Fiza

Some of the poignant scenes and music in the movie are etched in my mind. The jarring note of the funeral and the subtlety of Karisma kapoor's acting. Being the grand daughter of the greatest Indian Film Maker-Raj Kapoor, she has certainly inhertited the genes. Now the much ballyhood actor of recent times- Hrithik Roshan, This guy is so chisseled and handsome that he almost looks like a funny looking kid. Can he act? yes,sometimes; but it is almost painful to watch him. With a V-shaped body, a biceps as big as the state of Montana,and a good disposition towards the opposite sex he will make a good Indian Bond, if only some producer could catch on to this. The problem with the so called "stars" of the 80' generation is that they count on the looks so much they forget they are actors first. If you watched the Movie Monsoon Wedding there is this charecter "P.k. Dubey" done by an actor called Vijay Raaz,who no one in right mind accuse him of being handsome,but he churned a great performance and he repeated the feat in some small roles in"Road" and "Shakti".Frankly I rather watch him or Morgan Freeman in Shanshank Redemtion. The looks draw the audience initially but to sustain thereon you need a talent like Anil Kapoor or Amitab Bachchan. Sorry Kiddo you are not going to cut it. I loved the music including the prayer song, the duet, and the very aesthetic and sexy number by Sushmita Sen so much so she made it to the cover of a Hollywood Film Magazine. Some of the best "Bollywood" dances in the recent years were in "Om Jai Jagdish" and "Humraaz". Suffice to say that I have seen the above movies just for the Song and dance numbers and if done well they could be highly entertaining.

Having recently seen FIZA in Bombay, I certainly understood what all the fuss about the movie is about. Addressing the highly controversial Indo-Pak issue in a fashion which may be viewed as anti-Indian, the controversy goes well beyond the Muslim-Hindu conflicts, the 1993 Bombay Riots, and India/Pakistan themes. The director has been generally panned by critics, yet the public has voted positively at the box office, making it one of the biggest Bollywood successes in recent memory. The film features Bollywood hottest young stars, and this has added fuel to the fire as well. Hrithik Roshan, the lead actor (though FIZA is his well-meaning sister's name) has been crowned as the undisputed heart throb of the Indian sub continent after this film. Following his now-classic ubiquitous Cola TV commercial, and AAGHAZ, this was expected. His fans have become so fanatical (even by Indian standards) that many have felt this role presents Hrithik in a negative light. This fact was highlighted at FIZA's first showing at the Aarti Cinema in Ludhiana. The audience felt so let down, they set a fire, destroyed theater property, and ransacked the premises. On the other side, the movie continues to be Number 1 at the Box Office, and its songs are constantly played on Indian MTV, and indeed in Pakistan, as well.......The film is high drama, Bollywood-style, with good action and great songs, with plenty of eye candy for males and females alike: the gorgeous Sushmita Sena and Karisma Kapur for males, and Hrithik Roshan leading the handsome men for the female audience. Perhaps not unexpectedly, but nevertheless bizarre, the lead stars are very fair, very non-Indian looking actors, with light eyes to boot (surely contact lenses in most cases, but nevertheless confirming a disturbing "Michael Jackson trend" in the Indian subcontinent to admire beauty as "Western beauty.") If you see only one Bollywood movie this year, or indeed, if you have never seen one, this is the one to see.

First time director Khalid Mohammed, who is a respected film critic, dons on a new cap and displays to Indian cinema what can be achieved visually in a film, and how a plot can take its audience to high expectations. This newly developed plot, with characteristics and representations that is very much three dimensional and anti-stereotype, commends the director for his skills as a film-maker.

Its very rare to find an woman, displayed on the moving canvas, as independent, strong and intelligent. Films like Mother India (1965), Bandit Queen (1996), Roja (1993), Hazzar Churasi Ki Maa (1998) and The Terrorist (1998/1999) are examples and the movie Fiza (2000) joins such list. Here the main character called Fiza, played wonderfully by Karishma Kapoor, is seen as such. Fiza is a woman presented in a material world that profits from politics and religion, a male dominated environment. Fiza, which means seasons, goes out in a dangerous world to find her brother, who is in contrast to Fiza as we soon learn.

Amman, played convincingly by the talented Hrithik Roshan, is seen as rather weak willed, easy to command over and psychologically unbalanced while finding his own identity. Even though he is built as a strong man through his physicality, his inner strength is weak and Fiza knows this. This forms part of the reason for his search when she leans that he is has associated with a terrorist group and the justification for this is rather strong. It also shows that man is not as perfect as they think to be and really brings out a new representation of them in this Indian film.

The characteristic of the mother, played by the wonderful theatrical actor Jaya Bachchan, is also similar to Fiza which has been fully developed making audiences emotionally bonded with her. This is due to her growing up in the times of post independence when women were considered to be below the male species in India. Living throughout two generations she carries both ideologies of the past and present seen through her own eyes. While respecting her religion very thoroughly, she is seen to be very close to her children and loves them dearly. This adds another reason why Fiza needs to find her brother, to make sure that her mother remains strong like her and that her believes that her son is still alive is true.

Yet when she sees the real colors of her son, she is dismayed and admits defeat. Sadly she commits suicide as a result. Many audience found this to be rather 'Indian cinema'. Yet to me it makes sense why the director took this path. She is a product of the past, and of faith. When she realizes that her faith of bringing Amman had failed in her eyes, she cannot face herself and as a result dies. If Fiza had a son, like Amman and the same circumstances happened in the future then Fiza would be able to cope with this as society is much more open then it was when Nishatbi was growing up. Clearly the director has thought-out the characters past, present and future rather wonderfully and intelligent audience who capture this understand engage in the film more deeply then what the film offers us on the surface.

There are moments when the film does play on stereotypes with the ministers, leaders, hit men and media, and this could have been improved upon. Yet these Indian cinema conventions manage to work within this screenplay as it is very brief and never dwelled upon. Other minor disappointments with the movie is the way songs come into the narrative structure making this film seem more apt-able for commercial cinema audiences. Dances, glamor and overly high modern songs seen in this film don't agree with the overall narrative jarring the viewing senses and prolonging time. The song only applicable for the film would be 'Piya Haji Ali', beautifully composed by A.R. Rahman, and the song 'Mere Watan' composed by Ranjit Barot as they help with the film's screenplay.

Now that I have talked about the content of the film lets ponder over the technical values, all of which are breathtaking. Cinematography by Santosh Sivan is excellent throughout capturing the images and light effects with perfection, while art design work is also very realistic and helps with the overall look of the film. Editing is also rather good and manages to blend the scenes rather well never deviating from the core matter, just wish those useless songs were edited out.

The film is an interesting concept from the new director and displays that his future work will be something all audiences will view with high expectations. But the director must move away from the 20 year old conventions we have seen in all of Indian films, in order to achieve something properly intellectual. Still Fiza is a good movie with brilliant characters, acting and technical credits.

My husband and I really enjoyed this movie. The music is great, and the story was really really good. I think this was a great way to introduce us to Hindi movies since the story was so compelling and included a look at Hindu/Muslim relations that Americans don't really know or understand. Plus the cinematography was beautiful. After seeing this one, we hardly watch any english language movies anymore! Go Bollywood!

Having not really watched Bollywood films, since the days of the action movies of the 70's & 80's, I wasn't really interested in watching the more recent offerings from Bollywood, since I assumed they were mostly love stories and were full of songs which had no reason for being there.

But, having watched a few (subtitled) films shown as part of an Indian season over here in the UK, I've started to change my mind.

I watched Fiza last night and even though it was full of songs and was let down slightly by the second half, I was amazed to find a film dealing with the Bombay Hindu/Muslim riots of 1993 and it's consequences on a Muslim family.

It starts with the 1993. Amaan (Hrithik Roshan) lives with his mother (Jaya Bachchan) and sister Fiza (Karishma Kapoor). One night Amaan goes out into the riot-stricken streets of Bombay and disappears. We then jump to 1999 and the first half of the film then deals with the consequences, as Fiza determines to find her brother.

Through flashback we find out what happened, as Amaan finds himself a outsider in his own country, but the real reasons for his disappearance are only discovered when Fiza discovers her brother hiding out with terrorists.

I won't reveal the rest of the story, but I will say, it was refreshing to see a film from the Indian-Muslim viewpoint and having central characters who were Muslim. Being British and of Indian-Hindu descent, I hadn't really thought about it before.

I know the film isn't an in-depth look at the problem or even that it represents Indian-Muslims in general, but it did open my eyes slightly to the problems facing India today, especially since the recent (2002) Hindu/Muslim riots in Gujarat showed how bad the violence could be and how much politics played it's part in them.

One last point, the performances from the three main leads is excellent. Hrithik Roshan was much better than I expected, but Jaya Bachchan and Karishma Kapoor were really outstanding.

Although, not a perfect film and still very Bollywood in it's style, I still found it much better then the standard Bollywood fare and I would highly recommend it.