Being Cyrus
and
Cocktail
director Homi Adjania has proved that he is a versatile director with his latest,
Finding Fanny
. At one hour and 40 minutes, this is one of the shortest Bollywood movies I've seen, and while the plot isn't the strongest, it still manages to impress with fantastic performances, and is perfectly cast.
Starring Deepika Padukone as Angie, Dimple Kapadia as her mother-in-law Rosie Eucharista, Naseeruddin Shah as Freddie, the local post master, Pankaj Kapur as the painter Don Pedro, Arjun Kapoor as Savio and Ranveer Singh as Gabo (in a special appearance), the film is set in a fictional village in Goa. The film follows the motley crew as they set out to find Fanny, Shah's old love, whose love letter to his beloved is returned unopened after 46 years.
It is the three veterans that make the film worth a watch. Kapadia, as the egoistic, loud, fiesty, sexual and protective mother-in-law, Kapur as the perverted painter obsessed with painting plus-sized women, and Shah as the sincere, naive and lovelorn postmaster, have all starred together in a film together for the first time, and are absolutely fantastic.
Padukone plays a young widow who loses her husband on the day of her wedding. She also doubles as the narrator of the film and surprises with her subdued performance. Kapoor, though, seems to be stuck in a rut and plays a lovelorn, angry young man once again.
The film, with its genuinely funny moments, keeps it real except, for the unnecessary inclusion of a stereotypical Goan hippie. Minus that blip, Finding Fanny is fun to watch and a refreshing change from the mindless commercial films that seem to be assaulting the audience's senses lately.
.
Finding Fanny
(Hindi) is out in the UAE now
ajhurani@thenational.ae
