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Cinema
Fanaa – Aborted Classic
by MH Ahsan
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Rating : Good (For a single visit)
Producer: Aditya Chopra
Director: Kunal Kohli
Music: Jatin-Lalit
Featuring: Rishi Kapoor, Aamir Khan, Kajol, Tabu, Kirron Kher (sp.appearances),
Sharat Saxena, Ahmad Khan, Master Ali Haji, Jaspal Bhatti &
Others.
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Meet Rehan (Aamir Khan), a
Delhi tourist guide, who encounters the blind and beautiful Zooni (Kajol)
from Kashmir when she is on her first trip away from home. Dazzled by
her, he bursts into shaayari at the drop of a hat, and for Zooni too, it
is instant love.
He flirts in a most outrageous and un-'guide'-like manner with her, to
the delight of all her companions, except one, who also comes around
soon. Thoroughly besotted with her, Rehan wants to show Zooni all the
colors of Delhi, and of life and love. And Zooni reciprocates because
she wants to discover all that Rehan has to show her. And Zooni reaches
and touches the real Rehan, who even arranges for her treatment (she had
lost her sight in a bomb blast) and restores her eyesight. But when
vision returns, Rehan has exited from her life - because the 'guide' has
a dark - very dark - side to him, and the real Rehan she has touched is
suppressed somewhere within that hell.
A pregnant but psychologically battered Zooni moves on, and gives birth
to a son (how easily Hindi film heroines get pregnant the first time
they get 'physical'!) she names Rehan. Her mother (Kirron Kher, a
character that is completely superfluous in terms of the story and
script) dies some years later, and Zooni shifts with her father (Rishi
Kapoor) and son to a secluded villa in the Kashmir mountains.
And then just when she has outgrown the memories of the past, it is time
for Rehan to re-enter her life, this time with his terrible secret, and
darken it again. And that's when her father's advice shapes her decision
- that you define your life not by choosing between right and wrong, but
between the better of two goods and the lesser of two evils.
Fanaa could have been a classic had it been crisper but
weightier. At 18 reels, it becomes a tad too long as well as convoluted
for a story whose end is not only within expected parameters but without
any freshness in treatment. But while a long film isn't necessarily
boring (and luckily this film is not, to be fair), the script and
direction also lack emotional depth, which is sinful given that three of
the biggest powerhouses among actors in India - Rishi Kapoor, Aamir Khan
and Kajol - are the protagonists.
One welcomes Yash Raj's slight deviation from their standard formula by
blending a thriller with a love story. But the relationship between the
lovers that shows so much intensity and promise so consistently in the
first half is completely diluted in the second half when the film could
have got down to crucial further business in a - well, businesslike
manner.
The thawing of the relationship between Zooni and the badly-wounded man
that she and her father nurse back to health takes a tad too long and
mushy a path, and the revelation that he is Rehan (whom Zooni has never
seen) is quite blandly done, and the sequences that follow it lack the
kind of emotional voltage that was needed. Also the evolved 2K audience
may not take kindly to the long arm of coincidence making Rehan land up
injured at Zooni's house, or to the fact that Zooni does not even
recognize his voice. The false dramatic ploy of her feeling some
familiarity with him therefore emerges doubly fake.
The scenes between father and son (Master Ali Beg - absolutely
delightful) as they grow from hostile strangers to their natural
relationship have a far better impact precisely because they have the
very quality the rest of the second half lacks - a logical brevity and a
natural depth.
Most films are made or demolished (at the box-office if not in quality)
by the second half, and this is where Fanaa falters and fails to
fathom the depths that it could have. The ascending dramatic graph
plateaus and then plunges down. Even the pre-climax and climax (that
should have been scorchers) end up predictable and limpid.
Kunal Kohli's dialogues are serviceable, but there is nothing
extraordinary there just as there is nothing exceptionally riveting in
Shibani Bathija's screenplay. But primarily the film fails in a major
way, as said before, to capitalize on three of the foremost actors of
international caliber in India. Rishi Kapoor, as Beg, does a routine
role without the kind of conviction he carried in his brilliant recent
work like Kohli's Hum Tum, Kucch To Hai, Pyaar Mein Twist and the
first film in which he was Kajol's dad - Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi.
Kajol is brilliant, rises above the script, but is decidedly not in her
element as the (weak) climax approaches. Aamir Khan is his usual self,
and those who have been following his career will find nothing fresh in
his seasoned but routine performance. Oh, what material is wasted here!
In a short cameo, Tabu scores as the anti-terrorist chief, and Shruti
Seth and Master Ali Beg score trumps in their roles. The rest go about
their motions, but Lara Dutta and Shiny Ahuja are completely and
criminally wasted in roles that did not have meat even for junior
artistes!
The songs and cinematography (Ravi K. Chandran) are major assets to the
film, though "Mere haath mein " bogs down the pace, but Nitish
Roy's production design is delightful. Ritesh Soni's editing seems to be
helpless in the face of the weak and indulgent direction, and
Salim-Suleiman's background score is ordinary.
Fanaa, like a zillion ambitious films in Hindi cinema, is a film
that could have reached classic dimensions as a study of the complex
psyche of a 'brainwashed' terrorist, of a woman who lives like a widow
and single parent even though her husband is alive with the guilt that
she has caused his death, and as a love story between a blind girl and a
devoted lover. It just might connect with the urban box-office counters
but sadly not with our souls - which is what enduring cinema is all
about.
May 7, 2006
Top |
Cinema
The Week of June 4, 2006
Addressing Students: Open Letter from Member of a
Failed Generation by Rajinder Puri
Abolish Minorities Commission by V. Sundaram
Communist Parties Onslaught on Constitutional
Entities by Dr. Subhash Kapila
Genes, Darwin, Contraceptives, Demography and Salafi
Terrorism by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Undoing India Through Caste Reservation by
Nagesh Padmanaban
A Dalit Straddles the Financial World an
Interview by MH Ahsan
It's Your Problem by Usha Kakkar
Do We Have Liberty? by TA Ramesh
Eminent Domain by Dr. Prasenjit Maiti
Parched Throats on the Coasts by VK Joshi
Sun Power, Woman Power by Fatima Chowdhury
Democracy in Ladakh : Marginalized Women by
Stanzin Dawa
The Untouchability in Ladakh - An Unethical
Practice by Stanzin Dawa
Poisoning the Umbilical Cord by Nabusayi L
Wamboka
A Haven for State-abetted Evangelism on Stilts
by V. Sundaram
Leadership and Power : Ethical Explorations
a review by Dr. Prema Nandakumar
Gunning Down the Opposition by Donna Demetillo
Must Knows for Your Child by
Garima Gupta
Sibling Harmony Versus Rivalry by Gary
Direnfeld
Who Moved My 'Apple'? by M. Qaiser and P. Mohan
Chandran
Decoding Da Vinci's Dissent by Mario D'Penha
In the Name of the Prophet by Shehar Bano Khan
Puppets for a Cause by Gagandeep Kaur
Fanaa – Aborted Classic Reviewed by MH Ahsan
Aamir Khan : What should I Apologize for?
Interview by MH Ahsan
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