Mogul Mowgli

Mogul Mowgli ist ein schauspielerischer Auftritt von Riz Ahmed, der neben dem Rappen auch dramatische Filmrollen übernimmt. Der Film behandelt mehrere Themen - von familiären Beziehungen über die Suche nach den eigenen Wurzeln und die Vergangenheitsbewältigung bis hin zur Auseinandersetzung mit gesundheitlichen Problemen - was ihm größtenteils auch gelingt. Die Geschichte ist wirkungsvoll mit Traumsequenzen durchsetzt, dank derer der Zuschauer nicht weiß, was real ist und was nicht, was eine Erinnerung ist und was nur ein Hirngespinst. Ich war am meisten an der Zed-Vater-Geschichte interessiert, weil sie am stärksten und emotionalsten war. (05.07.2020)

The content promised a different film than the one I eventually saw. Mogul Mowgli is not a film about searching for one's roots, nor is it a film about a creative crisis. It is primarily a film about a personal crisis resulting from a serious illness that unexpectedly sidelines the main character and his pursuit of his dreams. The world of rappers has always been self-centered - even more so than with other music stars and superstars - and Bassam Tariq fulfills this truth to a great extent. Zed is bitter and frightened, and that greatly affects the atmosphere of the film. The concept promised huge possibilities for depicting generational conflicts within immigrant communities, where there is a huge difference between the thinking of the first and second generations of immigrants, with children experiencing a much greater crisis of identity than their parents trapped in the memories and isolation of their own community. There were also many possibilities for conflict between the feelings of dynamically growing minorities and the majority society. The viewer could have been initiated into endless cultural wars. However, all of this appears in the film only to a small extent, more on the periphery in hallucinatory scenes that, by the way, resonate the most throughout the whole drama. I also found there to be a lack of dark humor. It would have been interesting to follow a Pakistani clan with lots of uncles, aunts, and countless cousins, a world that is infinitely distant from us. Instead, we witness Zed's wallowing in his own pains. It's not that I don't understand him, a similar degenerative disease has been developing in me in a somewhat different form for several years, but with each passing minute the film satisfied me less and less, and in the last 10 minutes, when it should have reached its climax and which are usually the most crucial for the viewer's impression, I lost touch with Tariq's film. So for me, it only deserves 2 stars, although very strong ones. I have no complaints about the acting and I consider Riz Ahmed a remarkable discovery since Nightcrawler, and even though I didn't completely connect with Tariq this time, I definitely do not underestimate him either. He proves his talent enough in his debut feature film. Overall impression: 45%. (06.07.2020)