More of Raazi's Jaideep Ahlawat, Not Salman Khan's Tiger: Bollywood, Write Better Spies

Jaideep Ahlawat's Khalid Mir is a sin-eater. His allegiance to his country means: there is no bond he will not turn on, no individual who isn’t dispensable.

There is this haunting moment towards the end of Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi. A terrible choice needs to be made in the climax, and Khalid Mir (played by Jaideep Ahlawat) doesn’t even pause before making that difficult choice. It’s only in the aftermath, while he’s escaping in the backseat of a van, do we see a slight hint of sadness in him. Khalid Mir is not the kind of character to waste time pondering about the morality of his job, but this is an exceptional scene where his stone-cold approach to his work and people, hits a crossroad. There is some (easy-to-miss) regret in his eyes that underlines the brilliance of Jaideep Ahlawat’s performance.

This is in stark contrast to the conventional spies peddled out in mainstream Bollywood film, like Sunny Deol-starrer Hero: Love Story Of A Spy, or Salman Khan’s Tiger franchise. Even the relatively rooted films like Neeraj Pandey’s Baby, are served with a generous portion of jingoism. The things that make both Raazi and Ahlawat stand out – is the restraint and the poise. It’s hard to imagine Khalid Mir beating his chest and chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai‘. He’s just not that kind of a person.

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“Spies in Indian films have evolved according to how things have shaped up in Hollywood. For a long time the Indian spy was based on the campy James Bond-template (which was also the Hollywood formula). One of the rare examples that comes to mind about a rooted spy film, is Ashok Kumar’s Samadhi (1950). You see that for the longest time mainstream Hindi cinema played to the gallery, and there was no space for a realistic ‘spy film’ in the parallel cinema movement – which preferred to deal with social issues. But slowly, the gap between the mainstream and parallel cinema has been bridged and as a result we’re seeing more movies like these (Raazi),” says Amborish Roychoudhury, film fanatic and author of In A Cult Of Their Own.

Shoojit Sircar’s Madras Cafe and Nikhil Advani’s D-Day might be two of the films Roychoudhury is hinting at. Both films categorically avoided slow-motion sequences involving the spy coming out of the sea, in blue trunks. In terms of their unassuming physicality for a filmy spy, D-Day’s Wali Khan seems like the predecessor for Raazi’s Khalid Mir.

Roychowdhury’s observation about the ‘treatment of a spy’ in Hollywood rings true, because for the longest time ‘Bond’ was the sole representative for Hollywood spies. After all these years, even though Bond remains the most popular among them – there are other equally famous players like Ethan Hunt, Jason Bourne, Jack Ryan.

Interestingly, Khalid Mir is reminiscent of a fantastic character from a not-so-fantastic Bourne film – equally hard-boiled and opaque. Edward Norton in (the rather enjoyable?) The Bourne Legacy says to the title character, “We are the sin-eaters. We’re morally indefensible and absolutely necessary.”

ALSO READ: Is It Just Me Who Thinks That The ‘Raazi’ Trailer Has A Massive ‘Hero: Love Story Of A Spy’ Hangover?

Khalid Mir is one such sin-eater. His allegiance to his country means: there is no bond he will not turn on, no individual who isn’t dispensable, no amount of sentiment that can breach his analytical approach to decision-making. In the world of Khalid Mir, there is no room to second-guess the ‘optimal solution’ and that’s why the pathos in his eyes is so interesting.

Played with rock-solid precision, Ahlawat keeps the character at an arm’s distance from the audience. He constantly belittles the ‘masoom’ protagonist during the initial stages, because he understands how anger can be a strong motivator. The years of backstory he gives out without even a hinting at what the man has been through, is fascinating. It’s visible in his poised reactions to the constantly tilting scales. He never expresses joy at a step forward, and rarely does he *show* panic when the operation goes two steps back. They’re either met with a wry smile or a frustrating punch to the desk – everything else is too time-consuming.

And that’s why that last scene is all the more powerful. Khalid Mir understands the plight of the young girl, but he also understands the cost of doing what he must. He has the strength to pay any price to keep his country safe. This is what makes him a Bollywood spy unlike few others.

Jaideep Ahlawat, remember the name.

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