Film

Mulk

Name: Mulk
Genre: Drama
Released: 2018
Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Taapsee Pannu, Prateik Smita Patil, Rajat Kapoor, Ashutosh Rana

Drama
Crime
Very dark

Mulk is a courtroom drama about a Muslim family in Varanasi defending their innocence after their youngest son is implicated in a terror attack. It's a serious, angry film about prejudice, surveillance, and what it costs to be treated as guilty by default. For anyone who wants cinema that confronts injustice head-on.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a family drama that argues its case out loud, where kitchen-table arguments about loyalty, suspicion and pride carry as much weight as any verdict.

Skip it if you need your social-issue films to be subtle, since this one states its position plainly and lets speeches run long at a 140-minute runtime.

What it asks of you: Two hours and twenty minutes of mostly talking, in rooms where tension stays high and the mood rarely lifts, with few breaks for relief.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Natrang2010

A Marathi drama about an ageing theatre actor grappling with identity and mortality. Like Mulk, it's a film of real depth that uses a family story to examine larger questions about belonging and legacy in modern India.

But It moves slowly, and its rewards are quiet rather than dramatic. If you want catharsis or a clear victory, this won't give it to you.

Article 152019

A police procedural about caste violence and institutional corruption. Direct, furious, and unafraid to name what it's looking at. If Mulk's anger spoke to you, this channels similar rage through a different lens.

But It's relentless in depicting brutality. The film doesn't soften its subject matter, and neither does it offer much mercy.

Hey Ram2000

Kamal Haasan in Karamjit Nair's fever dream about communal violence and complicity. A family destroyed by religious hatred. Formally ambitious and emotionally raw, it shares Mulk's refusal to look away.

But The structure is fragmented and deliberately unsettling. It rewards patience but punishes distraction.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Mulk

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The White Ribbon2009

Both diagnose how fear and prejudice corrupt entire systems. Both use restricted perspective to show how truth becomes impossible when a society has already decided who the enemy is.

Michael Haneke's black-and-white German film about a village where children are mysteriously harmed. Structural parallel: both films ask who is guilty when suspicion becomes epidemic. Both show how injustice metastasizes when communities stop thinking clearly.

But It's austere, cold, and refuses to offer certainty or comfort. At 193 minutes, it demands absolute commitment.

Talvar2015

Meghna Gulzar's investigation into the Noida murders case. A procedural that shows how systems fail ordinary people, how evidence gets twisted, how innocence offers no protection. The DNA of Mulk's rage.

But It's procedurally dense and emotionally brutal. Long stretches feel like watching justice collapse in real time.

Rang De Basanti2006

A film about young people awakening to political injustice and institutional failure. It has the anger Mulk carries, though channelled through a different dramatic shape. Both ask: what do you do when the system betrays you?

But It's more optimistic than Mulk, sometimes naively so. If you're looking for something as bleak, this might feel slightly soft.

Raees2017

A crime thriller set in Gujarat. While structurally different from Mulk, it explores similar terrain: corruption, communal fracture, how the system protects some while destroying others. Shah Rukh Khan in serious mode.

But It's more conventional thriller than Mulk's courtroom drama. The entertainment can feel at odds with the subject matter.

Night Is Short, Walk On Girl2017

Both are fundamentally about resistance to being conscripted into a role society demands. One is rage; one is love. But the target is the same: the machinery that tries to make you what it needs you to be.

An animated comedy about a Tokyo student and her lover's night of gentle anarchism. A total tonal shift from Mulk, but it shares something crucial: both are films about defending the right to be yourself against forces that want to flatten you into a category.

But It's whimsical where Mulk is grave. The joy might feel trivializing if you're looking for something that matches Mulk's fury.

The Act of Killing2012

Both films insist on accountability and visibility when institutional power wants neither. Both argue that pretending didn't happen is a second crime. Both say: look.

A documentary where Indonesian death-squad leaders reenact their murders. Unsettling, radical, and devastating. Like Mulk, it insists you witness what your country's machinery is capable of. It refuses the comfort of historical distance.

But It's genuinely disturbing. You are asked to sit with people who have killed with impunity. Some viewers find this ethically impossible to endure.