Movie Review: Fanaa

WARNING: RELATIVE SPOILERS, BUT I WONT GIVE OUT THE ENDING OR MAJOR PLOT POINTS, I PROMISE!!!

I FINALLY SAW FANAA!!!! First day first show (well, second), after buying tickets in black and Regal. After a month of eagerly asking Inox when the movie would release and not giving up hope despite the theatre's ambivalence about filming it given some disputes about distribution and production, till the very last day, Friday, Mayb 26, when I called and was told that it wouldnt be releasing that week in the multiplexes. Then I called up the number in the papers to book tickets and she said the entire weekend in all the theatres was house full. But my dad found someone to get us tickets, though I even wished to an unknown genie that it would release in Inox. I guess we've been spoilt. But my dad still likes Regal because he is big on Dolby surround sound and all that jazz that boys like.

The 3 o'clock show ran a bit late so we puttered around taking in the sights at Regal's relatively recent (read - last couple of years) refurbished canteen. I have been curious about the lime n spicy potato chips since Roxy, so i bought them and a cold coffee.

The show was house full. But they've improved the seats. The only annoying thing was that they were also renovating the bathroom on the balcony/dress circle floor so we had to go down to use the tiny stalls one.... my god only 4 cubicles and maybe 10 square feet of space to stand inside.... it was like a mini riot or a mandir worship - people pushing in and out. But there was this whole "we saw it first and now we dont know what to think!" camaraderie going.

So as you all know, Zooni Ali Beg (Kashmiri for moon or moonlight), played by Kajol, is a blind girl, adored daughter of Kirron Kher and a not-yet-50-but-looking-more-and-more-like Randhir Kapoor- Rishi Kapoor, born and brought up in Kashmir. She wants to see the world and meet her shehzada (Urdu for prince -rather romantic but still), and so goes with her cousin and their music troupe to Delhi to learn to be independent. Her parents are soo cute, mom is encouraging and dad adorably protective. There they meet their mavericky flirt of a shayari-spouting guide, Rehan, who is actually a terrorist, played by Aamir Khan (with some lingering traces of RDB bravado). He is charmed by Zooni's simplicity and trusting and they have a little romance, with Zooni promptly falling for him. He shows her the sights of Delhi in a way a blind girl would enjoy, but refuses to commit to meeting her on a day-to-day basis. She performs at the show, he finds himself falling for her, but you definitely sense restraint on more than one level on his part, and absolutely none on hers except the shyness of a girl tentatively feeling out her first experience of love. She tells him that superb couplet her mom tells her to tell her prince,

"Tere dil mein meri saanson ko panaah mil jaaye,

tere ishq mein meri jaan, fanaa ho jaaye",

(That my every breath finds relief in your heart,

that my self gets destroyed in this love-quest for you)

little knowing the portent it carries. Indeed she does find her love destroyed, in more ways than she can imagine, and just when the world opens up for her with countless possibilities. Rehan, berating himself his detour into emotional weakness, continues his mission, and Zooni is back to square one, with a couple of negatives to boot. Meeting and loving Rehan was only the beginning of a lifetime of choices. Always a choice between love on one hand and destruction on the other.

The movie is basically about the choices she makes, the choices they all make, their varying degrees of selfishness, or self-interest, the subjective ideal of the perception of sacrifice. Of love and how to maintain it, of how living with memories isnt always clean-cut.

It really explores subtly the Sufi concept of Fanaa, which is basically about the destruction of evil and ego in the self. I guess in that sense the love of Majnu for Laila is also a sufi one, because in his madness in the desert he forgets himself and BECOMES love. And on a more human level, this is what the movie tries to do.

Another superb shayari, which this movie is amply peppered with, is the one Kirron Kher tells Zooni - "Give your life to the man who gives you his heart, but surrender your pride only to the one who destroys himself in love for you". And Zooni comes t understand and represent this better than Rehan ever does, I think.

Kirron Kher is superb, lending a wise and loving vivacity to her character as the enthusiastic shawl-clad mother. Rishi Kapoor is really cute too. The little boy is also adorable in his shy talkativeness and long curly locks. The chemistry between Kajol and Aamir doesnt sizzle the way it did with Shah Rukh, but then this isnt that type of story. She is simple and stunning, and her cheekbones and chin!!! Too good. I'm so glad she isnt encouraged to conform to their waif-like bubblegum actress standards! She looks like a woman and can project the complexity of emotions a woman goes through, not merely the giggles and trauma of first-love roles that most of these other actresses are dealt. Aamir's face has begun to harden in the past few years, but as the movie progresses, one can see traces of his sensitivity and character depth from Akele Hum Akele Tum and Sarfarosh.

Oh yeah, there's also a sorta appearance by Tabu, in lots of white eyeshadow. Very serious role as usual, and i felt there wasn't much potential, but she looks damn good!

The most grotesque scene for me is the way Zooni finds out about her father's death.

The music is timepass. The best songs are rock-sufi-ballad Chaand Sifarish and Jitne paas paas. Very early 90's typical Jatin-Lalit. And the fashion/outfits aren't particularly blockbuster making either, unless you only look at the clothes Lilette Dubey and the troupe girls wear as they catwalk their way through the Qutb Minar quad.

One of the few movies that's better AFTER the intermission, though the traces of filmy melodrama could have been avoided.

Conclusion: You will be disappointed if you went with the high hopes built over 2 months that I went with, so go with an open mind. The story was not what I expected. But see it because it's Kajol and Aamir dammit!!!! She looks too fresh and has that longing intensity in her eyes still!!!!!!! Yay I wanna see more of her!!!!