Movie review: Finding Fanny is a delightful take on life and love

Finding Fanny

Director: Homi Adajania
Cast: Deepika Padukone, Arjun Kapoor, Pankaj Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia, Ranveer Singh
Rating: ***1/2

Homi Adajania’s Finding Fanny has survived all those censor controversies and is finally set to hit theatres on Friday. And if the film’s line-up is anything to go by — what with veteran actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia and Pankaj Kapoor sharing screen space with Deepika Padukone, Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, and all of them controlled by Being Cyrus director Homi Adajania — this is one film that has figured on the to-do list of many. But does Finding Fanny live up to the expectations the pre-release expectations had raised?

Based in a Goan village, Angie (Deepika) plays Garbo’s (Ranveer) widow, and lives with her mom-in-law Rosie Eucharistica (Dimple), another widow. Like any other small village, being closely knit here too means that everybody makes whatever is happening in other’s lives their own business.

Happy in her own space, Angie loves helping others and sets out on the task of getting Ferdi (Naseeruddin) the love of his life. Only, she is accompanied by everyone else — her mom-in-law, Savio (Arjun) and a painter Don Pedro Cleto Colaco (Pankaj) who has found his muse in Rosie on the fun-trip that the movie traces.

An interesting thing about Finding Fanny is that contrary to what you think it is, the film is not a comedy: it has its light moments, with enough scenes where you cannot stop but laugh with the characters. More than anything else, this film has managed to package human emotions and philosophies in way seldom seen happening in Bollywood.

The concept of love and care that exist in the real (and not the silver screen world) are well-showcased in Finding Fanny.

Be it Deepika’s and Arjun’s young characters or Dimple’s, Pankaj’s and Naseeruddin’s elderly characters, all of them seek some direction in their philosophies and reach a new destination as individuals by the time their road trip comes to an end.

The screenplay is enjoyable and adds the spark to the film. Sample a few dialogues:

When Rosie suspects that a robber is about to enter the house and Angie shouts asking who is around, the old woman says, “Don’t make noise, you might scare the robber away!”

Stuck mid-way on their trip because they’ve run out of petrol, Freddie says that he would go fetching fuel the next day as he is afraid of dark. Don Pedro responds, “It is very difficult to overcome the fear of dark, especially in the day. Too much light my dear.”

All the actors have done a brilliant job, fitting perfectly in their characters — Dimple as the widow, and Naseeruddin as the romeo — kind of lover. Deepika and Arjun, too, perfectly fit into the shoes of their characters. Pankaj, however, takes the cake as the artist who only cares about his art and muses, with a touch of lust, of course.