Catering to the English speaking audience, it is a delight to watch Finding Fanny. Very few movies come close to letting you know that it is a slice out of lives that have come together, linking the past and future on the way. And narrating the story of a very important turn in those peoples life. Happily ever afters are for us to assume.
We have a young man, who has lied and has come back to his village after six long years. A young sharp woman looking for love and making it happen for herself, Ferdie and her mother in law. Don Pedro, an artist, with his vulgarity in his obsession and Ferdinand a post master whose simplicity brings light to you. What is missed in the acting is compensated by the director, script and the dialogue.
Don Pedro and Ferdie are the ones who let you know who they are. You hate Don Pedro when he finally gets out of Rosie what he wants. You believe in Ferdie, his love, his loss and his search. Rosie though slips into the superficial aspect of her character by being Bollywood's predictable loud mouthed middle aged woman, giving us a pleasure of depth only when she looks at Don Pedros portrayal of her.
Deepika is Deepika and not Angie, she is pleasant, she is not over the top and I am grateful to her for that. She is the link to all the lives, yet she underplays it. Arjun Kapoor sticks to the one line caricature of his character, not allowing us to see beyond what makes this young man who he is. But he does get away with mimicking Don Pedro very well.
All are common people in the movie, except the exceptional cat who does not land on its limbs and tends to drown itself in milk. It is a search for love and making it happen. It is humorous in ways that lives of people are.
What is most likable about the movie is that it does not oppress you with unapproachable people whose lives are so apart that cannot be imagined, or those who flaunt their higher intellects for the audience to submit to them. There are no pillars of aspirations that are set for happiness in terms of wealth or shaming the insensitivity by holding so called mirrors to the deluded masses. The movie is supposed to talk to the people as an equal, of a story different but just like theirs/ours, being successful sometimes and getting lost where the characters do not allow.
Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia (sometimes) play the characters that we have met or will recognize with. It is such a pleasure to see them perform their art never becoming bigger their characters. And I forgot the priest, Fanny/daughter and the eccentric Russian, they are good too.
It is not a movie that just the English speaking community can enjoy. You can watch this movie sitting wherever you are if also translated for you.
Likable and refreshing movie, could have been memorable with more deeply involved actors, hope we have more like these and even better.
