As I entered the theater, I had at the back of my mind all the reviews that raved about Finding Fanny. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration if I were to say that my expectations from the film were high. After all, Finding Fanny boasted of a talented set of actors and was headed by an intelligent director in Homi Adajania. Add to that, some of my friends had recommended that I must watch it. So, here I was, all set to embark on a road trip with the characters of Finding Fanny.
Before getting any further, I must mention the characters involved; Savio da Gama (Arjun Kapoor), Angie (Deepika Padukone), Ferdie (Naseeruddin Shah), Don Pedro Cleto Colaco (Pankaj Kapur) and Rosie Eucharistica (Dimple Kapadia). All of these characters reside in a remote Goan village. Ferdie, who is part of the church choir, gets a letter one day that he had posted several decades ago to Fanny, a girl with who he was in love. Upon receiving the letter, Ferdie is clearly perturbed. Angie, who is a widow, is a close friend of Ferdie. She is eager to help Ferdie find Fanny and so Angie along with Ferdie, her mother-in-law, Rosie, Don Pedro, who is a painter, and Savio, who was in love with Angie, but never told her how much he loved her, set out to find Fanny in Don Pedro’s car.
The journey that starts out as a short trip to Fanny’s house turns out to be anything but that. Over the course of the next day and a half, these five characters get to know each other better. After all these years, would Fanny be still living in the same house and how would she react upon seeing Ferdie at her doorstep? Questions such as these popped up in my mind.
Finding Fanny starts in earnest with a quick introduction of all the characters. The rest of the film is devoted to the journey that these characters undertake in their quest to find Fanny. I found the interactions among these characters in parts dull and stupid. The dialogues that are intended to make the audience laugh don’t manage to do so (at least not consistently enough). I tried to make sense of the story, but alas failed to do so. I guess I was looking for something where nothing was there. The saving grace is Mathias Duplessy’s music that is pleasing to the ears. Also, as it is shot in Goa, the visuals are appealing. The acting is good, but you expect that from a cast that includes the likes of Naseeruddin Shah and Pankaj Kapur. In the end, however, even though the film is under two hours, it still didn’t manage to hold my interest, even for that short duration.
To all the fans of Homi Adajania and the cast, I have only so much to say; please keep your expectations low or else you might end up disappointed as you exit the theater.
PS. The above review is for the dubbed Hindi version of the film. I would now like to watch Finding Fanny in English.
Juzer
September 22, 2014Great review.