Mira Nair Shooting Next Film, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, In Pakistan

Following up last year’s rather underwhelming biopic, Amelia, Mira Nair is looking to make some noise with her next film.

According to Indiantelevision.com, the filmmaker, who may be best known for Monsoon Wedding, is looking to shoot her next film in Pakistan, becoming only the third Indian filmmaker to do so.

The film? An adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, will be Nair’s next film, and is set primarily in an outdoor café.   The story follows a man named Changez, who leaves his life of fame in the states after a love affair goes south, and then the events of 9/11.

The film will reportedly star Shahid Kapoor, with the supporting cast yet to be announced.   Details on this film are scarce, so at this point we don’t know quite what to expect, but nonetheless, this is definitely a film I can’t wait to see.   I love Nair’s work, particularly the aforementioned Wedding, even down to her work on something like the otherwise dreadful New York, I Love You.   She’s a fantastic filmmaker, so hopefully we start to hear more about this project soon.

Source: Indiantelevision.com

From Harcourt, about the book:

At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful encounter . . .

Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by the elite valuation firm of Underwood Samson. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his budding romance with elegant, beautiful Erica promises entry into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore.

But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned and his relationship with Erica eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. And Changez’s own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a riveting, brilliantly unsettling exploration of the shadowy, unexpected connections between the political and the personal.