Its astoundingly rare that one sees such a glorious demonstration of the balance of bordering-on-stupidity-type mediocrity and brilliant execution. That demo is Fanaa.
{Warning: May contain Fanaa spoilers - a.k.a. how much more can you spoil something?}
With pieces of screenplay taken generously from Ken Follett's Eye of the Needle, Fanaa is one of those movies which makes you go "WTF Mate?". But to play Dubya's advocate, a film that can create certain sequences that move you because of their sheer intensity is worthy of credit. Fanaa has several such moments - the moment Aamir sees Kajol for the second time and she yells Rehan (a thoughtful moment repeated a little too often in the movie - we get it, Kunal. The kid and the dad have the same name. Nice touch. Now let it go, already), the moment she realizes who Rehan really is, after the off-key but cute antakshari sequence, the usage of the evergreen Madan Mohan-Lata Mangeshkar classic, "Lag Jaa Gale" (Woh Kaun Thi, 1964). These moments were deftly executed and left a startling and lasting impact. But beyond that, Fanaa borders on lunacy.
Lets start with the good stuff. One word. Kajol.
As an absolutely die-hard Kajol fan, this is my absolutely unbiased opinion. If all of divinity could be combined into one paramount force, that stares you in the face and makes itself evident, satisfies your life-long yearnings and makes you feel so real yet so weak at the same time, it would lie in Kajol's eyes. She looks absolutely divine in Fanaa.
Kajol's childlike playfulness contrasts the mature look that she's been given in Fanaa. And I think that her performance and on-screen appeal carried the movie.
The rockstar in Fanaa is the background score by Salim-Suleiman. The "Ya Maula" interludes are absolutely electric, and are placed generously, but aptly throughout the movie.
I can't begin to tell you how bad the rest of Fanaa is. Its bad because you expect so much from the God-given casting coup of Aamir and Kajol.
First of all, being Kashmiri-Muslim parents, Rishi and Kirron make you believe that any over-50 love-marriage, still-in-love parents will get gloriously excited if their blind daughter decides to marry an eve-teasing, overtly ill-mannered random poetic Delhi tourguide, purely because she is in love with him over 4-days of sightseeing and one-night of wet sex. Sadly, kids, this is not true, and please do not be fooled.
Secondly, Zooni seems to have the hide of a rhinoceros as she deals with the toughest and most moving of moments in her life with a couple of tears, quickly followed by acceptance. Got my eyesight back, and am seeing the world for the first time. Yay! Done, what's next. 5 minutes later. Oh, boyfriend-soon-to-be-husband died. Well, got my eyesight, lost a husband. win some-lose some. 7 years repentance time, girl. Oh he's back. Cool! Wait, Dad's dead and is floating under an icy river. Oops, not good, yaar! At least now he'll stop drinking. Oh oh. Looks like my ricocheting husband killed him. Damn! Men! Wait, my husband's a terrorist and is about to blow up the country. Doh! No wonder he was so wild in bed! You know how these militants are? Ok wait, he killed my dad and his best friend too? Yikes, that's like a total bummer! So now Im holding a gun to him and planning to shoot him?
Now, I don't know about you. But that shit is whack.
Aamir's character sketch deserves praise. Very grey. Torn between his mission and his love.
The moments that have been resolved to sheer perfection, are held against the moments that are resolved so quickly, that the audience is unable to fathom or digest them. Makes you think that forcefully fitting together pieces of a jigsaw just to complement the intelligence of our audience, does not make a movie.
All I have to say is,
Is film ko dekhne ke baad, mujhe kisi pub mein panaah mil jaaye,
Jee chahta hai ke is film ki har print ki har reel kahin fanaa ho jaaye.
4 comments:
Hahaha. Really funny! What are Silly Sugar Smacking Ants?
Subtitles which you'll see on screen during the song, "Chanda Chamke".
Amen mofo.. Amen. That end was such a ripoff... such a sad sad ripoff.
AGREED.
One thing I must say though: while I think Kajol is heavenly (despite the unibrow, which she carries off pretty well), she really shouldn't be wearing such tight fitting clothes. She's put on some pounds after bearing her kids, which is normal and natural, but if you don't got it, don't flaunt it. I appreciate how she doesn't care that she's chunky (i.e. Neendh churayi meri, kisne o sanam - Ishq), but it's a bit of an eyesore really.
Also, Aamir looked el crappola with the long hair. Ugh. Much prefer him as sexy terrorist in airport.
Dialogues were soo hammed.. story was so kitsch... how did such fine actors sign a movie this this?
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