaging thriller that forsakes thrills for competence with avoidable missteps.