The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a 2012 American political thriller drama film directed by Mira Nair and starring Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, and Liev Schreiber.

Bobby Lincoln, an American journalist in Pakistan, arranges to interview Rainer’s colleague Changez Khan, whom he suspects is involved in the kidnapping.

After graduating, he joins a top Wall Street valuation firm, Underwood Samson, and starts a relationship with an American photographer, Erica.

In Manila on business during the September 11 attacks, Changez returns to the US and is quickly picked out, then invasively strip-searched at the airport, leaving him furious at being unfairly targeted/treated.

During his interview with Lincoln, Changez says he was approached by a terrorist cell to become a mujahid and was tempted to accept, angry and disillusioned by "the arrogance, the blindness, the hypocrisy" of the US.

Changez explains that both Islamic fundamentalists and blind capitalists like Underwood Samson similarly simplify and exploit people for their own means.

Changez’s visa expires and he returns home to Lahore and is hired as a university lecturer, as departing foreign professors have left vacancies.

He voices dissatisfaction with US intrusions in Pakistan, bringing him to the attention of the authorities, who raid his office and home, threatening his family.

Lincoln is quickly removed by CIA agents, who've learned Rainer was found dead that morning, and that Changez had told them the truth about having no involvement in it.

I am a lover of America... although I was raised to feel very Pakistani..." The soundtrack album for The Reluctant Fundamentalist was composed by Michael Andrews.

The film uses an eight-minute duet called "Kangna", sung by Fareed Ayaz and Abu Mohammed, for the opening scene.

"[citation needed] On composing music for the film, Andrews said: "She has great relationships with folks in the region, and because I was so far away, Mira took care of it.

Atif Aslam, Fareed Ayaz, Fahad Humayun, Abu Muhammad, and Amy Ray also served as singers and secondary composers on the album.

[34] The film screened in festivals in the United States, Denmark, Venice, Toronto, London, Sweden, and Munich in early 2013.

The website's critical consensus reads: "The Reluctant Fundamentalist is technically proficient with solid acting and cinematography, but its message is so ambitious and heavy-handed that some of its power is robbed.

"[43] Vaihayasi Pande Daniel for Rediff.com gave three-and-a-half out of five stars and says "The Reluctant Fundamentalist has its cinematic moments but is too simplistic in places".

[44] Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian gave it three out of five stars and commented, "Its message might be flabby, but Mira Nair's adaptation of Mohsin Hamid's novel is still a bold piece of global storytelling".

Movies gave a score of four out of five stating, "Mira Nair takes on the daunting task of adapting Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and skillfully transforms a monologue into an engaging plot.

"[46] Damon Wise of Empire rated the film as three out of five and said, "Ahmed excels and the set-up is compelling but ultimately this is middle rank stuff from the Monsoon Wedding director".

"[48] For the academic reception of the adaptation of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, see Mendes and Bennett (2016)[49] and Lau and Mendes (2018), who question "how the ambivalence and provocativeness of the 'source' text translates into the film adaptation, and the extent to which the film format makes the narrative more palatable and appealing to wider audiences as compared to the novel's target readership.