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In the line of fire

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER

A Mighty Heart, a retelling of the horrific kidnap and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl, hits theatres today



ENDLESS WAIT Marianne Pearl (Angelina Jolie) and Asra Nomani (Archie Panjabi) look for clues

On January 22, 2002, Daniel Pearl, the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, who was investigating the shoe bomber Richard Reid, went to meet an informant in Karachi. He never came back. That was the beginning of a ni ghtmare for Pearl’s wife, Marianne, also a journalist and six-months pregnant at the time with the couple’s first child.

With the help of old friend and Pearl’s colleague, Asra Nomani, Pakistan counter terrorism unit, the FBI, and American Diplomatic Security Agents, an extensive search was launched ending with the heartbreaking news of Pearl’s murder.

Marianne, who returned home to Paris to have her son, Adam, wrote a memoir, “A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life & Death of My Husband Danny Pearl”. The memoir is the basis of the new Michael Winterbottom movie, “A Mighty Heart”.

Brad Pitt was so impressed with an interview of Marianne that he watched on CNN, that he was inspired to translate the memoir on screen. He called on Winterbottom, known for his documentary style filmmaking from acclaimed movies like “Welcome to Sarajevo” and “The Road to Guantanamo”, to direct the film.

Winterbottom was filming in Peshawar when he heard of Pearl’s death and that experience lent immediacy to the proceedings. Winterbottom met Marianne and later they went with producers Dede Gardner and Andrew Eaton to meet Pitt and partner Angelina Jolie in Namibia.

The cast was finalised with the lovely Angelina Jolie — she of the bee-stung lips hiding her superstar luminosity under corkscrew curls and a heavily pregnant belly playing Marianne. There is Archie Panjabi (remember her from “Bend it like Beckham”?) playing Asra while Dan Futterman is Daniel Pearl. Our very own intense Irrfan Khan plays Captain, the head of Pakistan’s counter-terrorism unit. The film was shot in 2006 with Pune doubling up for Karachi. We all remember the paparazzi circus of those days where practically everyday we had snippets of information and photographs — who can forget the Brangelina bunch taking that auto ride around town and then there was the bust up with over-zealous security men.

Having a superstar on board a small project is a good thing as it increases visibility and also helps generate curiosity that translates to ticket sales and money. However, there is a problem if the celebrity overwhelms a project.

As far as the jolly Jolie goes, there have been conflicting reviews. While J. Hoberman from Village Voice writes: “There’s hardly a moment when Jolie is on-screen that you can’t sense the presence of make-up artists and hair stylists hovering anxiously just off frame”, veteran movie critic Roger Ebert writes: “Angelina Jolie reminds us as we saw in some of her earlier films like ‘Girl Interrupted’ that she is a skilled actress and not merely (however entertainingly) a tomb raider”.

This kind of debate is only to be expected when you have a star of Jolie’s wattage. Whether it would take away from the seriousness of the story and the issues raised is the question.

That the material is compelling goes without saying. What Winterbottom has done with it remains to be seen.