House of Pomegranates - Fanaa: terrorism as romantic melodrama

Tags:	reviews, tv/movie ramblings
Current Music:	"Dragostea din tei"--Ozone
Subject:	Fanaa: terrorism as romantic melodrama
Time:	03:22 am

A few days ago, I went to see the Bollywood film "Fanaa" with

dangermousie. This makes the second Bollyflick on Kashmir-region terrorism that I've seen with her, the first being "Dil Se." I wish I could find what I wrote on "Dil Se" for reference, but this is where my laxity in tagging catches up with me. I have to say that while "Fanaa" was enjoyable, "Dil Se" was far the better movie. I was especially impressed with something that Dangermousie had to point out to me after the fact--that the main romantic relationship between the man (an Indian reporter) and the woman (a Kashmiri terrorist) actually paralleled the relations between India and Kashmir.

The reason I was so impressed with that is that it was so well-nuanced that even without picking up on it, my reaction to it was quite in tune with my politics. That is, I thought the man was an awful, controlling and domineering stalker who should've realized the woman didn't want to get involved (no matter how much he felt "they were meant to be") and should let her go. I did think it was too bad how he got hurt by virtue of pursuing the woman, but he should've really respected her wish for independence and brought it on himself. See if you can guess where my politics lie. ;-)

Dangermousie, who never sides with terrorists, felt that even though the man was admittedly controlling, his pleas were sympathetic and the woman abused him in such a way as to make his sadism towards her understandable. Also, she felt that the woman should've been more sensitive to how much the man wanted her. (If I'm getting this wrong, which I might be, please do correct me--I have a hard time explaining this point of view, since it's so antithetic to me.)

Anyway, it was a really good film, with an ending that--while melodramatic--was nevertheless a fairly good projection of what happens when one entity refuses to grant another entity their independence, and the other entity refuses to submit and enter into safe domestic bliss.

"Fanaa" was not quite on that level, though it still got points for refusing to pigeon-hole the terrorist character into any specific characterization. However, it was really less political and more of a love story. Romantic hero, Osama-style terrorist organization leader--the two would not be combined in a Hollywood movie, but this is not a challenge for Bollywood!

Of course, they don't have a happy ending, as one could gather from the film title ("Fanaa" means "destroyed"). That'll be the limit of the spoilers I'll give over the cut, though, since I though there are some people on my flist who do watch Bolly movies.

Before I go into the aforementioned cut, I just wanted to say that I was happy to see Kajol in the film. I don't watch much Bolly cinema, but she is probably my favorite Indian actress. The male lead was played by Aamir Khan from "Lagaan," sporting unfortunate extra poundage and a horrible haircut through the first half of the movie. (The good thing is it's gone in the second half.)

The movie is basically about a blind girl (Zooni) who falls in love with a man (Rehaan) who's secretly a leading figure in a terrorist organization--a man who, according to the Indian government authorities, has "taken a small terrorist faction to the level of top intelligence operations" and is (this is from a review) "slick, international terrorist who's a one-man-army and the mastermind behind major attacks."

He gets her eye surgery and then fakes his death and disappears, seven years pass, and eventually they're accidentally reunited when he seeks refuge in her home at Kashmir while trying to pull off the biggest attack their faction's yet attempted.

The plot, as the review I linked to says, is sadly full of holes and often quite ridiculous. At one point, terrified and locked up in her uncle's house with her child, Zooni calls the Indian CIA to tell them that she knows where the terrorist is, and that he's killed her father and her uncle. The intelligence unit tells her that he's the most dangerous terrorist they've faced to date, who'll kill millions of people if he succeeds in his latest plot--and then says they'll be there "tomorrow morning." This despite being in the area, and desperately searching for this terrorist for the last week. Half the theatre laughed at that point.

Anyway, that aside, the film had some quite interesting points. The first, at the start of the film, is part of a trend that seems to be sweeping Bollywood lately--the relaxing of its strict sexual mores. Rehaan tells Zooni that he doesn't believe in love or feelings, and that he will never be able to stay with her long-term, and Zooni chooses to have a one-night stand with him, with the understanding that she'll leave the next morning and never see him again. This might not seem big in Western terms, but in Bollywood terms--a one-night stand, initiated by the woman, with no expectations of marriage and not even a declaration of love? It was pretty shocking.

Dangermousie pointed out that as a blind girl, she had no expectations of marriage anyway, and thus no chances to ruin, but still. Of course, the film still highlighted faithfulness as the ultimate virtue--despite not expecting anything more, Zooni never entered another relationship, even after regaining her sight. And Zooni's father was shown as disintegrating into an alcoholic mess after his wife died (this was really touching, actually). Even Rehaan, the terrorist, was mainly made sympathetic to the audience through his eventual devotion and faithfulness to Zooni. The final irony in the film was that the man who swore he acted on needs and not feelings ended up completely giving himself up to love, and the woman who swore she believed in nothing but love ended up acting out of necessity.

It was also interesting that the main intelligence psychologist who solved all the questions concerning the terrorist was a young mother. Her dialogue with the intelligence chief was interspersed with calling home about pudding and her son. It was really cute, and also quite impressive, since she really was the key player. Basically, in the end, the two women ended up being the only players in the film with any real agency.

The other stuff I liked was the symbolism of Zooni's blindness. It was partly a plot device to have her not recognize Rehaan when she met him again, but it was also used to illustrate the blindness of ignoring the conflict in Kashmir. In the first half of the movie, Zooni is excessively patriotic, and gives a speech about how though she may be blind, she can still see the beauty of India, and that this beauty overshadows its problems for her. (At this point, Dangermousie whispered to me, "that's because she can't see all the beggars and the poverty," and the cool thing is, the film acknowledged that.) When Rehaan meets her 7 years later, after she's regained her sight, and asks why she doesn't tell stories anymore, she bitterly tells him that she's seen too much since then to believe in stories.

I also liked Rehaan's moral un-ambiguity. That is, he was shown as sympathetic because of his intense love for Zooni and his willingness to give up everything for her and their son. However, he was also shown quite calmly killing dozens of people, including those he'd been friends with and who had considered themselves his compatriots. The first person he was shown killing had been a major sympathetic character in the first part of the film, and someone who had helped bring him and Zooni together. There was no attempt to show how he didn't "really" kill, or only killed in self-defense or out of necessity.

As Dangermousie also noted in her review, there was a really effective scene where Zooni first confronts Rehaan after finding out the truth about him, and demands to know what happened to her father. Rehaan, exhausted and emotionally drained, tells her woodenly, "it was an accident." She persists, "and my uncle?" and he keeps silent and turns away.

The stuff I didn't like were the plot holes, the somewhat shallow melodrama, and the damn annoying rhymes and puns in the first half of the movie. Once I realized that Zooni and Rehaan would keep quoting stupid poetry at each other for the entirety of their courtship, I wanted to run. And when a character named "Jolly Good" was introduced, and each of his appearances was followed to numerous riffs on his name, I was... well... let's just say I wasn't as sad when he died as I could've been.

I guess that's pretty much wraps it up.

Oh, I wanted to say that Aamir Khan is cool for doing this. Yay for actors willing to stand their ground.

Spill your mind: Pour me a double

Advertisement

May 29th, 2006

Comments:

Advertisement