Maqbool Director: Vishal Bhardwaj Country: India Year: 2003

CAST:
Irfan Khan, Tabu, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah

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Vishal Bharadwaj’s Maqbool transplants Shakespeare’s most lurid and visceral tragedy to contemporary Mumbai. It’s a surprisingly easy transfer.

The action centres around Maqbool, the brutally efficient second lieutenant in a crime gang headed by the aging Abbaji. Maqbool is ambitious, but, while not exactly impatient, he’s less than pleased at the prospect of young upstart Guddu romancing Abbaji’s daughter. Marrying her seems the only way Maqbool can gain control of the syndicate – until he meets Nimmi, Abbaji’s mistress. Nimmi is immediately taken with Maqbool and before long the pair are plotting their takeover.

Part of the fun here is the way Bharadwaj and co-writer Abbas Tyrewala have reconfigured the principal characters of the Scottish play (not to mention the frenetic way they establish them – the opening is more Mean Streets than Bollywood). The witches have been replaced by a pair of corrupt cops, Inspectors Pandit and Purohit. Best of all are the digs at the Indian film industry which, until recently, was the recipient of largesse from some rather suspect sources. (When Maqbool is promoted, the first territory he’s assigned is Bollywood.)

Bharadwaj and his collaborators adhere to Bollywood codes at least as far as musical numbers, but they rework certain conceits. Most of the numbers are integrated into the action and are religious in nature; sectarian differences and devotion figure heavily in the way the gang operates. Even devotion is corrupt here, though: Nimmi, a suitably conniving and ambitious version of Lady Macbeth, prays fervently for an opportunity at infidelity.

The film’s stellar performances include the heavy-lidded matinee idol Irfan Khan as Maqbool (who conjures just the right mix of menace, introspection and sex appeal), the sultry Tabu as Nimmi and the legendary Om Puri (also appearing this year in the Festival Gala Code 46) as Inspector Pandit

Smokey and atmospheric – as befits the Bard’s most omen-laden effort – Maqbool opens with a portentous scene that’s as bloody and precise as any Hong Kong spectacle. Pandit traces the horoscope of Mumbai on a misty windowpane as his buddy-cum-comic foil Purohit interrogates a rival gang member, an interrogation that culminates with the poor hood’s brains splattered all over Pandit’s calculations. There’s only more blood and brutality to come.

– Steve Gravestock

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