FITOOR - So an adaptation of Charles Dickens 's GREAT EXPECTATIONS. Charles Dickens is one of the most famous novelist of England. And Great Expectation is one of his most famous novel. It has been adapted numerous of times in British and American TV series and films out of which i have seen one British mini series released in 2011. So from now as i have not read the novel , whenever i say GREAT EXPECTATION in my review i will be referring to that British TV series and not the Novel. Great Expectation is a very hard story to adapt in Bollywood. It doesn't have much of a tragedy likes Shakespeare nor it has much twist in it. Also it doesn't have the youth factor in it like Chetan Bhagat as it is a timeless story. The plot seeks for involvement of the audience in the emotions of the characters . Its a story of a poor boy NOOR whose fortune changes after meeting BEGUM and her daughter FIRDAUS . The pace of the movie was intentionally slow still there are some parts which felt too much hurried. The adaptation which i have seen earlier(the TV series) was 3hr long , in comparison FITOOR was 50min shorter. The movie starts with NOOR and FIRDAUS meeting in childhood. A sense of likeness born between them . I don't know the names of both the actors playing the younger characters but they were really good. The boy gives perfect shocked look every time he saw beautiful FIRDAUS . In fact i would have liked it more if more times has been given to their younger versions. The character of BEGUM tries to generate love in the mind of NOOR for her daughter (why ? that would be shown at the end of the movie) , those conversations should have been much more so that the OBSESSION (in Hindi FITOOR) of NOOR for FIRDAUS could have been justified like it has been done in Great Expectation. But the childhood have been show in a hurried manner. Then for some reason FIRDAUS and NOOR got separated and met again when they were adults.
Among the older version Aditya Roy Kapoor has done a good job , but i think any actor with more talent like Ranveer Singh could have done much better then Aditya. When it comes to Katrina , she was the worst among all of them. She has been taken just for her looks and any actress with greater talent (anushka , deepika , priyanka and many more) would have made the movie better. Its like every story writer writes Katrina's character to be born , lived or studied in foreign so that her bad Hindi accent can be justified . Here also she has been shown as studied in London but guess what she talks in American accent , i guess director know that majority if Bollywood audience doesn't knows the difference between American and British accent. But as always its Tabu (perfectly cast although she takes the role after Rekha rejected it) who steels all the scene. Her character the Haunted BEGUM is the character who made Fitoor a good movie. She played both FIRDAUS and NOOR as she want it the whole movie. Her dark circles shows how much she was haunted from her past , how much pain she has suffered , how much those eyes have cried. Aditi Rao Haidri did the younger version of Begum with Tabu's voice over which felt too awkward. Why the director thought that audience will be so foolish that we cant understand that its a backstory and Aditi is playing the younger Begum. There is also a cameo of Ajay Devgan in two scenes , and i would say he was wasted. Yes his character was important but the way it was portrayed didn't required an actor like Ajay Devgan to do it. Although a well known face helped the character in a good way , i guess an actor with less caliber like Arjun Rampal could have done it. Abhishek Kapoor after Rock On and Kai Po Che directed it quite decently. Great Expectation was hard to adapt but i think he has done it in a good manner. Anay Goswami's cinematography is brilliant although still not great as HIGHWAY and HAIDAR. The music was good. Songs were used well with the flow. And every song is in background. Pashmina and the title track were great. Just if the movie would have been little long , characters have been developed little deeper , young age of FRIDAUS & NOOR has been shown more , movie have been little longer and in a detailed manner and those unwanted POLITICAL sub plots have been removed , FITOOR could have been a masterpiece. Still i am glad that Great Expectation has been adapted in Bollywood. As i was in my second viewing of the story after Great Expectation the TV series , it makes me understand more about what Charles Dickens thought were as compared to what i understood in the first watch. I don't know how people will react on this who don't know anything about the plot. The person with whom i was watching the movie has given it 7/10 . Me myself who had the whole plot in mind while watching it gives it 7.3/10. From here i don't find much of a difference. The other movie SANAM RE (directed by Divya the director of Yaariyan one of the worst movie i have ever seen) has by far got very bad reviews. So i would recommend to give Fitoor a try on this Valentine and see if it goes with the flow of your romantic mood. By ANuP APu KuMaR.
Among the older version Aditya Roy Kapoor has done a good job , but i think any actor with more talent like Ranveer Singh could have done much better then Aditya. When it comes to Katrina , she was the worst among all of them. She has been taken just for her looks and any actress with greater talent (anushka , deepika , priyanka and many more) would have made the movie better. Its like every story writer writes Katrina's character to be born , lived or studied in foreign so that her bad Hindi accent can be justified . Here also she has been shown as studied in London but guess what she talks in American accent , i guess director know that majority if Bollywood audience doesn't knows the difference between American and British accent. But as always its Tabu (perfectly cast although she takes the role after Rekha rejected it) who steels all the scene. Her character the Haunted BEGUM is the character who made Fitoor a good movie. She played both FIRDAUS and NOOR as she want it the whole movie. Her dark circles shows how much she was haunted from her past , how much pain she has suffered , how much those eyes have cried. Aditi Rao Haidri did the younger version of Begum with Tabu's voice over which felt too awkward. Why the director thought that audience will be so foolish that we cant understand that its a backstory and Aditi is playing the younger Begum. There is also a cameo of Ajay Devgan in two scenes , and i would say he was wasted. Yes his character was important but the way it was portrayed didn't required an actor like Ajay Devgan to do it. Although a well known face helped the character in a good way , i guess an actor with less caliber like Arjun Rampal could have done it. Abhishek Kapoor after Rock On and Kai Po Che directed it quite decently. Great Expectation was hard to adapt but i think he has done it in a good manner. Anay Goswami's cinematography is brilliant although still not great as HIGHWAY and HAIDAR. The music was good. Songs were used well with the flow. And every song is in background. Pashmina and the title track were great. Just if the movie would have been little long , characters have been developed little deeper , young age of FRIDAUS & NOOR has been shown more , movie have been little longer and in a detailed manner and those unwanted POLITICAL sub plots have been removed , FITOOR could have been a masterpiece. Still i am glad that Great Expectation has been adapted in Bollywood. As i was in my second viewing of the story after Great Expectation the TV series , it makes me understand more about what Charles Dickens thought were as compared to what i understood in the first watch. I don't know how people will react on this who don't know anything about the plot. The person with whom i was watching the movie has given it 7/10 . Me myself who had the whole plot in mind while watching it gives it 7.3/10. From here i don't find much of a difference. The other movie SANAM RE (directed by Divya the director of Yaariyan one of the worst movie i have ever seen) has by far got very bad reviews. So i would recommend to give Fitoor a try on this Valentine and see if it goes with the flow of your romantic mood. By ANuP APu KuMaR.