Quirky and whimsical, Finding Fanny is definitely not mainstream Bollywood. Homi Adjania might have a nod of approval from Wes Anderson, with the latter’s peculiar and distinctive style of humour and quirk quotient characterizing the film, but will certainly make a lot of people review their tastes in films. The film has a languorous tone, and is in no hurry to unravel its minimal plot, much like the lackadaisical mood of the place where it opens, or the laid-back life of its inhabitants. Naseeruddin Shah,Pankaj Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia have meaty roles and they make the most of it, with their individual eccentricities having seemingly invisible layers underneath them.
For instance, Dimple Kapadia’s voluptuous figure not only gives food to the artist’s imagination and paint to his canvas but also symbolises how she conceals her fragile ego and a bitter truth about her personal life with an officious air and confident exterior. The lovelorn postmaster, whose own personal letter never gets delivered, is a figure of irony, accentuated by the climax of the film, where a man clinging on to the memories of a long lost love, and painting fantasies of a happy reunion discovers how reality has something very different in store for him.
The film has its funny moments, two of them dealing with freak accidents resulting in death, which makes you question whether they were actually meant to be funny in the first place. It is moments such as these which touch upon another theme of the film, about life throwing surprises at you and foiling the best laid plans with its own unexpected whims and fancies. But ultimately, in spite of all the elements that work for the film, I walked out with a feeling of dissatisfaction.It not only ties all the loose ends together at the end, but ties them in such a way that it also strikes a discordant note with the director’s vision for the rest of the film. It does not work for me as a sum of its parts, for it does not come across to me as cohesive vehicle for all its scenes and moments that set it apart.
Quirky and whimsical, Finding Fanny is definitely not mainstream Bollywood. Homi Adjania might have a nod of approval from Wes Anderson, with the latter’s peculiar and distinctive style of humour and quirk quotient characterizing the film, but will certainly make a lot of people review their tastes in films. The film has a languorous tone, and is in no hurry to unravel its minimal plot, much like the lackadaisical mood of the place where it opens, or the laid-back life of its inhabitants. Naseeruddin Shah,Pankaj Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia have meaty roles and they make the most of it, with their individual eccentricities having seemingly invisible layers underneath them.
For instance, Dimple Kapadia’s voluptuous figure not only gives food to the artist’s imagination and paint to his canvas but also symbolises how she conceals her fragile ego and a bitter truth about her personal life with an officious air and confident exterior. The lovelorn postmaster, whose own personal letter never gets delivered, is a figure of irony, accentuated by the climax of the film, where a man clinging on to the memories of a long lost love, and painting fantasies of a happy reunion discovers how reality has something very different in store for him.
The film has its funny moments, two of them dealing with freak accidents resulting in death, which makes you question whether they were actually meant to be funny in the first place. It is moments such as these which touch upon another theme of the film, about life throwing surprises at you and foiling the best laid plans with its own unexpected whims and fancies. But ultimately, in spite of all the elements that work for the film, I walked out with a feeling of dissatisfaction.It not only ties all the loose ends together at the end, but ties them in such a way that it also strikes a discordant note with the director’s vision for the rest of the film. It does not work for me as a sum of its parts, for it does not come across to me as cohesive vehicle for all its scenes and moments that set it apart.
No comments:
Post a Comment