Four years after its first screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, Emraan Hashmi starrer Tigers was recently released digitally after several delays. Directed by international filmmaker Danis Tanović (best known for directing Academy Award-winning film No Man’s Land), it’s a David versus Goliath genre story set in Pakistan.
Emraan Hashmi plays Ayan – a pharmaceutical salesman in Pakistan – who takes on the multinational healthcare corporation he works for after he realizes they knowingly marketed a baby formula that is responsible for the death of hundreds of infants. The synopsis seems intriguing till the time you realize the story is based on true events surrounding the experiences of a former Nestlé baby milk salesman in Pakistan called Syed Aamir Raza.
The film opens with a thought-provoking audio recording of a 1978 hearing around a breast milk substitute controversy. US Senator Edward Kennedy is questioning the MNC’s representative, who denies any responsibility for infant deaths in developing countries. From there, the narrative moves on to 2006 where a group of people, including a producer, a lawyer and a director, are on a Skype call with Ayan, discussing the legal sensitivities of making a film on his life story.
This is when it becomes disconcerting to see a fictionalized story borrowing the tools of documentary as a protective headgear to stay objective.
Being a real-life incident, the best part of the narrative is that the protagonist Emraan Hashmi is shown to be humane and relatable. A man who goes to a job interview in borrowed shoes and coat and takes life lessons from Indian movies is a hero to root for. Ayan gets a job at Lasta (name changed for legal reasons) where he learns the real tricks of the marketing trade and blooms into more of a fixer who initially was completely unaware of the company’s criminal negligence.
Director Tanović has used actual footage of withered babies as a result of using the product which is heartbreaking and soul stirring at the same time. The atrocity was enough to make Ayan turn a whistleblower who risks his family’s safety while taking on the mighty corporation. Emraan here is not playing a superhero so he has his fair share of weak moments when he has second thoughts about his decisions, that’s where his wife (played brilliantly by Geetanjali Thapa) and parents (Supriya Pathak and Vinod Nagpal) provide moral support.
With bilingual dialogues (in English and Urdu), the narrative of the film is more inclined towards documentary filmmaking with a tinge of needed commercialism. There are times when the storyline doesn’t feel as thrilling as the plot demands to be when people’s life are endangered. Luckily the scenic portrayal of Pakistan is not as bad as expected. The cramped alleys and hallways, and old houses have authenticity. However, Ayan riding a bright green motorbike or a framed photo of Imran Khan holding the 92 World Cup trophy didn’t fit in.
With an impressive central thread and immaculate performances, Tigers lacks the punch and pace required to depict a conflict of such magnitude. Despite harrowing images of infants, the gravity of the situation or the sinister actions of the company in question were never truly depicted. Don’t get us wrong, the film means well so watch it once for Emraan’s sincere performance in a movie which will shake your conscience but won’t lift up the spirit.
