T-Series Films, JA Entertainment, Wakaoo Films and Fortune Pictures’ The Diplomat (UA) is based on the true story of an Indian lady who gets tricked into marrying a Pakistani and how the Indian government helps her escape from the bad marriage and return to India from Pakistan.
Uzma Ahmed (Sadia Khateeb) meets Pakistani native Tahir (Jagjeet Sandhu) in Malaysia. A divorcee and a single mother to a little girl, Uzma goes to Pakistan and is forced to marry him there. Before long, she realises that she has married the wrong guy who abuses her physically. In fact, she realises that Tahir is not the nice human being he posed to be. She knocks the doors of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, which swings into action and gives her shelter in its office for 20 days while the Indian government fights her case in the Pakistani court to have her sent to India. India’s external affairs minister (Revathy) and deputy high commissioner (John Abraham) move heaven and earth to save Uzma.
Ritesh Shah’s story is based on a real-life incident when Sushma Swaraj was the external affairs minister of India, and J.P. Singh was the Indian diplomat in Islamabad. Although the story has inherent value as it is a fine human drama, Ritesh Shah’s screenplay does not have hair-raising moments and claptrap situations and it, therefore, doesn’t quite give the audience the feeling of exhilaration even after Uzma is granted permission to return to India. The emotional high which the viewers should’ve experienced when Uzma wins the court case and again when she crosses the Wagah border is missing. Also, her victory in the court seems to be quite easy. The tension-ridden moments when Uzma is being given shelter in the Indian High Commission office in Islamabad aren’t as exciting as they ought to have been. Also, it is not clear to the viewers why Tahir is so keen to prevent Uzma from leaving him. After all, he has no dearth of wives! Nevertheless, the inherent excitement of a helpless woman being assisted by the tops of the Indian government does have its highs. Ritesh Shah’s dialogues are nice.
John Abraham delivers a fine performance in the title role. As J.P. Singh, he lends maturity to his character. Sadia Khateeb looks very pretty. Her acting is good at places and not up to the mark at others. For instance, her demeanour itself seems wrong at places when she is shown smiling or relaxed during the days when she is seeking refuge in the Indian High Commission. Jagjeet Sandhu is suitably menacing as Tahir. Revathy lends good support as external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. Kumud Mishra is natural as advocate N.M. Sayyed. Sharib Hashmi stands his own as Tiwari. Vishal Vashishtha has his moments as Ayush. Amitoj Mann is so-so as Paramjeet. Vidhatri Bandi is effective as Seerat. Ashwath Bhatt provides decent support as Mallik. Bhawani Muzamil is appealing as Bashir. Shriswara (as Naina, wife of J.P. Singh), Farheen Prabhakar (as N.M. Sayyed’s wife), Shaunak Duggal (as J.P. Singh’s son), Maryam Patel (as Uzma’s daughter, Noor), Darius Chinoy (as Faraz), Rohtas Nain (as Sho), Samreet Bajwa (as Aniha), Irwinmeet Kaur (as journalist Saba), Arun Kumar (as J.P. Singh’s driver), Sheikh Nilofer (as Safia), Reuben Israel (as the minister), Hiytesh Sejpal (as Roshan), Rohit Rajvansh (as Rachit), Dr. Smita Telang (as Aparna), Manoj Dutt (as Justice Naizi), Manoj Kumar Chadha (as advocate Humayun) and the others are okay. The rest lend fair support.
Shivam Nair’s direction is quite nice but the human drama ought to have been handled more sensitively. The thrill and sense of achievement is missing in the narration and drama. Music (Manan Bhardwaj, Anurag Saikia) is fair but the absence of hit songs is felt. Lyrics (Manoj Muntashir and Kausar Munir) are weighty. Ishaan Chhabra’s background music is quite nice. Dimo Popov’s camerawork is very nice. Mohammad Amin Khatib’s action and stunt scenes afford thrill. Ravi Srivastava’s production designing is up to the mark. Kunal Walve’s editing is sharp.
On the whole, The Diplomat is a fair entertainer. Its intrinsic merits are better than the drama. It will do reasonably well in the cinemas.
Released on 14-3-’25 at Metro Inox (daily 8 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Panorama Studios. Publicity: fair. Opening: dull at places, so-so at others (affected due to Holi festival, which helped boost collections later during the day). …….Also released all over. Opening was ordinary at most places (affected adversely in the earlier shows because of the festival of colours, but the same festival gave a boost to the latter shows).