Spoilers ahead…
I am relieved to report that Finding Fanny isn’t about the search for a pair of buttocks – not that much searching is needed in the case of Rosie (Dimple Kapadia), whose well-upholstered posterior would raise Rubens from the grave. Rosie is the local busybody in the Goan village of Pocolim, and she lives with Angie (Deepika Padukone), the widow of her son Gabo. Note that name. Márquez is certainly one of director Homi Adajania’s guiding spirits. Time stands still in Pocolim and a character lights a candle for every part of the body that aches. But it is the soul of Wes Anderson that hovers over the film – not so much in the visual design but in the tweeness of the characters and the off-the-charts “eccentricity” factor in the situations they are put through. In a coincidence that’s uncanny (and which wouldn’t be out of place in an Anderson movie), Adajania’s film shares with The Grand Budapest Hotel a scene where a cat meets its end when tossed out of a window. Even the felines in these films are eccentric: they have but one life.
Finding Fanny shares similarities with Adajania’s first film Being Cyrus. Both are about small, colourful communities (Parsis, Goans), who speak English with a smattering of a local tongue (Gujarati, Konkani). Both feature artists (a sculptor there, a painter here) and dream sequences, and both films gaze on Dimple Kapadia as a fleshy object of lust. (The protagonist of Cyrus noted her “swish of hips and bounce of breast.”) And both films are determined to prove how quirky they can be. From the first frame – indeed, from the disclaimer at the beginning – Finding Fanny labours to be different. Soon, we hear a man singing tunelessly, accompanied by yowling dogs – and the story gets going when this man, Ferdie (Naseeruddin Shah), receives a letter he wrote to a lover, Fanny, many decades ago. Clearly, she never got it. Angie convinces him that he should go in search of this woman: Fanny must be found. And so, a motley crew – Ferdie, Angie and Rosie, along with Don Pedro (Pankaj Kapur) and Savio (Arjun Kapoor) – set out on this quest, in a car. No, wait. They set out in a vintage car. No, wait. They set out in a vintage car that’s foreign-made. No, wait. They set out in a vintage car that’s foreign-made and coated with rust.
This accrual of off-kilter detail, Adajania hopes, will distract us from the paper-thin characters and the dullish, predictable situations they find themselves in. But films need more than painstakingly sourced props. For a while, Angie does sound interesting. She makes a wish every day. She’s manipulative. She’s also very emotional – her eyes fill with tears while reading Ferdie’s letter, and later, in the car, she gets weepy just staring at the scenery flashing by. Or take Savio. He scoffs at Rosie when he learns that she lied in order to keep up appearances – but he’s ended up doing the same thing. His pride did not allow him to tell people the truth about his life outside Pocolim. And like Ferdie, he too let a loved one slip away when he couldn’t bring himself to talk to her about his feelings. But these shades never add up to a bigger picture. They’re just detail, like the rust on that car.
And the humour, mostly, falls flat. (The film I saw could be called Finding Funny.) There’s a scene in which the five find-outers stare at a house which may hold a clue to Fanny’s whereabouts. The camera is positioned behind them, so it can catch Savio scratching his… fanny. It’s all very droll in conception, but Adajania doesn’t yet have Anderson’s directorial control – these gags need to be filmed with precision, otherwise the bits come off looking stilted. And lazy. One joke depends on Savio conveniently carrying a strip of sleeping tablets. Another focuses on Don Pedro’s face as a biscuit he’s dipping into tea splits in half and melts away – his uncomprehending expression suggests that he’s never ever encountered a soggy biscuit during teatime. Don Pedro’s character, in fact, is the weakest. He supplies the car, but that’s about it. You could take him out of the film and no one would miss a thing. No, wait. He is taken out of the film and no one misses a thing.
Slowly, we realize that Fanny is less a character than a metaphor, and that the trip is really an excuse to shake these people out of the inertia they’ve settled into. Maybe I should have taken the trip, given the inertia that settled over me after a while. None of the actors really convinced me that this was a journey worth taking. The senior performers are fine, if a tad too pleased with their craft, but younger actors like Arjun Kapoor and Anand Tiwari are underwhelming – there’s not a note of newness in anything they do. As for Deepika Padukone, she’s become a relaxed presence on screen – but she’s also become so luminous that she blots out everything around her. She may have gotten to the point, like Elizabeth Taylor in the 1960s, where she cannot play ordinary people anymore. The fact that we’re supposed to accept her as a lonely, sexless widow may be the film’s best joke.
KEY:
* buttocks = see here
* Rubens = see here
* Being Cyrus = see here
* sleeping tablets = see here
* soggy biscuit during teatime = see here
* Elizabeth Taylor in the 1960s = see here
Copyright ©2014 Baradwaj Rangan. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
ramitbajaj01
September 14, 2014
I thought Angie wept for the cat in the car.
Don Pedro embarrased Rosie, shook her out of her brittle cage, and she, now naked, no longer worried of protecting pride decided to get married. I felt. Earlier she wanted to continue with the lie that the past wasn’t really embarrasing. Now, she couldn’t care less and wanted to make the most of the rump life.
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ramitbajaj01
September 14, 2014
Ferdie too was living in denial. He needed this trip to see the facets of life, however delayed.
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Utkal
September 14, 2014
“O o haaye re meri faniya
Badi funky funky hai
O o haaye re meri faniya
Total nautanki hai”
How I wish they could somehow find this rambunctious dance number showing all the lead characters with caricatured bodies twisting and twirling like dervishes on steroid into the main narrative of ‘Finding Fanny’!
But never mind, the film is quirky and funny as it is, a sweet and sour tale, rather than bitter-sweet, set in a little-town-lost called Pocolim in Goa, peopled by five wonderful characters; Don Pedro ( Pankaj Kapoor), Ferdinad / Ferdy / Fernando ( Naseeruddin Sha), Rosalyn ( Dimple Kapadia), Angie ( Deepika Padukone) and Savio ( Arjun KJapor).
I like films that pay attention to spoken words.
And this one starts with a lovely voice over in Indian English by Deepika Padukone – with lines like ‘ Wishes are bad habits. Like picking your nose and flicking the snoot under the table. Or having too much sarpotel in summer’.
It is such a pleasure to meet these characters, straight out of a Marquez novel – lusty, lonely, a little loony, a little lost, looking for love.
What I love about these characters is that they are defined so very much by their physicality. Dimple with her expansive posterior. Pankaj Kapoor the pompous dandy. Naseer with his shuffling gait, loving his hapless loneliness, pining for Fanny. Deepika the careless seductress, with tears welling up in her eyes every now and then, with genuine emotions. Arjun Kapoor the proverbial slacker, with no energy to take a single proactive step. (Much later in the story, it is Deepika who initiates the lovemaking between the two, and points this out to Arjun, “If I hadn’t come back you would just have sat here sulking, right? “ I like their talk after the lovemaking – about the lovemaking. In Indian films they don’t do that much, do they?
The loudest laugh out loud moment in the film is when Dimple turns down the yet another glass of brandy from Naseer, saying . “Drinking too much is bad for my legs.” “ Gout, I know” Naseer plies in a little sympathy. “ No , they make me spread them’ . Well, that’s an existing joke implanted into the film, though one must admit, Dimple delivers the line perfect. But there are genuine funny moments born out of the film’s own narrative. Not too many. But enough to keep you going through the trip. There is one with the dead cat. There is another when Pankaj Kapooor calls Naseer , “ Casanova of the Konkan.’
But it’s not a film of gags for gags sake. There is an undercurrent of loneliness in each of these characters, and hints of how some kind of a grand passion could lift them from their humdrum existence. But in the meanwhile they must make do with what they get… through grandstanding, through a bit of scheming and lying, through just travelling together for a while.
If there was something really underwhelming it was the end. All along we are expecting Fanny to emerge as something of a grand metaphor. Well if that does not happen nothing else happens either, The final revelation around Fanny is neither very funny; nor touching. They certainly could have been more inventive there.
So in the end, you love the film for its characters, none of them particularly good, or heroic, brought to live with superlative performances by all five. Deepika is as luminous as ever, giving us a glimpse into her sensitive but scheming self through her translucent beauty. Arjun Kapoor is a complete natural as the slacker who must be seduced, surprising us with effortless histrionics in the scene where he bursts out at Dimple pointing out how selfish she has been, letting other people take care of her cat and all that; Pankaj Kapoor is an absolute lark as the painter ‘ who wants to capture the soul residing in a beautiful woman’s eyes with his paint brush in shades of colour for which the word doesn’t have names yet.” . Naseeer and Dimple are perfect. Age hasn’t looked more interesting in films before.
Talking of age I must quote Arjun Kapoor telling Deeepika,” all this madaam this, madam that. When she is just a fat cow.” Of course that’s true, we know that. But Deepika tells Arjun, “Come on. People grow old. We all grow old.’ Interesting touch of empathy to Deepika’s character. But I wish all those life lessons on love not dying after the loved one dies were a little less smarmy and delivered with a bit of humour and irony. (Like say the lines in 3 Idiots.) Or a little more sincerely, more casually. And not all that stuff about if love doesn’t come knocking, to go and knock, even if there are no doors.
If I was writing those lines I would have brought in pork vindaloo somehow, having exhausted sarpotel already.
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Olemisstarana
September 14, 2014
I’m T minus 2 hours from seeing this movie, and you have no idea how tempted I am to read your review. I shall desist, however.
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KK
September 14, 2014
Spot on, Baradwaj. I watched the movie earlier today and came away with similar impressions. Adjania had a crew of some very experienced actors but didn’t really go anywhere with them. Dimple Kapadia’s character could have chewed up the screen with the right dialogues but fell short. Naseer and Pankaj Kapur were wasted. On the flip side, the one strong suit was the soundtrack. Not just the songs, which were catchy and original, but also the background score. It added substantive depth to a movie that would have been even emptier without it.
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Anon
September 14, 2014
Agree. Tried to be too cute or quirky for its own good. The schtick got tiresome after a while..
P.S: if this was set in Punjab instead of Goa, they might have called it God, Tushi great ho..
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Olemisstarana
September 14, 2014
Yaaawn.
Color me ever so slightly amused.
You either got it or you ain’t, Homi. (giggle!)
I feel a little disappointed in how predictable Adajania thinks audiences like me are. There’s too much quirk and not enough whimsy… I made the connection to Marquez as well (really, how vindicating is it that one’s favorite reviewer makes two of the same associations that spring unbidden to one’s mind in the dark of a theater) but felt that this was an incomplete callback. Adajania takes it to a distance and then flounders… all the characters seem as flavored as a Mario Miranda triptych, but end up being so goddamn two dimensional.
SPOILER:
Arjun Kapoor must try never to be ever caught in any role that is not Punjabi and Dimple just chews up the scenery… though I do remember why it is that I love Shah so much, in that unexpected moment early on when he side-eyes Angie to see if she is impressed by his love-missive skills, and in that more expected moment when his face just deflates at Fanny’s funeral.
Don’t know. Mildly annoyed, vastly disappointed.
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SR
September 14, 2014
There’s a scene in which the five find-outers stare at a house ……
‘Five find-outers’, nicely done, Mr. Rangan. Now if only Fatty were in this story too, they’d be tooling around in an expensive car instead.
Haven’t seen the movie – if it’s an ode to Marquez, then will definitely skip it; Hundred Years of Solitude is a soporific. Your writing, on the other hand, is the proverbial apple.
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Nidhi
September 14, 2014
Even quirky films, especially quirky films need characters that are rooted in the real. Stereotypes just aren’t enough.
Naseer’s performance reminds me of a critic who wrote of Judi Dench in Philomena, that she is too innately authoritative and intelligent to ever convincing play a fool. Naseer looks ready to drop the act once the directors shouts ‘cut’.
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burcidibollyreview
September 14, 2014
“but she’s also become so luminous that she blots out everything around her. “
wow… quite a compliment for Deepika…
I’m sure I will enjoy the film much more than Baradwaj ji. I just love eccentric films. I don’t know why people don’t warm up to them as easily as I do. I don’t even care if the story or the characters are weak. The quirkiness will be enough for me.
I personally think that Homi’s films are as much about the language as they are about the story. I’m sure the language is witty and delightful to listen to. Just as it was in Being Cyrus.
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Anuja
September 14, 2014
I really enjoyed Finding Fanny not the least because it celebrated women with broad backyards. The plot was hardly anything to write home about but the characters certainly were. And the grandstanding by the thespians was a treat to watch.
It is so nice to finally see a film where not only the young and beautiful search for love. And even nicer to hear Angie (Deepika) tell her lover that she hopes to do it many more times and that it will hopefully get better. Lol!
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Arvind Srinivasan
September 15, 2014
Got to second Baradwaj Rangan here. There was really nothing in the movie that made me sit up, laugh out loud like how various reviews across the net described. I rather found the movie trying too hard to evoke a laugh out of me. And setting out for a road trip just to find fanny seemed a very weak reason IMHO. Each of the five had their reasons sure, but with them being the couch potatoes they are sulking in their own comfort zones, you expect lot more of as to what drives them out of it.
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oneWithTheH
September 15, 2014
As someone said above, the mere sight of surreal settings, situations and characters sometimes is enough to feel good while walking out of a movie. This was one of those.
SPOILER:
Agreed that the humor was not right up there. But when was the last time that the nothing-can-stop-true-love types that hindi cinema so obediently professes gave us a matter-of-fact ending to unrequited love, to think of it subversive even.
I think this one is definitely a notch higher than “A for effort”.
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ramitbajaj01
September 15, 2014
@Arvind, Angie is the driving force behind it. Salvo’s return gave her hope and Ferdie’s letter gave her the energy. What she couldn’t achieve for herself, she wants that for Ferdie. So, she orchestrated the trip.
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Arvind Srinivasan
September 17, 2014
@ramitabajaj01- I get that. But what about the others especially Rosie- What’s in it for them that they should take this long winded trip from state to state to help they hardly care for get a a girl they. Like I said they have their reasons, but its definitely not been spelt out that clearly.
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brangan
September 17, 2014
oneWithTheH: I think we should stop trotting out the “when was the last time…” type things? With the commercial stuff, maybe yes. But there have been plenty of niche films that have done interesting things with characters.
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ramitbajaj01
September 17, 2014
But Arvind, didn’t Angie give Rosie enough reasons to come? She made her insecure about her travelling with a young guy. So, Rosie had to come to keep an eye on Angie. But of course, the purpose got defeated and it was not staged convincingly.
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oneWithTheH
September 17, 2014
Rangan:
You surprise me here, not sure if I misread you though.
Quite possible that what I saw could have already been part of earlier films. But how about this though – instead of a blanket ban of “when was the last time..”, I think it’s prudent to recall movies/scenes where similar ideas were dealt with and discuss them here. That’s the whole idea of this space, no?
I haven’t seen too many niche films. So whatever I come across as I watch and recollect is what I feel worth jotting down. It’s only for subjective views that we get to read/write that many of us frequent this blog, don’t we?
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brangan
September 19, 2014
oneWithTheH: Of course I didn’t mean a ban on talking abut this. It’s just that whenever people like something (I include myself in this) there’s a tendency to ascribe a never-before-ness to the happenings, and what I wanted to say was that this is not really all that new/original. But no, I didn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk about it and agree/disagree/argue and do all the things that make this space such fun 🙂
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Divya
September 22, 2014
I totally agree with your review… came away from the movie feeling rather frustrated with how little was done with the characters and how poorly the key relationships were developed.I especially agree about the Pankaj Kapur character… what a waste!
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Rahul
October 2, 2014
I was thinking of the dead cat zen koan regarding Finding Fanny (because of the dead cat in the story). Because no one can put a price on a dead cat or on finding fanny, it becomes the most valuable thing in the world.
http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/70…ntheworld.html
Of course, there are implicit assumptions in the leap from valueless to priceless.
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Nikhil George
November 29, 2014
I felt that this film was more about the journey than the destination 🙂
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