Fitoor

I have not read Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, so this review won’t have any comparisons and statements regarding the “justice” part of this adaptation titled Fitoor. The successful films of director Abhishek Kapoor (Rock On and Kai Po Che) had the beauty of a scene or situation having an interesting drama. With Fitoor, he tries to be a Sanjay Leela Bhansali trying to give lengthy sophisticated conversations. With the lead pair convincing the audience only in terms of looks, Fitoor looks visually ravishing but the content fails to entice the viewer.

The movie is basically about the relationship of Noor and Firdaus. These two living in Kashmir had a bonding in their childhood. Noor, who later became an artist, was passionately in love with Firdaus and that causes issues when he met Firdaus after nearly 15 years. The emotional conflicts and the role of Firdaus’ mother Begum Hazrat in it is what Fitoor discussing.

Visualizing the romantic side of the temperamental artistic people is indeed a tough task. Makers need to create a solid background for us to feel the same way Noor feels to create that atmosphere of pain. Rockstar was one movie which I felt succeeded in achieving that. Here you don’t get to see or feel the passionate love inside Noor’s mind. By the time the back and forth drama begins, we aren’t in the same zone the character is and thus the romance looks too shallow on screen.

Abhishek Kapoor has tried to do something different by placing the story in Kashmir, giving the characters all these makeup makeovers to symbolize the character intensity and all. But the writing part has got many flaws. The full on dramatic conversations wasn’t doing any good for the film. They should have created drama out of situations. Only Tabu manages to deliver a performance that could hide the flaws of the highly theatrical screenplay. Cinematography is wonderful and the music from Amit Trivedi is also fabulous.

Aditya Roy Kapoor and Katrina Kaif have got the looks to be perfect for these characters. But the charm you expect in the performance of these actors to be those intense lovers was missing. Tabu once again delivers a fine performance as the Miss Havisham of Fitoor. The shift from Aditi Rao Hydari to Tabu looked unconvincing. Rahul Bhat was impressive.

To sum it up, Fitoor looks superficial on screen. A less cheesy script and a better set of actors would have made the movie much more intense. Appreciating the fabulous visuals and music, I would call it an average love story.