Fitoor
Director: Abhishek Kapoor
Starring- Tabu, Katrina Kaif and Aditya Roy Kapoor
Rating- 2 stars
Director Abhishek Kapoor has finally succeeded at something that no filmmaker has managed so far; cast Aditya Roy Kapoor without alcohol. The only time when he drinks in the movie, he spews some delicious -delirious lines to a young Pakistani minister; “Doodh mangoge, kheer denge…Kashimr mangoge, cheer denge.” I understand it’s a famous slogan but this Mother Dairy of a line comes without any political context. The last we checked Desh Bhakti was err not even the last thing on his mind. A scene earlier he wanted to make sexy time with the Pakistani’s fiance and within minutes he was possessed by an invisible Bhagat Singh.
Shot beautifully, Fitoor does appeal to you. Anay Goswami’s lens captures Kashmir really beautifully. There are Shikaras, snow clad mountains, wooden houses and of course chinar leaves which have a special talent of turning everything mediocre into OhhhMyyyGoooodddThat’sSooooBeauuuutiifulll. Remember last time when chinar leaves fluttered around a sweater wearing violin playing SRK, even a bearded Bachchan looked beautiful and the debut of Uday Chopra’s nipples possible.
In fact anything with maples leaves and a fancy font can look poetic.
Fitoor is about Noor (Aditya-I-am-not-drinking-in-this-film-Roy-Kapoor), who loves a porcelain vase called Firdaus (Katrina-now-available-in-expensive-red-hair-Kaif). But matriarch of a mamma Begum Hazrat (Tabu) ain’t very happy with this relationship, after all shaadis should happen in the same class bhai. Mamma sends the vase of a daughter to London because hey that’s the only way to justify Katrina’s accent. But haye haye she comes back with an Amrican accent. Actually that makes sense too. After all she was dating a foreigner in England; a Pakistani.
Now this is your full on masala Bollywood plot that partly works, mostly not.
There is never a straight simple answer for any question. Since we have Kashmir in the background, there is a lot of daraktein, yaadein, jannat, qayamat for a simple ‘how are you?’ The impending hot scene between the lead couple has a tiresome foreplay about ‘mujhe kaid kar liya, riha toh sirf maut hi kar sakti hain ya phir ishq…‘and you are like, dude, cut the chase and just do it! They don’t. It’s edited out. Ouch!!
But don’t get me wrong. The dialogues are poetic, have a context, alas delivered so badly that it loses its impact.
Even the characterization is a bit confused and inconsistent. Noor who is happy with Begum Hazrat promoting him as a rising artist suddenly gets into a self-respect mode towards the climax of the film.
Fitoor means obsession. And the lead pair transforms that obsession so beautifully on the big screen; the obsession with well-toned bodies, colored hair, fancy clothes and shoes. I mean so what if we can’t feel their pain, their agony, longing, their joys, so what if it’s a pretentious love story, at least their abs are real!! That brings me to Aditya Roy Kapoor and the brief that he must have got- smile, take off your shirt, stare, look intense, smile abruptly, take off your shirt. The man does show some earnestness, some interest if not promise.
Katrina Kaif is cast in the movie to play the character of Estella who is curt, indifferent and a tease in Dickens’ Great Expectations, but she even fails to swing that curtness that comes naturally to her. The girl who plays little Firdaus has acted better. Or wait. Even her painting that Noor makes has better expressions.
Begum Hazrat is a badly written and (I am sorry I love you Tabu) equally badly enacted character. Tabu is almost drunk, fatigued and delirious in the first half. She is borderline nymphomaniac messing around with a young boy. I wonder if it has got something with her role in Haider. Arey there is Kashmir, there is Tabu, let’s have her romance the little boy. She is scared that the little poor boy might fall in love with her daughter. Then why the hell you gave him a job? She even jumps from her wheel chair onto a black magic carpet that moonlights as her evening gown with a cape to a fancy art event in London.
And how the hell everyone in the movie, no matter rich/poor, man/woman, goes to London so easily? It took me four hands, 6 pairs of eyes and a week and a half to fill up that novelette of a form that short of asking me the brand of my underwear asked me everything.
Tabu however has a couple of intense moments towards the end of the film and she despite all melodrama manages to express Begum’s insecurities and complexes.
The songs (both brilliant music <Amit Trivedi> and lyrics <Swanand Kirkire>) of the film and its cinematography elevate an otherwise dull Fitoor.
fByLokesh 