Movie Review: Fitoor lacks ‘Great Expectations’!

There have been very few adaptations of Charles Dickens’ novella ‘Great Expectations’ and this week’s release Fitoor is a desi-adaptation by Abhishek Kapoor. The movie stars Katrina Kaif and Aditya Roy Kapoor with Tabu playing the role of desi Miss Havisham.

The movie narrates the story of Noor (Aditya Roy Kapur after the character grows up) a thirteen year old Kashmiri boy who belongs to poor upbringings meets and is deeply infatuated with Firdaus (Katrina Kaif after the character grows up) who belongs to a rich elite family in Kashmir. Her mother who is referred to Begum (Tabu) was left heartbroken in her younger age (Aditi Rao Hydari) and is against love especially with the social divide. She splits the teenagers and insults Noor about his social status.

Few years later Noor who had moved to Delhi and becomes a renowned artist comes back to town with his newly acclaimed fame and money. Firdaus is engaged but she still has romantic flings with Noor. After initial friction with Noor, Begum slowly starts realizing her mistake, but still adamant to get Firdaus married to her fiance. Noor’s love for Firdaus bears all the hardships of time and emotions and succeeds in the end.

The story has few alterations done to meet the Indian sensibilities and also to adapt to today’s time. The tempo set by the first half of the movie falters in the second half with multiple characters and stories introduced. The pace is very slow and if you are someone who loves massy movies then you will sit and cringe in your seat. However, for a person who loves to see art in any form whether massy or classy you will love it.

The story, screenplay and dialogues by Abhishek Kapoor and Supratik Sen is okay and it is not their fault as it is very difficult to adapt a book to a movie that too set in a different time, era and demographics. Abhishek Kapoor’s direction compared to his previous movie Kai Po Che is average. He gets confused in the narrative and it can be seen clearly especially in the second half of the movie.

The performances by Aditya Roy Kapoor and Katrina is decent however, Tabu as Begum steals the show. Cameos by Ajay Devgn, Akshay Oberoi, Lara Dutta and Aditi Rao Hydari are good. The music by Amit Trivedi compliments the mood and tone of the movie especially the title song and Pashmina. The cinematography by Anay Goswami is breathtaking and the color palette used by Abhishek for the movie – Red is quite interesting.

On the whole, the movie does not meet the expectations of Aam Junta who was waiting for a repeat after Kai Po Che.

My Verdict: **