Fanaa

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" is not a word in common parlance. In Persian, Urdu, and chaste Hindi, it means "annihilated", "destroyed", or in the context of the latest offering from Yash-Raj Films, it signifies "devastated, ravaged, or consumed by love". Any film bearing such an intriguing, if somewhat grandiose, title would have the onus of living up to enormous expectations. In addition, this is Kajol's first film after a self-imposed hiatus, while Aamir Khan, paired with her here for the first time, is also seen infrequently on screen due to his reputed fastidiousness in choosing movie projects.

I say good for them, for this is a superb collaboration between the actors. Aided by strong writing, a different story, able direction, and slick production values, they make it an entirely worthwhile proposition.

The story—as much as I can divulge in a review—starts off in fairly formulaic boy-meets-girl fashion: Zooni Ali Beg (Kajol), a beautiful blind Kashmiri young woman, comes to the big city (New Delhi, in this case) for the very first time, after having lived a sheltered, happy life in a pristine little town in Kashmir. Right off the bat, she meets a tour guide with the gift of the gab and a roving eye named Rehan Quadri (Aamir Khan), and against the better judgment of her friends, takes up with him.

Aamir looks a bit long in the tooth to be playing Romeo, but does so gamely, and successfully gets the smitten Zooni to agree to a no-strings romance. This is where I realized that the times, they are a-changing: sweet, blind (in more ways than one), sheltered Zooni is so consumed by love that she permits Rehan to bed her before he weds her, a phenomenon that is exceedingly rare (or used to be) in Hindi films. Her parents agree to the match, and the footloose Rehan readies himself for marriage to just one woman.

Then hell breaks loose. Rehan is killed in a terrorist bomb blast, or so we are led to think, while the Indian authorities launch a search for the criminal mastermind that planned this and several similar attacks. Years later, a Major Ranjeev, bearing a disturbing resemblance to the dead Rehan, shows up. So what are we to think?

From this point on, the film takes off into novel terrain, becoming an extremely satisfying viewing experience. Differing perspectives of nationalism and terrorism are explored—one man's terrorist act may also be looked at as a fight for an independent homeland—as well as conventional familial and romantic relationships. Notions of love, loyalty, betrayal, patriotism, and morality get turned on their head, making for a pretty complex film. Is this overly ambitious for a commercial Hindi blockbuster? Perhaps, but the intellectual sophistication of the film-making team more or less pulls it off. There are some plot holes, but they can be overlooked in the interests of the big picture.

Kajol grows in stature as an actor with every film, and her Zooni goes from naive and school-girlish to anguished widow and conflicted wife—a challenging character arc, by any measure—yet, she makes it truthful and believable with her wonderful transparency. Also wonderful is that neither motherhood, nor her absence from the screen for five years, have dimmed her youthful looks or charm. If anything, she is more svelte, and her face shines with increased character. Kajol has been blessed with sublimely expressive eyes, and now that she has acquired more life experience, they register even greater pain. One almost feels like looking away at times, to allow her privacy in her grief. I welcome her return to the screen, and if she displays similar care in choosing her next project, it will be worth the wait.

Aamir Khan picks his projects with a mix of sensitivity and savvy, and presents the film-going public with a different persona each time. He contrasted his feisty village yokel role in "Lagaan" nicely with the glib, self-absorbed urban youth undone by love in "Dil Chahta Hai", so that in the same year, folks got to see two completely different Aamirs. I haven't seen his "The Rising: The Song of Mangal Pandey" or "Rang De Basanti" as yet, but I am confident that he burrowed deep into the souls of the characters of those films, too. Here he inhabits the skin and soul of Rehan Quadri/Major Ranjeev with total conviction and allows you into the thought processes of these men. He does look too old to do the romantic shtick demanded of the Rehan character, but comes into his own while playing the older Major Ranjeev, a profoundly troubled man dealing with adult ethical, ideological, and moral conundrums. To comment any more on his performance would be a disservice to the plot twists of the film, so I shall stop right here.

The director, Kunal Kohli, handled the fun and light-hearted "Hum Tum" with aplomb, and here he tackles subjects far weightier than those of the Rani Mukherjee-Saif Ali Khan film. His occasional missteps result in some unevenness of pace and tone (which some judicious editing would have remedied), but with the overall wallop the film packs, these are minor lapses. I personally felt the second half of the film needed no songs, but that is my own quibble. The millions in the majority would have none of that, I'm sure. Aamir and Kajol do their own singing in a small but powerful scene, and this, I felt, was far more effective and poignant than the over-produced orchestrations of Jatin-Lalit and the vast array of playback singers they assembled.

Rishi Kapoor, Kiron Kher, Tabu, and others offer strong support, while child actor Ali Hajji as young Rehan is amazingly unaffected and natural.

After witnessing the combustible chemistry between Kajol and Aamir (why were they never paired together before?), and being privy to the volatile, seismic shifts in their relationship in this film, I conclude that "Fanaa" is indeed the title that says it best.

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.

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.

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.