Fanaa

Fanaa is a complex movie. Aamir Khan has continued his trend of working on unusual plots and delivering extraordinary performances and Kajol has outshone Aamir on many occasions in the film.

The emotional intensity of the movie gets to the core of the viewer's heart. It may help people to look at the Kashmir issue from a different angle but it does certainly portray one fact, and that is a seemingly ruthless terrorist can actually be a simple and kind man fighting for his land's freedom. For him, making judgement on greater good or lesser evil is a constant struggle. Even though Rehan (Aamir) did not derail from his cause (terorrism apparently) till the last breath in his body, he will draw sympathy from the viewers.

The splendor of light, sound and colors in big budget Hindi movies is achieving new heights every day. Viewers will be simply spellbound to the screen during most of the song sequences. The music of the movie was like a breath of fresh air. The viewers will also enjoy a ride of convincing and innovative action sequences.

The first half of the movie could have been made better though. Sometimes the pace felt a little off. The constant exchange of poetry did feel irritating at times. Perhaps, if Aamir could shed off a few kilos, things could have looked a little more natural. It was also unusual for a blind Muslim girl like Zooni (Kajol) to indulge into a physical relation with Rehan (who did not pledge any commitment to their relation) so early. But I guess these things follow typical commercial Hindi film unofficial rules.

Overall the movie is certainly worth watching and, compared to most of the Hindi films, quite a unique one.

The second half of this movie seems to be largely inspired by "Eye of the Needle" which I had watched twenty years back. It starred Donald Sutherland. "Eye of the Needle" has the backdrop of World War II. A German spy gets marooned on a desolate British island colony, probably Gibraltar. He falls in love with a woman who stays on the island with her crippled husband and their son. She too falls for the hero. When she learns about the hero being a spy she mercilessly shoots him. The tag-line of the movie ran like 'it is easy to love an enemy but difficult to kill a lover' (not verbatim). Replace the island by Kashmir made inaccessible in winter. Replace the German spy by lost husband terrorist. Crippled husband by alcoholic father. Presto, you get "Fanaa".

The story writer (who won a Filmfare award for this movie!) owes us an explanation.

Fanaa is a love story which has been written as a love story ,directed as a love story and acted like a love story. Fanna belongs totally to Aamir and Kajol ,who both have delivered a brilliant performance. Kajol plays Zooni with such a class and natural , she reached ,with Fanaa, a place that no other actress ,today, can reach or even come close.she was breathtaking. Aamir plays Rehan, though it's a unusual role that many of Bollywood actors would turn down(nobody wants to play the anti-hero anymore), he makes it real to the core,you follow him through the whole transition of his character,you love him and you hate him at the same time !Aamir is the master of acting today. The chemistry between Aamir and Kajol was terrific!Kajol matches Aamir ,like the sun matches the sky,they delighted every frame of the screen! an award the best Jodi of 2006 will be simply fair! The other actors were efficient! The music of Fanaa is beautiful and the videos makes it just better:a high note to Dekho Na,Kunal managed to control the little space of the shot with ease and closeups of Aamir and Kajol were fantastic.however,it's Mere Haath Me that steals the show,it was just superb,and it will be fair enough to say that this video will be the reference for any romantic song !(the reference was for a long time,Suraj Hua Madham of k3g). the script of Fanaa has some mistakes for sure,but when you watch Aamir and Kajol together you just forget and forgive! Beautifully shot,Fanaa makes you following the journey of two lovers who maybe wanted and deserved their part of happiness,so they knocked the heaven's door but another destiny was writing for them. go watch Fanaa once for Kajol,twice for Aamir,a third time for Aamir and Kajol,and watch it again and again and again for all those reasons!

Well, if you have had that experience you will know what I am talking about. The character of Zooni is straight out of Bronte sisters' romantic novels. The strong willed, intelligent girl out to meet her prince, the supportive mother, the mysterious and charming lover, the lonely house in the middle of nowhere, the retired colonel as the only family friend who sometimes comes and shares a drink with the father; it's all there.

Fanaa is one of the most intense romantic movies to have come out of Bollywood for a long time. Perhaps, since Silsila. The pairing of two of the best actors of our generation (maybe, perhaps of all time) needed a story just like Fanaa. You need to scratch the surface to reveal the passion of this unique love story.

The director, Kunal Kohli has exploited the potential of this pairing admirably. Look at the picturisation of the song 'Dekho Na'. The camera hardly seems to move away from the two faces. There are innumerable scenes in the film where just these two faces share the screen.It is hard to think of any other actors from the present who would be able to pull off such a form of narration. Ultimately, the film belongs to Zooni and Kajol comes out with her best performance to date. Rehan asks, "KOI KISISE ITNA PYAR KAISE KAR SAKTA HAI?" and it shows in Zooni's eyes. What a role to make a come back and what a performance to make a comeback! And Aamir never ceases to surprise. He holds his own in a story primarily about Zooni and complements her character brilliantly. His performance is so amazingly understated, and yet so powerful. Rehan is one of the most complex and difficult characters played by Aamir. And it's all about the characters of Rehan and Zooni, their ideals, their emotions, their dreams and their passion. It's really like reading a 19th century English novel. It is not easy to narrate a story this way in a mainstream film and this is where the narration stumbles. The scene where Rehan takes Zooni from the train and carries her in his arms looks very cliché and awfully out of place. The tag line '.....TERE ISHQ MEIN MERI JAAN FANAA HO JAYE' is repeated to death in the film. There have been some cinematic liberties taken in the screenplay, like Rehan infiltrating the Indian Army, Zooni fumbling with the radio transmitter and speaking to the right people. The Urdu couplets, although all very good, seem to hold back the flow a bit. Also, the discussion on the political history of Kashmir at the meeting of the Intelligence Heads seems a bit off track. A better place to put that discussion would have been a friendly chat between Rehan and Zulfi (Zooni's father)over a drink.

But these are minor skirmishes in a remarkable film. The story remains true to the title of the film and if you have a liking for 19th century English novels, you would simply love this one.

It tickled me no end to read some viewers comment that a Kashmiri Muslim girl fell in love and allowed a man to bed her in a span of 8 days romance. They thought it slightly implausible. This might have held true for some two decades back but not nowadays. We have to understand Zooni (Kajol) came from a fairly modern family (she was no village bumpkin) in the movie and the apple of her parents eye. More so because she was blind and her mother always encouraged her to look forward to her Prince Charming the day he arrived. She was this inexperienced girl full of ideas of romance and blind to boot and Aamirs winsome voice and poetry won her over and she just went into the relationship headstrong girl that she was knowing and accepting that there might never be anything permanent (she just wanted to live for those 8 days she was able to be romanced by the person she was besotted with) a very common occurrence actually in todays scenario.

The story of a man torn between love and duty might be hackneyed but I sure as hell didn't know how it was all going to end and was eager to sit through the whole film and watch it to the very end. I don't know how some people thought the first 90 minutes was horrible and the rest even more so! I found the first half extremely entertaining and the second half was a pleasure to watch just for the sheer pleasure of watching two very high class actors perform as they never have.

Kunal Kohli is an extremely sensitive director and while there may have been slip ups in pace here and there (it was an emotional rather than an action packed movie after all) on the whole the movie shows a director of competence and someone who has a very bright future.

The cinematography is breathtaking and the supporting cast of Rishi Kapoor and Tabu adds to the movies worth. Rishi especially is brilliant.

But the movies strongest point is the performance of the two lead actors especially Kajol who had the more author backed role. Kajol and Aamirs chemistry leave you wondering WHY they never acted together before. And they look so good its hard to imagine Kajols a mom and Aamir a divorced dad of two.