Fanaa

AV – *1/2

EV – ** 

Zooni starts walking towards the road, Rehan grabs her by hand and pulls her out of the way of a speeding car. She confesses that she likes him and thinks this is might be the way to impress a him, the way girls in their teens do for their guys. Rehan is speechless…………..

In the rickshaw, she places her hand on his chest and says "Now you are scared". He struggles for speech.

She says goodbye and starts walking, then stops and turns back. He is still standing there, with a lump in his throat. The timeless classic by Lata Mangeshkar "Lag jaa gale, ke phir yeh haseen raat ho na ho….." plays on.

Arguably these couple of scenes take Fanaa to an altogether different league, reminiscent of some of the classic romantic moments of Indian cinema. These scenes also empower the character of Zooni to such an extent that Rehan's charater is overshadowed (which gave the impression that Kajol overshadowed Aamir; I beg to differ) and also reminds us how great a performer Kajol is and how badly cinema has missed her.Well, thats the browny point Fanaa earned, only to go ahead and make a royal mess of all that superb build-up post interval.

Everyone knows the story by now, lets get into the nitty-gritties.
The ups:
Aamir – Nobody loses his/her heart to the Rehan's character, not just because it has grey shades, but the very fact that its a poorly etched character. I still feel that only Aamir could have pulled off this difficult act as getting into the character that had so much volatility like the Sensex was a tough job. And still showcasing his usual best, knowing the fact that at the end of the day Kajol would be on the drivers seat and walk away with much of the accolades, requires a special mention.

Kajol – A tailor made role, the perfect comeback vehicle? Well,  she rocks as Zooni. A character whom the audience will relate to and equally love and she couldnt have asked for more. She looks beautiful and acts with style. All said and done, its not fair to compare Aamir and Kajol's performance, both are powerhouses of talent and winners in their own right. This time she gets a better role, that's it.

The onscreen chemistry – It was amazing, a real treat to watch. Take both of them away and Fanaa sinks deep. Shahrukh, watch out!!!:-D

Rishi Kapoor and Kirron Kher were too good and so was Sharad Saxena.

Music – Its sad to know that this was Jatin-Lalit's last movie as a music director duo. The guys who gave us some timeless hits (who can forget "pehla nasha") has called it splits. Their swan song is nevertheless rich in content. "Chand Sifarish" is one of the best songs of the year (reminded me of "kehna hi kya' from Bombay), absolutely rocking. The title track is another winner. Prasoon Joshi has penned some great lyrics (thank god, he didnt make a mess out of good songs like the way he did for "paathshaala")

Background score – haunting and adds a lot of punch to the scenes. Dialogues and shayaris, are good, though at times "filmy".

Cinematography and visuals are a treat to watch, the detailing was good (Aamir's wounds were visible till the end) but passing off Poland as Kashmir was, well………….

The downs:
Kunal Kohli – He must be feeling at home after returning back to his "Mujhse Dosti Karoge" roots! All the textbooks on direction were flung out of the window after intermission. What was the reason to stretch the movie beyond the comfort levels and worse, adding songs at the wrong places and time to kill the remaining patience? I wont say that the first half was great (barring a few scenes) with a very "filmy" touch given to the proceedings, nevertheless enjoyable.

The transition from a fun movie to a serious one was done in a very sketchy way, with Aamir Khan asked to do everything from a
1.flirty shayar
2.confused guy stuck between love and duty
3.Ethan Hunt (a la MI:2)
4.Soldier/ villain
5.unemotional father
6.and finally, point no: 2 revisited

Talented actors like Satish Shah, Shiney Ahuja and Tabu are totally wasted.

To wrap it up:
Fanaa could have been a "watchable" film with some crisp editing and a smoother flow. It banks heavily on the performances of the lead pair thus exposing its weakness with content, script and direction. Take the stars, the glitter and the hype out and  this is "fun-naa".

-Arun