Quest for lost love takes to the road

Quest for lost love takes to the road

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Quest for lost love takes to the road

It doesn't feel like a Bollywood movie and for that reason alone Finding Fanny may attract a more international, albeit still slightly niche, audience than most of the mainstream films made in India. There are no extravagant dance routines here, nor glitzy, museum-quality costumes; just a road trip and a handful of loveable personalities pondering life.

Backseat blues for Don Pedro (Pankaj Kapur), Rosalina (Dimple Kapadia) and Angie (Deepika Padukone). 

If you liked The Lunchbox (a mildly spiced drama from last year that was a hit outside India), you'll also like this, director Homi Adajania's latest work, which focuses on five kooky characters from a Marquezian Indian village called Pocolim located somewhere in the deep, forested depths of Goa. 

Without all the masala-flick requirements (powerhouse stars, action-packed fighting scenes and one song too many), what's left to win audiences over is a story-driven plot that piques your interest in the various characters and their backgrounds. When Ferdie (Naseeruddin Shah) opens a letter that is slipped under his door one night, he finds out that the love of his life, Stephanie Fernandes, didn't reject his written marriage proposal (as he had previously assumed); she simply never got his letter to begin with. The news comes 46 years too late, but badgered into taking action by his best friend in the village, Angie (Deepika Padukone), a widow who's still a virgin because her husband expired a few minutes after they were wed, Ferdie decides to set off on a journey with Angie to find his "Fanny".

Several other unlikely characters are dragged into a rusty blue car to accompany the pair on this expedition. Don Pedro (Pankaj Kapur), a passionately weird artist, goes along for the ride mostly because he's just bought practically the only car left in the village that's still running. Angie's manus pa ("auntie species") of a mother-in-law, Rosalina (Dimple Kapadia), must go, too, because Don Pedro only agreed to let them use his car on condition that he can paint Rosalina's portrait. And Savio, a bitter, irritable mechanic, is signed up for the trip because he's the only one who knows how to coax this wreck of a car into forward motion.

The biggest treat for many viewers will probably be the chance to see Indian cinematic legends Shah, Kapadia and Kapur playing robust, well-rounded parts (a nice change from having to fill the role of overbearing mother or cantankerous granddad). There are many golden moments in this film that Kapur carries off with pitch-perfect delivery. Kapadia makes a most convincing, self-appointed madame of the village who is only bossy because she wants to conceal the fact that she has broken insides; her massive, prosthetic butt also helps embellish that annoying-auntie look.

However, it is the character who sets the whole movie in motion, Ferdie, whom you grow to love the most. With his bashful, humble temperament, he acts like a kid who's just fallen in love. This may even be one of those movies where the viewer finds the older actors more interesting than the beautiful/strapping younger leads (although the latter do justice to their parts as well).

It's such a strange mixture of types. They look like they might start killing each other if the viewer were to glance away even for one moment. And, because of that, the subtle humour is funny without being over-the-top or farcical and slapstick. This satirical film has its dark moments, too, but there's more than enough material to delight and to make this an absorbing ride.

The quest to find Fanny may get bumpy at times, with the story and mood pacing as erratic as the dysfunctional characters themselves (one minute they're shouting, 30 seconds later they're hugging and a minute after that someone dies), but things do eventually get sorted out very neatly, with everything you expect to get said, said loud and clear, with no loose ends left hanging. Thankfully, Finding Fanny doesn't take as long as Wes Anderson usually does to reach a conclusion and anticipation is maintained at a high level right up to the climax: will Fanny still be alive when the group arrives at its destination or was she simply a figment of Ferdie's imagination in the first place?

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