Fanaa

It tickled me no end to read some viewers comment that a Kashmiri Muslim girl fell in love and allowed a man to bed her in a span of 8 days romance. They thought it slightly implausible. This might have held true for some two decades back but not nowadays. We have to understand Zooni (Kajol) came from a fairly modern family (she was no village bumpkin) in the movie and the apple of her parents eye. More so because she was blind and her mother always encouraged her to look forward to her Prince Charming the day he arrived. She was this inexperienced girl full of ideas of romance and blind to boot and Aamirs winsome voice and poetry won her over and she just went into the relationship headstrong girl that she was knowing and accepting that there might never be anything permanent (she just wanted to live for those 8 days she was able to be romanced by the person she was besotted with) a very common occurrence actually in todays scenario.

The story of a man torn between love and duty might be hackneyed but I sure as hell didn't know how it was all going to end and was eager to sit through the whole film and watch it to the very end. I don't know how some people thought the first 90 minutes was horrible and the rest even more so! I found the first half extremely entertaining and the second half was a pleasure to watch just for the sheer pleasure of watching two very high class actors perform as they never have.

Kunal Kohli is an extremely sensitive director and while there may have been slip ups in pace here and there (it was an emotional rather than an action packed movie after all) on the whole the movie shows a director of competence and someone who has a very bright future.

The cinematography is breathtaking and the supporting cast of Rishi Kapoor and Tabu adds to the movies worth. Rishi especially is brilliant.

But the movies strongest point is the performance of the two lead actors especially Kajol who had the more author backed role. Kajol and Aamirs chemistry leave you wondering WHY they never acted together before. And they look so good its hard to imagine Kajols a mom and Aamir a divorced dad of two.