Fida

(2004) Fida (In Hindi with English subtitles) CRIME DRAMA/ PSYCHOLOGICAL

It opens with a mob magnet, Babu Anna (Akhilendra Mishra) throwing a temper tantrum finding out that the electronic theft of more than 5.3 billion rupees stolen between two banks was money belonged to him. He then demands his goons to find the identity of the culprit and have it or them bright over to him. The movie then switches to love sick romantic, Jai Malhotra (Shahid Kapoor) bonding with his best friend, Sonia (Kim Sharma). And as soon he spots a girl he becomes madly in love with, he then goes out of his way to find out everything about her, including where she lives, we find out her name is Neha Verma (Kareena Kapoor). And for the first 40 minutes or so, we then see Jai profess his love for her in the most cringe worthy way before he tells her that he would even commit suicide for her. He does and Jai's best friend, Sonia then drags Neha from her place to the hospital to show he was was not kidding. It was during then is when the ridiculous begins to happen. It is when some men were seen leaving her apartment, and Jai catches Neha attempting to hang herself. She then tells him that she is the daughter of the father who owed money, and thought hanging herself would be a solution. And as soon as she tells him how much she owes him or them, and turned out to be a huge amount of 60 million. Jai promises her he would get her that money without robbing the bank. And upon going to the bank he then sees a guy withdrawing a lot of money, and he decides to follow him to his place of residence, only as he soon as he comes inside, jai is then caught and knocked unconscious. By the time he gains unconsciousness, Jai then tells the wealthy resident, Vikram Singh (Fardeen Khan) the entire situation and story. Vikram then tells him he will gladly give Jai the money he needs, providing he will be the scapegoat of the person who robbed Babu Anna 5.3 billion on line. And Jai then goes online on some library - and almost immediately he gets caught as soon he is instructed to type things on the computer, as it is not long he gets nabbed by authorities. A twist happens is when Jai manages to escape when a shootout ensures when Baba Anna instructs his goons to get involve into his capture so that he himself is able to punish Jai himself. After Jai manages to escape the clutches both of the police and by Babu Anna's goons, by the time he reaches Neha's apartment. He then sees Neha coming out of the shower with Vikram right behind her. Giving Jai and it's viewers the assumption that it was nothing more but a set up all along. As if both Vikram and Neha knew all along Jai was going to take the bait, as well as it was both of their plan to get Jai follow Vikram all the way to the bank for the intention of robbing hi, is way too much of a coincidence. Motivating I as a viewer to ask more questions than I was getting any answers.

This movie is one of the most chameleon-like I have ever experienced. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it; but the mainly relaxed, whimsical, romantic opening (after the first encounter with the crime boss, who almost then seems to get forgotten for about 40 minutes, though you know he must resurface sometime) is filled with extravagant Bollywood dancing (though often with a more sexy feel than I have usually encountered in my so-far limited Bollywood experience) and over-played but highly amusing protestations of love on the part of the main character, Jai. In this portion, the aficianado of Bollywood ladies has plenty of opportunity to admire the very sexy Kim Sharma as Jai's childhood friend Sonia, and also of course his new love Neha played by Kareena Kapoor, who is more restrained in her sexiness but just demurely lovely. But after about 30-40 minutes, the pace and tone completely changes with one dramatic moment, and after that we are very much engaged in a helter-skelter action movie with multitude plot twists, wide-ranging shifts of location from India to Dubai to South Africa and even (I think) a small vignette in London, and a fair share of unarmed combat and exploding gunshot wounds. This is not a movie for the faint-hearted or the lover of simple romantic Bollywood stories, but overall it is an enjoyable ride!

An account belonging to a major underworld don has been hacked into, and has been totally wiped out (around 220 crores!). Cops, media, and the said don all are very upset. [Scene change] Boy (Shahid Kapur - new promising kid on the block) sees girl (Kareena Kapoor). Boy goes ga-ga over girl! Boy convinces girl she is the girl of his dreams. Girl embraces boy. Boy starts singing/dancing etc. After much songs - story goes for a twist. Girl has financial problems (around 6 crores worth). Boy decides to rob a bank. Boy goes to the bank, sees another dude (Fardeen Khan) withdrawing a huge amount from the bank (around 7 crores - how convenient!). Boy decides to steal from the dude. And so the twists pile up on twists with a final twist at the climax!

Sounds thrilling? It cudda been!

The best part about Fida is that it clocks in at an amazing 2 hours and some change (and the songs are easy on the ears too). But the proceedings tend to disappoint every time you think the excitement level is going to notch up a little. Pacing is uneven, and the performances are inconsistent. Shahid Kapur has good screen presence and is a hit with the ladies, but his future strictly depends on his shrugging off the SRK hangover. Kareena Kapoor and Fardeen Khan are just OK. Make no mistakes - this is a director's vehicle, and Ken Ghosh seems to have lost his enthusiasm for the project somewhere after the first few reels.

Too Much Coincidence to Accept, But Certainly One-Time Watch

Shahid sees a girl, Kareena, in his dream, and magically she exists in reality. At first glance, he falls in love with her. Okay, accepted. In a few weeks, he meets her twice and even goes to her home at night to prove his love. She clearly refuses to meet him, so he slits his hands and writes her name in blood... Okay, accepted. True love exists. But then, one day, some people threaten Kareena for 6 crore rupees, and she makes up a story that she needs that much money in three days. Shahid decides to rob a bank but then sees a rich man. Guess what? This rich guy captures Shahid and turns out to be Kareena's original boyfriend, who hacks into the bank's server to steal money.

The police later capture Shahid, but he escapes, gets shot, and even survives.

Don't you think this is really too much to digest?

One star deducted for the poor script, one star deducted for Fardeen's subpar acting, and one star for the excessive plot armor and cheesy introduction given to Shahid. A few things I did appreciate were Shahid's effort and Kareena's acting, which were good. The last scene, where he takes his revenge by taking Kareena's life, was also quite satisfying. Only because of this, I decided to give it 7 out of 10.

I watched this movie on a boring rainy afternoon and thought it would be a nice and light romantic flick.. It starts out with some guy trying to hack into a bank and then suddenly shifts to this mushy and really lame one-sided love story. There's a guy called Jai who has a gorgeous and perfect friend (Kim) but ignores her and falls for some random girl just because he sees her on the street and then he starts stalking her and acts like a guy crazy in love (whatever happened to falling in love after getting to know the person... this guy doesn't even know this chick!)... so he tries to kill himself over her and guess what? It works.. he doesn't die because of the suicide attempt and the girl decides to him a chance.

The movie then has many twists and turns. Forget them in the end this sweet lover boy turns into psycho killer and chases the girl who betrayed him.

Anyway, the only person who impressed me was Fardeen. I don't know what the movie makers wanted to show, but to me his character was just a smart, handsome and lovely guy who loved his girlfriend so much that he could do anything for her. On the other hand Shahid's character was completely unconvincingly and its difficult to believe that this little lover boy survives everything from suicide to police to falling off buildings.

This movie is too dumb for people who use their logic. Characters are portrayed poorly and the movie ends making you go "huh?"