FITOOR -- Movie Review

To be honest, the cinematographer does his job remarkably well. The dreaminess that ran through Great Expectations has been captured as is on the camera, almost fairy-tale like but alas it happens to be the only thing that has been kept consistent in lines with Dickens’s work.

Given the fact that Great expectations in itself was melodramatic enough (has been an unnamed source, for its theme, for umpteen number of Bollywood films), the film sulks considerably at creating that mood.

There has been an evident try to make the subject hold to its pretext of being melodramatic and almost theatrical by trying to infuse Urdu in dialogues which come at various impact places in the film, entirely forgetting the fact that Urdu is best enjoyed blended and not as a garnish.

The characters age rather obscurely in the drama that unfolds in a manner that leaves little scope for any layers to develop. There was a clear requirement to tell out the age of the characters for the dialogues they mouthed and the manner of their reactions surely contradicted their apparent age as portrayed on screen

The fluency of Firdaus’s accent goes haywire as with age “Noor” becomes “Knorr” for her (Oh Katrina). Noor grows up to be a chiselled piece of art himself; probably doing lifts with the heavy paint brushes! Dimensions of characters are as loosely defined as Ajay Devgn’s special appearance. Tabu’s intent is unclear since inception and with the progress of story it converts into a rather constipated mix of sub-plots converging entirely at her behest and asking out for the reasons for their very existence in the main plot.

Dickens’s simplistic idea of the societal barriers and falsely lived childhoods has been overcooked here to an extent that makes it unbearable. Fitoor tries to be a clever take on Kashmir’s polity by masking Haider on its head and bask in the glory of soulful slowly brimming romance by trying to ape Lootera and it fails miserably at both of them.

For Haider and Lootera, despite based on watertight narratives and excellent screenplays separated themselves from the rest on the basis of performances alone. Lootera for a matter of fact showcased more “fitoor” in its portrayal of romance than Fitoor itself.

What somehow manages to keep the attention intact is Amit Trivedi’s music. Again it is not something out of the box from Trivedi and quite a predictable soundtrack for someone who’d have followed Trivedi’s discography. Though the lyrics by Swanand Kirkire are thoughtful, the tracks somehow do not add the desired depth to the narrative.

Katrina Kaif, well, tanks enormously in her portrayal of Firdaus. The accent is haywire, the body language and voice tone suggest two different intentions and the emotions, well, are absent.

Aditya Roy Kapoor tries hard to match Katrina as he portrays a rather dimwit Noor Nizami, a natural talent leading a life based on lies. For a character that had so much to offer, the performance largely remains unilateral.

And how often would you see Tabu deliver an inconsistent performance? And the inconsistency graph here ranges from the axis of rubbish to the axis of salute! While she mouths laughable dialogues in front of the still young Noor and Firdaus, to the masterful act in the pre climax scene, Tabu disappoints.

The narrative by Abhishek Kapoor moves along languidly and that isn’t a problem till the time the screenplay has moments to offer or the story has substance to hold on to. Sadly the director lacks the presence of both those elements and it almost seems like an eternity before intermission strikes. Also, digging deeper into the plot itself, there seems to be no justifications for any of the character to behave in the portrayed manner.

In one of the most laughable scenes of the film, our artist hops on to ride with a complete stranger on the promise on being fed on the tastiest Kahwa in the city! Who is who and why is hardly given importance to! There is an apparent lack of flow in the narrative and is barred at places with unnecessary plot convolutions and excessive characters.

Abhishek Kapoor tries to hard to make Fitoor look like one of the classiest films ever made, with abundant randomness scattered throughout in the name of art and logics bypassed in the name of romance. What the director forgot that Haider and Lootera, both being adaptations, tried hard to tell the story rather than sell out as a classic. This is where Fitoor falls, and falls flat.

Fitoor is what happens when grandeur lacks artistry, story lacks substance and romance lacks soul.

**1.5 STARS**