Since I can’t top Greatbong’s review of Fanaa, let me just offer three thoughts and a comic ghazal.
First, I missed Kajol, and I’m glad she’s back. She sure beats Preity Zinta.
After the exciting snowmobile chase through the mountains of Kashmir (filmed in Poland, of course), I thought Kajol was the best thing in Fanaa. She was certainly more interesting to watch than Aamir Khan, who was just phoning it in most of the time. (He also looked pallid in the close-ups. Everything all right, Aamir? Hope you’re staying off the white stuff; you don’t want to go out like Fardeen)
Second thought: Most big-ticket Hindi films use foreign locations as a visual gimmick. They give you landscapes and cityscapes that simply don’t exist in India, so you aren’t stuck looking at the same old smoggy skylines. (Some popular spots in recent films have been Thailand, Australia, and Mauritius.)
For its part, the special locale in Fanaa is… the city of Delhi! The first half of the movie is largely shot around the Red Fort, Jantar Mantar, Qutub Minar, Purana Qila, and Lodhi Gardens (and yes, I stole that list from Wikipedia). Delhi’s attractions actually looked pretty nice.
The domestic setting means there are no item numbers in Fanaa with scores of scantily clad white women gyrating on a beach. (I hope that means you’re more likely to go see the movie.)
Third thought: our tickets cost $10 each. I hope that goes some of the way to countering the ridiculous ban on the film in Gujurat. (Naachgaana reports that one theater in the state is now showing the film after the Supreme Court ruled the state must provide police protection to the theater.)
And finally, an English Ghazal:
How much poetry does a movie need from its leads?
(The classic Urdu form is the Ghazal, which reads:
A rhyme at the end of each couplet except the first,
Which has two rhymes at the front, like seeds.)
The Antakshri scene was short but sweet; the terrorist loves
the blind girl, so she sees again, and my heart (not really) bleeds.
With nuclear war, Kashmiri independence, snowboarding,
and hazaaron melodramas — for the film to end soon he pleads.
As the Popcorn in his heart is over-buttered,
Amardeep says, this film is rubbish, indeed.
(I keed.)
