Finding Fanny #MovieReview

If I ever wanted to make sense of the movie, you are reading the wrong review. This is because I seldom make sense. Sense is a wonderful thing, to each his own. What makes sense to me need not make sense for others. This movie thankfully is one such example.

Firstly, this isn’t a movie. This is a story. This isn’t a comedy, satire, romance, category names which tend to demean this movie’s actual genre. This is probably a one of its kind bollywood-ish art film. Bollywood-ish because it has got three bollywood legends in roles you would want to believe are akin to their original personality traits. Naseeruddin, Dimple and Pankaj are the super(b)man, wonderwoman and bat(cool)man of our industry and they are exceptionally delightful in their characterization. Art film because it is one, full of beautiful shots of a scenic quiet village somewhere in Goa, containing characters full of reality, very unlike the Rajs’ and Simrans’, Malhotras’ and Singhanias’ we have been bombarded with on a weekly basis.

If beauty and acting were two ends of a space continuum, the alien ear-lobed lady Deepika, who holds the narrative leash, sashays between it throughout the film. She therefore is brilliant at certain points and absolutely beautiful at others. The movie put me in a ‘kind pat on puppy’s head’ mode which is why I’m being generous on her but I believe she will continue to improve if she does intelligent films like these. Acting alongside these legends will no doubt make you look average even on your best day which she will happily enjoy I hope as she certainly doesn’t care what I think. Bombshell thighs Arjun is absolutely marvellous as Savio. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and some of the movie’s best moments involve him. Naseeruddin fits in easily into his clumsy lover role and Pankaj is genius-ly mischievous. Off the top of my head, I cannot recall a single movie where Dimple Kapadia has made me chuckle. She is simple, funny and her booty shaking act adds dollops of intelligence and humour. Ranveer Singh has you chuckling in a 10 second cameo.

I saw the English version of the film and it took me a good 20 minutes to get comfortable with the language. There’s English and then there’s Goan English where village people tend to end sentences with “,no”, a certain disregard for prepositions, adjectives, verbs and pretty much all words. For example, “Don’t do this no”. This gets on my nerve, but hey, this is how they speak English, it is a reality, accept the fact and move on however annoying you might find it. It makes me wonder if the Hindi version would be better in terms of comic timing and I would happily like to know that. The songs have a subtle yet classy vibe and perfectly set the mood throughout the film. The “bootiya” song is for promotions only obviously, and is justly used for the credits.

The fact that we are an evolution of apes is evident in the way in which the audience claps and laughs for even the drabbest scenes which are actually meant for us to think and reflect over. The ‘we are watching a comedy film’ phase does not necessitate compulsive laughter. A simple smile it brings to our minds can be refreshing too. This is a must watch, as a similar story acted out by average people would have been horrendous. Kudos to #FindingFanny team.