A Mighty Heart

I saw the Larry King show sometime last week. Angelina Jolie was on it talking about her latest movie, 'A Mighty Heart' which is based on true-life incidents that happened to the journalist, Daniel Pearl (who was beheaded by the Pakistan terrorists) in 2002. I remember it creating a huge splash. I even remember vaguely that the actual video of the beheading was aired on the internet before it was banned and a few million people had already seen it. The movie is based on the book by the same name written by Mariane Pearl, the wife of Daniel Pearl. I was intrigued as I watched the LK show and immediately bought the book online, knowing that the movie was releasing on Friday. I am a strict believer of reading the book before seeing the movie. The book got here on Thursday evening and without further ado I delved into it. This post is a review of both the book and the movie.

Book review - A Mighty Heart - By Mariane Pearl

I expected it to be a poignant, heart-wrenching story of sorts but was taken aback by how objectively it was written. It was a narration of events for most part and has admirable details of dates, events and names. After a while, all the names start melding into one another because they are all Islamic names with 2-3 names to one person (eg. Omar Saeed Sheikh). Mariane Pearl was obviously not fascinated by the Indian subcontinent as her book continually indicates spoke much about the "filthy" conditions, begging children and what not. Writing about how she would need to experience a place like India would completely negate the point of the review. So, sweeping right past, the book does its work in making you feel her apprehensions, her pain , her anxiety as an expectant mom waiting for any news from her kidnapped husband day after day after day. She and her Indian-born, US-raised Muslim friend, Asra are the highlights of the home-based involvement in finding Danny. They set up fort at Asra's home in Karachi as they wire telephones, comb Dannys computer for information, colloborate with the FBI, the Pakistani police force and what not. It also conveys the horror on the day she finds out that he "didnt make it" and how she is so dignified in the way she copes with it. Amid all this is Captain, the Pakistani CID chief, who is almost waging a one-man battle to help find Danny. His involvement in the case is spectacular and he does everything in his might to try and find the man.. alive. The book is for her son Adam, who was born a few months later. So he can know that is father was not a hero, just an ordinary man who tried to fight and survive what happened to him under extra ordinary circumstances. The book concludes with a collection of letters written by people world-over to Mariane and her son, Adam about how brave Danny must've been to how brave Mariane is.

Reading the book most certainly paves way to understand the movie, which otherwise might be just a wee-bit confusing.

The movie

I must hand it over to director, Winterbottom for making what is the most dedicated version of the book as a movie. This is the movie that has stuck most to the book from what I have seen. From the way Jolie's (who plays Mariane) wedding costume actually matches Mariane's (found on the jacket of the book), to the French-accented English to the very dialogues, it does justice to the book all the way. Mariane Pearl couldnt have asked for more. Angelina Jolie has performed her class and is sure as hell to receive atleast an Oscar nomination for her performance. I think she peaks when she portrays Mariane's reaction to the news of Danny's death. She screams agonizingly loud and pained and you can feel her pain. The other actors in the movie have also to be commended. Dan Futterman (who plays Daniel Pearl) is a close fit and does a great job. But more commendable is Irfan Khan (who plays Captain). he has done a wonderful job of portraying the character just as Mariane portrays him in her book. All in all, I think the movie is certainly worth a watch though the first half, which is a lead up to the actual sequence of events is a bit of a drag, the second half makes up for it. Can watch.. surely atleast once.