Fanaa Review

See, it’s like this. You have to think before writing a movie script.

Fanaa makes 2 strategic errors. First, its “hero” is a man who is trying to liberate Kashmir, and has no hesitation about killing hundreds, lakhs if necessary, of innocent Indians in the process. It’s not that he is a misguided man who eventually realizes the folly of his ways – he completely believes in his mission and is completely anti-India, till the very end. This is the man Fanaa tries to draw your sympathies toward.

Secondly, this “hero” is played by Aamir Khan. Someone who inspires most of India. Aamir Khan today legitimizes what he does. If he plays a Kashmir terrorist – again, not as a misguided, brainwashed person, but as a man who is completely dedicated to his mission, right till his death in the end – then he frames Kashmiri terrorists, who are waging war against India for Indian land and are killing helpless innocent Indians, in a halo.

We do not care if Kashmiri terrorists who kill innocent people have emotions. We do not care if they make sacrifices. We do not care if they have a justification for what they do. We do not care if they breathe or not. We do not care if they can provide for an interesting movie script.

Oh yes, we do care for the last. If someone makes a movie causing impressionable or uninformed minds in the audiences to feel sympathetic towards them to any degree, we’re going to scream anti-national. 1 / 5 is the lowest it gets on fullhyd.com.

If movie-making is about freedom of expression, then we can invite the ISI to make movies and release them here next.

Hopefully, this was all a plain thoughtless mistake. We do not even want to think otherwise.

Its blunderous script is not the only ill plaguing Fanaa anyway. But first, here is the tale. Rehan Qadri (Aamir Khan) is a Kashmiri terrorist who has masterminded the growth of the IKF (Independent Kashmir Front) from a boutique barbarians’ hut to a systems-driven global operation that is planning to kill everyone in the world to “liberate” Kashmir.

In one of his avatars, he is a guide in Delhi who has to escort the blind Kashmiri girl Zooni Ali Baig (Kajol), who’s come with her friends from Kashmir to perform for the Republic Day in Delhi.

He immediately charms Zooni with his wit and wordplay, and the first half has the courtship waltzing its way through a series of soulful Urdu shers rendered through brilliant performances by two of Bollywood’s best.

Zooni is completely in love, but when she declares it, Rehan tells her that women for him are like cities – he savors his stay in each, then moves on. Zooni is heart-broken, but asks him to spend a last 12 hours with her before she leaves for home.

After initial reluctance, Rehan promises to make these the best 12 hours of her life. This is when the film’s creativity runs dry. You’re wondering how a man can deliver on a promise to give a woman “the best 12 hours of her life”, but Rehan just sleeps with her and then goes to sleep.

His emotions take over Rehan the next morning, and he decides to give in to her. Zooni’s thrilled, and he even gets her eyes operated upon which restores her vision. But when she opens her eyes, she is told that he’s been killed in a terrorist strike, something Rehan plans to get her to get over him.

The movie moves to 7 years later in one unconvincing frame, when Rehan is being hunted down in Kashmir by India’s Anti-Terrorist Squad for stealing a trigger for a nuclear bomb. Severely injured, he coincidentally lands at the door of Zooni’s house, where she’s living with her father (Rishi Kapoor) and kid from Rehan, also named Rehan. She, of course, cannot recognize him.

Hereon, the film is the staple Yashraj diet of mushy clichés, some of which want to make you quickly throw up and come back – like when Zooni puts her hand on the unconscious Rehan’s chest and feels something connecting her with his heart. Or when the kid says, “Can I call him father?”

The second half has zero soul, and zero chemistry between Aamir and Kajol. It was a treat when Shah Rukh got back with Kajol in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. This one totally lacks the situations, the expressions, the energy or the humor.

Besides, it doesn’t help that you want Aamir Khan to die from when you see him ruthlessly butchering the Indian Army’s commados.

Yes, the big problem with Fanaa is that it doesn’t have a hero – it only has a villain, who the makers are trying to pass off as hero. You’re confused about what you should do for most of the second half, then you are relieved when the inevitable happens – i. e. the films ends.

A way to salvage Fanaa would have been Aamir turning against his own tribe and anihilating them in the end. Alas, he just dies a diehard jihadi.

Aside of its existential drawback, Fanaa suffers from poor characterization of Aamir’s role, limited humor, a plot that reeks of tragedy from fairly early on, some cloying senti in the 2nd half, and bad chemistry between the lead pair, even if they are individually brilliant actors. Some dialogues are good, but they can only manage to put the film on life support. There are some magnificent visuals of Poland and even Delhi, and the music by Jatin-Lalit is decent.

This one will only live as long as its star power is still ahead of its reputation.