The wait is over. Zack Synder’s Army Of The Dead is finally out. For us Indians, Huma Qureshi’s presence in the cast is a matter of great pride. There’s always the fear that one of our bright talents would end up being more an also-ran than a star attraction in one of these Hollywood biggies. Even Priyanka Chopra who started with a bang in Quantico was a attractive whimper in her most recent West quest We Can Be Heroes.
So does Huma have enough space in Army Of The Dead to consider her presence justified in the mammoth cast? Yes and no! Yes, because she has more space than many of Bollywood’s stars who have gone West.
She plays Geeta, a refugee in a camp in Los Angeles with two children whom she protects with feral ferocity. In the initial portions of the storytelling she has some effective moments of angst as a homeless mother struggling to survive. Her role reminded me of Huma in Deepa Mehta’s bleak and beautiful Leila.
But then—and here comes the downer—Huma vanishes for most of the rest of the 2 hour 30 minute storytelling in Army Of The Dead, as the focus is on the core cast of which she is unfortunately not a part.
Never mind! I’d stay say Huma Qureshi has more to do in this Hollywood biggie than many of her colleagues from Bollywood who went with much fanfare and came back looking like glorified junior artistes in the company of stalwarts from the West.