Beginning with a harsh truth, FINDING FANNY is one of those rare, enjoyable comic gems which is not going to find an unanimous applause from all as it seems. Many are going to love it and a few not, mainly due to its distinctive city feel and urban humour served through all wacky Goan characters living life according to their own preset notions. Particularly the film is not going to satisfy the ones expecting it to be another slapstick comedy keeping in mind its intentionally made comical promos. Plus many might find it a bit vulgar too in its verbal confessions and eccentric charactersiations, judged through a conventional mindset unable to accept their frank expressions. Further admitting the fact, its not that FINDING FANNY is a perfect masterpiece scoring much closer to the maximum as it might sound. The film has its own set of flaws like a slower start, a lazy pace and a stumbled end which leaves many expectations raised as unfulfilled. Yet I would like to recommend FINDING FANNY for its pleasant freshness, authentic feel and many charming performances which slowly make their way into your hearts as the film ends at a less than 95 minutes of duration with a worth watching song video shown with the end titles.
Also it has one particular extraordinary sequence, which I would like to rate as one of best cinematic expressions made in Hindi cinema till date dealing with an artist (painter), his art and his personal depiction of a subject placed in front of him. But keeping this important eye-opener to be discussed in details in an exclusive article later, let us talk about the film in totality and its key features as mentioned below.
Beginning on a slower note, Homi Adajania, the director introduces all its main characters in the first 15 minutes of the film with some interesting scenes. And the moment you have the one and only Pankaj Kapoor on the screen playing the master painter, Don Pedro, obsessed with women and their body curves as his sole subject of art, the narration gets the much required lift and the mood is built for a much wackier film ahead than expected.
Based on a very thin plot of finding the lost/forgotten love of an elderly person (Naseeruddin Shah), FINDING FANNY is actually about five people from Goa (Deepika, Dimple, Arjun, Naseer and Pankaj Kapoor), who decide to search for Naseer’s lady love in an vintage imported car and their experiences on the road leading to some unexpected, enjoyable outcomes. The wonderfully written characters and the unpredictability factor remain its two strong merits throughout and the film successfully makes an impact as it ends with a small pinch of realistic sadness in its final scenes.
Having said that at few places it does tend to be a bit over the top or weird too, like the way the poor cat gets treated in the car, the manner in which the actual truths get revealed by the lady’s daughter herself or the mess in which an unintentional gun-shot hits the wrong destination raising many further questions in the climax. Still the film never goes off the path completely and keeps you engaged most of the times with its worth watching performances, entertaining dialogues, catchy music, excellent cinematography and the unusual story progression with many sudden twists in the second half. Musically, I really loved the title song having an instantly likable Goan composition and Punjabi lyrics amalgamated beautifully along with a pleasing camerawork capturing the landscapes well.
Among the admirable performances, we have the outspoken, lonely and a little hammy Dimple Kapadia winning your heart after the unexpected humiliation coming from the funny painter, Naseeruddin Shah elegantly playing the puzzled old man after receiving a forgotten letter and Arjun Kapoor coming up with a surprisingly bright act clearly showing the signs of growth learning from all the veterans around (in the film) quite intelligently.
But above all there is the lovely, charming lady Deepika Padukone with a sparklingly natural performance looking simply great in every single frame and Pankaj Kapoor who once again proves that even if you give him only 20 minutes in the script, he is capable to deliver the finest act of the film with an amazing, outstanding ease as always.
In all, FINDING FANNY is bold, dark, sad as well as light, funny and enjoyable, bringing in the much desired freshness in our Hindi films. So do give it a try especially for Don Pedro (Pankaj Kapoor) who is sure going to give you a good time in the theater, in this deliciously smart film revolving around five lively characters from the city of Fenny. And just don’t hesitate watching it in Hindi since that’s the version I saw and I never found it awkward or anywhere compromising in the dialogues and their real meanings.
Rating : 3.5 + 1 / 5
(with the additional 1 just for that rare artistic sequence to be discussed in details in an exclusive article coming next at BTC soon.)
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