“I’ll Never, Ever Shoot in 4:3 Again”: Bassam Tariq on Mogul Mowgli
Telling the story of Zed (Riz Ahmed), a British Pakistani rapper on the cusp of success when he begins experiencing a debilitating muscular condition, Bassam Tariq’s Mogul Mowgli fills in its narrative with hyper-specific details about the Muslim community and, more specifically, Zed’s resistance to finding his place in it. Others involve the integrity (or lack thereof) involved in the pursuit of fame, as a rival rapper with impersonally cringey lyrics threatens to steal Zed’s upward momentum. Throughout the film, these issues are dissected with surreal flourishes: what on paper might sound like a conventional narrative takes on a visceral, […]
by Erik Luers on Sep 3, 2021
