Three weddings and four funerals

Film: Finding Fanny

Director: Homi Adajania

It is said that a film can change your day, your mind or your life; and Homi Adajania’s Finding Fanny is a strange little tale that, if nothing else, will make your day. The director’s third, this film unfolds comfortably around you and makes you live its story while it is happening to its characters.

The film opens with a first person narration by Angie (Deepika Padukone) who leads us into a quiet village called Pocolim in Goa, where Ferdinand Pinto (the post-master of that village, played by Naseeruddin Shah) receives a letter he had sent 46 years ago – a letter expressing his love for Stephanie ‘Fanny’ Fernandes. For those of among you who are immune to irony, read the previous statement again.

Pocolim is a small village, and as Savio da Gama (Arjun Kapoor) promptly states in a scene, “Here, everyone’s business is everyone else’s business.” Angie is a widow, having lost her husband Gabo (played sportingly by Ranveer Singh who lights up his 15 seconds on screen with as much joie-de-vivre as he does in that Ranveer Ching song) on their wedding day. Oh, let it be mentioned that he dies due to choking on the figurines atop the wedding cake. If the irony in the film was not clear to you with the postmaster’s mail not being delivered, here’s your second chance.

                                     

Angie’s mother-in-law, Rosalina ‘Rosie’ Eucharistica (Dimple Kapadia) is a woman of repute and a control freak. Now, add to this mix a renowned painter (Dom Pedro played by Pankaj Kapur) with a fetish for big women, and you have a melting pot of quirkiness.

Here’s a legend to help you link the five characters quickly. Angie, a widow, wants to help Ferdinand find Fanny, using Dom Pedro’s car, which he bought from Savio. She convinces Dom Pedro to lend the car by allowing him to spend some more time with his muse and her mother-in-law – Rosie. And since none of this sorry lot can drive a car, Savio, Angie’s old flame, is compelled to do so. Also in the car - Rosie’s cat.

There you have it, an unlikely group on an unlikely mission to find love. The only thing common between all of them is longing and the quintessential need for love. The outcome of this crazy road trip is quite predictable, however, this predictability does not stem out of you having out-witted the writer and the maker, but instead out of hope. The film does to the characters what you wish to be done unto them.

The humor of Finding Fanny is its situations, more than its words, which means irrespective of whether you watch it in Hindi or English, you will have laughed at the same instances. Most of this aforementioned humor is embedded in irony and unless you watch closely, you may miss out on certain jokes that have been painstakingly constructed within the narrative. However, it must be said that the writers have caught the right vein in writing the dialogues for the English version of the film. “Waiting for Christmas or what?”, “Why means what?”, “I think there’s a robber outside!”, are the dialogues that seem like a part of the setting. One simply cannot pull off writing Hindi dialogues for a Goan character without ridiculing the Goan or Hindi or both.

The setting plays a very important role in the story. First and foremost, these characters could not exist outside the realm of Goa – the perfect blend of eccentric, compassionate, loving, comical, simple-minded and otherwise content folk. Secondly, it sets up a great backdrop for a journey, especially those where you end up finding something completely different than what you set out to look for. To top it off, Anil Mehta’s camera has managed to capture some splendid landscapes of a vintage car easing through the twirls and swirls of exotic locations.

The ensemble cast further outline the caricatures of their characters. Naseeruddin Shah is underwhelming, albeit sweet, as Ferdinand. Pankaj Kapur as Dom Pedro is sincere and does no more than is asked. As for Dimple Kapadia, this is perhaps one of her career best performances and emphatically stands out among the group. Arjun Kapoor as a disgruntled lover is bearable but can do much better. And Deepika, whose character is a personification of The Beatles’ All You Need Is Love, is simply adorable.

You love the characters, care for them and you feel the same way about life as they do. And somewhere in the first half hour, the story doesn’t matter anymore. You simply take a seat in the car with and try to find Fanny. Aren’t all our lives simply a search for the proverbial Fanny? (Pun intended, totally. Just like in the title.) A gamble, a venture in the dark, a chance…all of it built on hope. And amidsty its three weddings and four funerals, if there is one thing Finding Fanny does, is tell you that you are not alone in your search, it is with you.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Good ol' storytelling

Film - Aurangzeb

Director - Atul Sabharwal

Double roles, mistaken identity, power struggles - all these premises have been done to death by the film industry, but every now and then, a film crops its head up with a cliched theme and delivers something fresh. Atul Sabharwal's Aurangzeb does the same.

First, the title itself is a refreshing change from the hoards of Khiladi 786s, Singhams, Ek Tha Tigers and the like. Aurangzeb, as a metaphor runs deep into the narrative and its meaning runs through and through, deeply embedded into the story. The philosophy of the notorious Mughal King, 'Kingship knows no kinship' is the basis of this unseemingly well-done thriller.

Secondly, we all know the story and are familiar with the plot where two identical people somehow find their stars lined up in such a way that one of them has to live the other's life. Be it Hum Dono, Don, Ram Aur Shaam, Seeta Aur Geeta - we know the plot too well. This is where the director's role to satisfy the audience comes into play and that is exactly what Atul Sabharwal does. He surprises you with a story you already knew.

The film opens in Gurgaon, where a certain businessman, Yashvardhan (Jackie Shroff) is running illegal businesses and the police can't take any action due to lack of evidence. However, the cops, Rishi Kapoor, Prithviraj and Sikander Kher, then find out that there is a loophole that they could cash on. Yashvardhan's son Ajay, has a doppelganger who could be planted in the system and could break it from inside. And then begins the saga of Kingship versus Kinship.

After a comparatively loose first half, the film picks up in the second where the drama and sudden twists reveal that nothing is black and white; and even within the grey, there are shades. What hooks you, then, is the unexpected skip rope that sees a lot of people change sides until finally letting you pick the side that you want to win. As scrappy as the idea of dopplegangers may be, playing two different characters in a film is quite a challenge and Arjun Kapoor proves yet again that he has the potential. A little inconsistent at the start, he makes you like him by the end of it. However, the distinction between Ajay and Vishal remains on paper and at times, the nuances of two different people are not seen. Rishi Kapoor puts up a great show with his role as the DCP, and Prithviraj does well to smother the criticism from his previous Hindi film, Aiyyaa.

All in all, if you go and watch Aurangzeb with the expectation bar set very low, you will comeback with a pleasant surprise. It is good old fashioned story telling with a decent element of drama and not too many songs to take you off course.

Rating - 3 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on May 18, 2013