Fanaa : Someone is (not) thinking
Take a look at the chef’s preparation. Food is laid out on the table. Designer style. It’s mouth watering. It gets you impulsive. Dive in, dive in. You do. The food tastes crap. O Lordy!
And that’s what happens to the Shibani Bhatija written, Kunal Kohli directed, Fanaa. On the outset, it’s an interesting concept. Love in the times of terror, tackled earlier by the “always ahead of the times†Mani Ratnam and the “always following him†copy-gang from Bollywood. But this is different. Love happens on the other side of the line. A side which isn’t our side. This provides tremendous scope to get into the inner psyche of the bent on creating hell guy and his inner dual – between love for death and love for life.
But instead we have a Rehan Qadri, our Dilli ka “temporary†thug/flirt/guide/whatever who seems to roll out lines straight out the books of Pickup Women 101. And our dear blind girl from Kashmir, Zooni begum, on a visit to Delhi, is impressed. Zooni begum finds it hard to resist our Delhi guide’s pickup lines. Begum embraces guide Rehan like a stick fast gum. No gum till here.
Zooni-begum, it seems understands Rehan tapori and is ready for a NSA relationship. A man’s ultimate dream. A NSA relationship. For those who came late : NSA = No strings attached.
Multiple minutes later, Rehan-no-so-tapori, now has a change of heart, and decides to marry Zooni-begum. Wait. There’s a miracle in store. Zooni-begum will get her eyesight back courtesy the latest advancement in medical science.
But expect twists, you must. Bomb blast. Rehan-jee out. Zooni-jee pregnant. A harassed anti terrorist officer walks into an Anti Terrorist office. You’ve got to see this. They even have the “ATF†logo painted on the floor over which they walk on. A female officer sits in a dark conference room talking about IKF the new terror force which is going places faster than you can say “Who?â€.
Jump to seven years later where a badly bruised with tomato ketchup Rehan lands at “Now I see now I don’t†Zooni’s house. What follows is something that will put an I-can’t-go-past-page-one-of-this “Mills & Boon†novel, to shame.
No thanks. You either decide you wanna make an out and out nonsense and we’ll accept it. Example. Golmaal, released last week. But if you are going to attempt to tell us a story, you better watch out for the heaps of implausibility stuck in every nook and corner of your script.
Cinema is implausible. Perhaps, if you wanna take that line of thought. But it isn’t indigestible. The art of convincing the weirdest of stories lies in the hands of the writer and director. The job isn’t being done in this banana Fanaa.
And what are ace actors like Lillete Dubey, Tabu, Kiron Kher and Shiney Ahuja doing in their “you blink you miss” lengths in this banana?
In between all this there’s also this grey hair, fur capped character that has an office, consisting of a cordless phone, a dozen AK-47s, and snow. Isn’t 7 years enough to melt the snow? Where the hell is he living? Mount Everest?
But the movie isn’t completely lost. Firstly, please give a standing ovation to the cinematography of Ravi K. Chandran. Delhi has never looked so beautiful. The opening sequences running behind the titles are breathtaking, though you wish Chandran wouldn’t move the camera and would rather have kept it steady, letting the flow in the frame provide the motion,… yet it doesn’t take away the mesmerizing effect he provides through his lens.
Here is an ace cinematographer who can make a movie look like a million bucks, delicately balancing between the art and commercial scale of things. Quite honestly, it’s been a long time since someone has impressed me so much, after the personal favorite Binod Pradhan.
Chandran is one of the reasons why you will want to stick till the very end of this motion picture. If only you could say the same for the editing. Pray, why are scenes dragged on and on? Were the editing scissors missing? Or was the team hell bent on turning it into the golden 3 hour of a movie?
And it’s good to see Rishi Kapoor doing something more than a two bit role. Providing the right mix of balance and underplay, here is one ace actor who never ever got his due. It’s tragic when you see an overly portly Kapoor in the same frame with Aamir Khan. Bollywood’s loverboy of the 70s in conversation with the loverboy of today, who himself is on the last legs of this image.
Aamir Khan as Rehan Qadri is at it again. Question. Is the crossing the eyebrows intentional or isn’t there any other way to express the message? There is something quirky in his scenes with Kajol. Was he uncomfortable? Was he holding himself back? His solo sequence at the airport is the only part where you see him flowing loose and free.
Coming to Kajol, well… what can one say? Here’s an actress who perhaps will play any character with such ease that it makes one wonder, if acting really is an inborn quality, that however hard one try, it cannot be “learnedâ€. Here is one actress who can come on screen and hit the bull’s eye with her eyes closed. How does she do it? Beats me. But if there is anything believable in Fanaa, then it’s this tremendous actress who plays the role of Zooni with an unbelievable effortless ease, her handshaking eyebrows notwithstanding.
C Plus. Risk it for Kajol and Ravi K. Chandran. Not anything else.
July 20th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
havent seen the movie, nor am i interested in it. But i was told that it is glorifying terrorist.. how far is it true?
July 20th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
- Sumeet, no it isn’t. But then you can take anything out of anything these days. Like the whole talk of a gay superman. not true.
July 20th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Hey Oz… Am commenting here after a long time (doesnt mean I am visiting after long though)… I had actually been waiting for your take on Fanaa… agree with you on the cinematography bit, but I think the storyline and the script have taken the movie down to unfathomable depths.
I had done a complete fisking of the movie here:
http://mehtanirav.blogspot.com/2006/05/fanaa-aha.html
July 20th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
=)) ozzie funny boy, handshaking eyebrows….)
July 20th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Uh …….finally …..
by the way Oz bhai u gave it a far better rating. It deserves a F+ Not just because of the fact that it is essentially bad movie. but also because of all the hype which surrounded it. To quote someone “with a star cast like sholay…u don’t expect a shaan”
Agree with u completely…the airport sequence is the place where AK looks LIKE GOD. WOW. Then comes interval. We’re like “this is gonna be a hell-of-a movie”.
But then the drama falls flat and it becomes tooooooooooo slow/dragging post interval. I cant believe a die-hard aamir khan fan like me wanted to leave even when there were 10 mins of the movie left towards the end!!!!
July 20th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
I wish I had parents who said ‘ beta, are you in love ? thats lovely ( without asking a word about the guy!) … dunno why Aamir even acted in it.
loved the title track ; the rest , well … oz has summed it up.
July 21st, 2006 at 4:54 am
I am big fan of AAMIR, but i completely accept with what u say OZ bhai. I feel u should have scolded, stripped the director little more and aamir also for having accepted such hopeless story. I feel this was the most hopeless, pungent movie of aamir.
July 21st, 2006 at 6:13 am
Anand ….
Completley second u
I was literally doing this after watching the film
~X(
July 21st, 2006 at 7:28 am
Yeah Ozzie bro.Movie seriously sucked.Was surprised to see Shiney Ahuja in such a pathetic role.
Only good things about the movie were the cinematography,Kajol and the song Chand Sifarish
July 21st, 2006 at 8:08 am
- Nirav, your post is hilarious! :))
- Sonal, Well, I had to take something away after giving her all the praise. :)
- Kartik, true. It does seem that Fanaa really irritates you :)
- Free Spirit, Thats one of those ones! Yeah, Kunal Kohli slip slides on many of such instances which boggles the mind :o
- Anand, There are times when the movie may look good on paper, but the execution falters. AK may have found the movie to be quite interesting on paper - which actually it is minus the eccentricities.
- Boss, Gosh, it seems DT’s readers were eagerly waiting to bash Fanaa on here!! Sorry it too me so long!!!
July 21st, 2006 at 10:39 am
frankly the movie deserves z- and im not giving anything above that…yes the cinematography is good but kajol she is not even a ounce worth watching in this movie…the reason being….coz she does not act but she just wants to replicate what she did K3G scene by scene…that shows her lack of ability rather then being rated as a tremendous actress…
I like kajol but in this movie she just sucks
July 25th, 2006 at 6:17 am
sorry desi train. ur review is as bad (as you find fanna in bad light).ur newely In favourite cinematographer K.Ravichandran could not show so dark Kajole an inhabitant of Kashmir. She lives since childhood in snow and is shown daughter of Rishi and kher who are quite fair but their only child kajole is not shown fair? why. they could not find a better looking girl who could have been fitted in the role( morphologically). If Fanna is weak then its editing, weak story line and script, role of kiron kher( she does not look like mom of a blind young lady, she never fearsd abt her daughter). Aamir is certainly better than Kajole. his character is more complex and he has played it with more elan than kajole did. either its fault of director or kajole’s but she behaved differently or rather just opposite to her blind part after she gets eyes. THe so called favourite scene of Kunal Kohli and Ravi Chandran, where aamir and kajol engage in antakshri is so unreal and false. She has been living with the memmories of her (not seen) dead lover but she does not feel any hitch to be with a total stranger Aamir who claims to be army man. She is singing songs with him when her father and son both are sleeping. not singning but holding his hands and doing bits of dancing.strange.
Its equally strange that you find kajole with an ease in her role and thus the best part of the film. First her appearances dont look kashmiri which is first requirement.
Though best comic dialogue comes from the mouth of Sharat SAxena who comments after overhearing Tabu and say that now MOmmy will save the country. Thats the timing. This guy’s comic timing has not been utilized properly
July 25th, 2006 at 6:35 pm
It took you sometime to get this reviw huh? :-w
well I agree with you abt every aspect..even the fact that Aamir was lil umcomfortable..donno why?
July 27th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
I am currently watching Fanaa. Its half way past. IT FUCKING SUCKS BIIG TIME. What the fuck Kunal was thinking when he incorporates so much poerty in movie. Do people really talk in poems and not dialouges. Cinematography is really awesome. But thats it. Nope not even AAmir or Kajol can save this movie or make me watch the second half. i am fucking tired of this shit. How many times will the director remind us that the name of the movie is FANAA with all the poetry. Stop fucking living in fairytale.. be real for christ’s sake.. Cinderalla’s was a fairytale.. which was recited to kindergarten students and not to mature adults.. OMG if i am on DT for even a few more minutes.. Oz, i gonna lodge a complaint against me for abuse. Let me stop.
July 27th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
aaah sumeet …. \:d/
welcome to the club of ~X(
February 8th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
sorry guys but i liked the movie:”>:)>-