Glorifying Terrorism. Review on Fanaa

This despicable piece of crap ought to have been banned all over the world! Unfortunately it faced a boycott only in the state of Gujarat – and that too for all the wrong reasons.

If one were to analyse it, beneath the surface of Yash Choprasque romantic melodious hues, lies a dangerous anti-Indian, pro-Pak agenda. The protagonist Rehaan (Aamir Khan) is unabashedly a terrorist and is not shown to have any remorse or change of heart till his very last breath.

The first part of the story is completely anti-woman and anti-handicapped persons. The jehadi masquerades as a womanizing guide in Old Delhi to a group of cackling Kashmiri girls (one of whom is a blind Zooni – Kajol) who have come here for some patriotic cultural fest. The shayari spewing roadside Romeo, after some sickening couplets on women and blind people, wins over Zooni’s heart. And her parents back home (a hysterical Kiron Kher and stuttering Rishi Kapoor) appear to be only too happy to palm off their ward to the first available suitor, never mind if he is a tapori.

After the usual round of mandatory melodious tunes, the heroine, in a highly ill considered move, goes to bed with the hero and promptly gets impregnated after the quickie. The next morning, he admits her to an eye hospital for a transplant and goes off to bomb the Red Fort!!! Brilliant, isn’t it?

Seven years later, our hero is on a mission to get hold of a nuclear bomb trigger which has been scattered around in various parts of the country! (Really? I thought such sensitive gadgets were in the highly secrets confines of the Prime Minister’s access! Or maybe Kunal Kohli knows better)

Rehaan is being directed by his grandfather (cocooned in some tent in heavy snow) who is the head of an organization called IKF. He impersonates an Indian Army officer and even his regiment colleagues don’t recognize him. (So much for perfection, Aamir!) After playing ball with his men, he poisons them aboard a helicopter and parachutes out carrying the nuclear bomb trigger. He is shot by the Indian Army and lands up at Zooni’s doorstep in the snowy, stormy night.

Zooni, now with her eyesight regained, seems to have lost sense of her other instincts. She is unable to recognize the person whose child she has given birth to – neither his voice or his demeanour. After a few reels of hemming and hawing, when Rehaan bumps off Zooni’s father and uncle, who have discovered his secret, Zooni confronts him.

In the backdrop, we have a tacky set passed off as the office of RAW, where a burly Sharat Saxena locks horns with his boss Mrs. Tyagi (Tabu). And here comes the clincher. In one unprovoked instance, Tabu, who is playing a senior interlligence officer, literally voices Pakistan’s propaganda about the Kashmir plebiscite and how India betrayed its promise etc., in an official meeting. This statement is quoted completely out of context and is also unnecessary – unless of course, you want to justify the actions of the terrorists. The shocking part is that there is no serious rebuttal to her statement! One would have thought that an intelligence officer harbouring such views would have been sacked forthwith!

Performance wise, Kajol is simply brilliant and lends her spontaneous likeability to the character. Aamir Khan looks too old for the part and is quite irritating in the first part. The second part as the terrorist has been played more convincingly. The other actors have very little chance to make an impact – except perhaps Rishi Kapoor who has off late been repeating the drunkard doting dad act a trifle too often. The precocious kid is nice. The music is passable – with only the Subhan-allah number remaining with you.

To summarise, the unrepentant protagonist defending jehadi terrorism with the film slyly making a case for Kashmir freedom struggle – through the mouth of none other than an Indian intelligence officer acting as the Pakistani spokesperson – is a fit case for an anti-national libel suit. But our masses have lapped up the stuff very innocently – and half of them would have got brainwashed into believing Tabu’s hogtalk. The underlying theme of this flick would have certainly reinforced the beliefs of some on-the-fence jehadis.

Little wonder that Mahesh Bhat got so worked up about the film’s blackout in Gujarat - (unlike his feeble response to the ban of Da Vinci Code in about FIVE states!)