Riz Ahmed’s Bait will hook you from its first scene, with the popular culture lure of all lures. You’ve most likely had the dialog: Who’ll play the subsequent James Bond? And what number of occasions has that dialog leaned towards white actors?
It’s this recognisable jumping-off level that Riz Ahmed, with co-writers Prashanth Venkataramanujam (Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj), Azam Mahmood (Ramy), and Karen Joseph Adcock (The Bear), and administrators Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli), and Tom George (This Country), use to discover illustration in the leisure business, the press, and the court docket of public opinion, by way of one British Pakistani actor’s expertise.
In six, 30-minute episodes, the Oscar winner’s new Prime Video series manages to craft a pointy, absurd, and shifting satire that asks vital questions on identification and ambition for actors of color, with a elegant solid, impeccable soundtrack, and sufficient crash zooms for a lifetime.
What is Bait about?
Riz Ahmed in “Bait.”
Credit: Prime Video
Struggling actor Shah Latif (Ahmed) auditions for one the most coveted (and betted on) roles on the market: James Bond. However, when his audition does not go in addition to he’d hoped, he seizes the alternative to start out rumours about his potential casting by way of the press — and the results are chaotic.
Everyone has an opinion on Shah as the Bond hearsay mill goes wild. Who ought to play James Bond, and will or not it’s an actor who is not white? A wave of on-line hate cascades into Shah’s life, one which turns into dangerously actual by way of an anti-Muslim hate crime directed at his household residence. His household’s Eid al-Fitr celebrations are disrupted with the want for amped-up safety. However, he is nonetheless informed to suck it up. “You’ve just got to stay grateful,” says Shah’s skilled “rival” Raj Thakker (a superb Himesh Patel), a British Indian actor additionally rumored in the working to play Bond. “A bit of hate’s a small price to pay.”
But is this chance actually one in any respect for Shah? In an opinion piece for an outlet inside the present’s universe, author (and Shah’s ex) Yasmin Khan (the ever-talented Ritu Arya) calls Bond “an icon of the white establishment” and accuses Shah of being “a long line of brown men who think that becoming our oppressor is somehow liberating all of us.”
“The question is not if any Muslim man is fit to play James Bond. The question is, is James Bond worthy of a Muslim man representing him?” she writes. “The essence of Islam is built on community, family, charity, peace, and obedience. What does a vigilante double agent know of the unique social structure inherent to so many brown communities?”
Over 4 days, Shah finds himself beneath mounting strain on account of the 007 rumors. He’s navigating the expectations of his household, his tempestuous relationship along with his ex, people confusing him for Dev Patel, and the realities of changing into the revered A-lister he goals of being. Here, Bait raises important questions on identification, ambition, and portrayals of ethnic minorities onscreen. (Offscreen, Amhed has long written about challenging stereotypes in roles, even speaking about representation in British Parliament.) In a relentless state of hysteria, Shah code-switches and reframes himself, insisting that “it’s nice even just to have the opportunity, it’s a big deal, a brown James Bond.” Shah distances himself from protesters at a museum gala, demonstrating towards its colonial legacy, after which he is informed he is “sold out” — “It’s not the image I’m going for right now,” Shah tells Zulfi (Guz Khan).
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Shah’s concern of failure dominates his fractured sense of self. He believes himself a “nobody,” and “a shame to your family,” based mostly on messing up one audition. (Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff writes about this strain to carry out in her essay for gal-dem’s “I Will Not be Erased”: Our Stories about Growing Up as People of Colour, writing of a dance audition, “Failing the audition meant that dance suddenly became associated with lots of negative emotions which ended up feeding into my insecurities about my race, my body, and the way I looked.”) The factor is, Shah genuinely smashes his audition out of the park, regardless of the corny, laconic James Bond-style dialogue. However, the one line that journeys him up, each single time? “When it’s just you, by yourself, how do you live with yourself? Do you even know who you are?”
Bait‘s solid is pure fireplace, led by an impeccable Riz Ahmed.
Sajid Hasan, Riz Ahmed, and Sheeba Chaddha in “Bait.”
Credit: Prime Video
As Shah, Ahmed actually pushes himself to the brink in Bait, by way of deadpan comedic stylings to romantic craving and wholehearted drama. As Shah loses his sense of management, of his identification, and of who precisely folks demand him to be, Ahmed brings his attribute depth and finesse to every stage, virtually observing the viewers along with his Bond traces in thoughts: “I don’t live with myself; I live with whoever you need me to be.”
Khan close to steals the present as Shah’s hilarious, no-filter cousin Zulfi, on a quest to construct his fleet of Muba (“Muslim Uber”) drivers when he is not protecting Shah actual. Arya is magnetic as Shah’s ex Yasmin (actually, who may recover from Yasmin?) as she brutally calls out Shah’s performative methods.
Sheeba Chaddha hits each be aware as Shah’s mom Tahira, whose competitors with the glamorous Naila (a improbable Soni Razdan) is a enjoyable through-line, and Sajid Hasan enjoys one-liners from his recliner as Shah’s father Parvez. Aasiya Shah (We Might Regret This) is deadpan brilliance as Shah’s cousin Q, whereas Weruche Opia (I May Destroy You) is hilarious as Shah’s long-suffering agent Felicia.
And they’re all brilliantly framed by Bait‘s beautiful manufacturing design.
Bait leans into surrealism, ’60s cinematography, and a banger soundtrack
Riz Ahmed and Ritu Arya in “Bait.”
Credit: Prime Video
One notably surreal narrative gadget is a recurring podcast-recording situation the place Shah unpacks his anxieties throughout from a frozen pig’s head that speaks with the voice of Sir Patrick Stewart (and sure, it’s actually the voice of Sir Patrick Stewart). Shah’s internal saboteur finds its approach out of the freezer and into brutal conversations with himself in an instance of self-flagellation of the most uncooked and unrelenting nature. However, this stage of absurdity solely matches that of Shah’s every day expertise, in the similar approach Adjani Salmon deploys magical realism in the excellent Dreaming Whilst Black.
Bait can be a technical marvel, with administrators of pictures Frank Lamm and Dan Atherton shifting between pictures that convey these states of realism or absurdity. Often, a handheld or mounted digicam follows the actors up shut, rendering their conversations fluid and intimate. Other occasions, the cinematography leans into crash zooms that amp up the drama and pay homage to ’60s and ’70s Indian and Pakistani cinema. An excellent sequence in episode 3 sees Shah’s household “rival” Salim (an outstanding look from Kaos‘ Nabhaan Rizwan) releasing doves, performing an ideal gymnastics routine, and fairly actually strolling on water. And episode 4, a spotlight of the series, is a Studio-style one-shot second amid London’s buzzing Brick Lane. It’s a relentless dance between actuality, paranoia, and imaginative dread as Shah tries to maintain his head above the waves.
However, there’s nothing absurd about Bait‘s soundtrack, a veritable treasure trove of South Asian and British gems throughout the many years, from legendary Pakistani playback singer Naheed Akhtar, ’70s hypnotic Qawwali from the Sabri Brothers, ’80s disco from British Pakistani new wave duo Nermin Niazi and Feisal Mosleh, ’90s English drum and bass by Origin Unknown, and up to date tracks by British singer Jorja Smith, British producers Sevaqk and Troyboi and Indian singer Amrit Maan. And it is all embroidered with composer Shruti Kumar’s booming rating.
Bait is considered one of the most surreal, vital, hilarious, and shifting reveals I’ve seen for some time, as Ahmed goals to depart audiences shaken and stirred.
Bait premieres March 25 on Prime Video, with all six episodes available at once.
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