Mogul Mowgli

Not every scene fully hits its marks, but Mogul Mowgli is never content to be a standard indie drama.

The audience is thrown into Zed's world (or rather, worlds), and it's Ahmed's astounding performance that provides the through line. It's OK to be lost, because Zed is.

This is an intimate story, sometimes uncomfortably so, but it's also an expansive one, about whether our societies allow people to live outside prescribed boxes and whether it accepts them when they do.

A complex look at identity -- particularly as the son of immigrants... [Riz Ahmed] is at the top of his game.

Acting may be a collaborative art form, but Mr. Ahmed also flies solo with considerable grace.

A poignantly propulsive and furiously constructed story by director Bassam Tariq about inherited pain of the flesh and the soul.

Centred by a performance which further confirms Ahmed’s bona fides as a leading man, Mogul Mowgli has energy to spare, but it could do with a mite more stillness to find its truest self.

An incredibly raw and powerful piece of acting... Between this and The Sound Of Metal, it cements Ahmed as one of the finest actors working today.

Mogul Mowgli confirms Bassam Tariq's facility with resonant themes and strong performances. Its success would land him a coveted job as the director of Marvel's Blade reboot.

If you only know Riz Ahmed from Rogue One or Venom, Mogul Mowgli is an intimate showcase for the talent that got him there. A vocal advocate for diversity in cinema, he leaps at the chance to make the kind of art he wants to see more of.