Fanaa

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.

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.

After all the recent pornographic movies such as Murder and the like, it's really refreshing to have a D E C E N T Indian film which the entire family can watch. Sure the film wasn't brilliant but it beats the other crap Bollywood has been spewing out ever since the arrival of Mr. Imran-Gigolo-Hashmi. What a treat to see Kajol on screen again. She truly is the gem in the crown of Indian cinema. And as for Aamir...well, his done it again. After his stellar performance in Rang De Basanti, he pulls off the role of Rehan with immense warmth and passion. I know this is probably a pipe-dream, but it would be fantastic to see these 2 set the big screen ablaze again. Kudos to Kunal Kohli for reminding the world of what a true Bollywood film is made of!

This is hands down the best romantic film since .....well in a long time , all the people i know who haven't liked this film is because its got impossible situations in it and its slow in the 2nd half all i have to say : stop watching Hindi films then and continue watching 25 sec ads which have diminished your attention span .

The characters are given amazing dept and lo and behold they take the film to an all new high .Kajol has proved shes the best actress of her generation and with this film is giving serious competion to her late legendary aunt nutun as the best actress of the family .

Aamir is splendid though i felt his character got a bit sketchy in the 2nd half not his fault the director and writer could have made his motives more clearer for us . however what ever hes given to work with he electrifies every scene hes in .

kudos to all the crew especially kunal kohli

Fanaa- This truly is a good movie- not just in the entertaining sense. There are a few bloopers, of course, but they may be easily overlooked, an easy enough thing for sensible and regular watchers of Indian cinema.

True, Aamir and Kajol have performed brilliantly, the cinematography is excellent and the music heavenly. The background scores are worth more than a mention.

But the movie goes deeper and makes one think about the power of love and our utter helplessness before it... how it shapes one's life and choices. The importance of choice is given the limelight in this movie- the choices that are so unique and personal to each of us, given the same situation. It also asks, importantly, how much can love forgive?

Put yourself in the place of these characters as you watch the movie and see how much is asked of you at each step, what strength is required to make the choices they make.

This movie, in some ways, is a lesson in love. It puts to shame our cautiousness, rigid moral standards, emotional walls etc in love. You cannot walk into love with tiny steps, wearing a steel armor and praying not to get hurt. There is no such thing as going too fast or too slow, or all these clichés we've come up with to explain relationships :)

To love, you truly HAVE to be free. At heart.