Fida

This movie is one of the most chameleon-like I have ever experienced. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it; but the mainly relaxed, whimsical, romantic opening (after the first encounter with the crime boss, who almost then seems to get forgotten for about 40 minutes, though you know he must resurface sometime) is filled with extravagant Bollywood dancing (though often with a more sexy feel than I have usually encountered in my so-far limited Bollywood experience) and over-played but highly amusing protestations of love on the part of the main character, Jai. In this portion, the aficianado of Bollywood ladies has plenty of opportunity to admire the very sexy Kim Sharma as Jai's childhood friend Sonia, and also of course his new love Neha played by Kareena Kapoor, who is more restrained in her sexiness but just demurely lovely. But after about 30-40 minutes, the pace and tone completely changes with one dramatic moment, and after that we are very much engaged in a helter-skelter action movie with multitude plot twists, wide-ranging shifts of location from India to Dubai to South Africa and even (I think) a small vignette in London, and a fair share of unarmed combat and exploding gunshot wounds. This is not a movie for the faint-hearted or the lover of simple romantic Bollywood stories, but overall it is an enjoyable ride!

(2004) Fida (In Hindi with English subtitles) CRIME DRAMA/ PSYCHOLOGICAL

It opens with a mob magnet, Babu Anna (Akhilendra Mishra) throwing a temper tantrum finding out that the electronic theft of more than 5.3 billion rupees stolen between two banks was money belonged to him. He then demands his goons to find the identity of the culprit and have it or them bright over to him. The movie then switches to love sick romantic, Jai Malhotra (Shahid Kapoor) bonding with his best friend, Sonia (Kim Sharma). And as soon he spots a girl he becomes madly in love with, he then goes out of his way to find out everything about her, including where she lives, we find out her name is Neha Verma (Kareena Kapoor). And for the first 40 minutes or so, we then see Jai profess his love for her in the most cringe worthy way before he tells her that he would even commit suicide for her. He does and Jai's best friend, Sonia then drags Neha from her place to the hospital to show he was was not kidding. It was during then is when the ridiculous begins to happen. It is when some men were seen leaving her apartment, and Jai catches Neha attempting to hang herself. She then tells him that she is the daughter of the father who owed money, and thought hanging herself would be a solution. And as soon as she tells him how much she owes him or them, and turned out to be a huge amount of 60 million. Jai promises her he would get her that money without robbing the bank. And upon going to the bank he then sees a guy withdrawing a lot of money, and he decides to follow him to his place of residence, only as he soon as he comes inside, jai is then caught and knocked unconscious. By the time he gains unconsciousness, Jai then tells the wealthy resident, Vikram Singh (Fardeen Khan) the entire situation and story. Vikram then tells him he will gladly give Jai the money he needs, providing he will be the scapegoat of the person who robbed Babu Anna 5.3 billion on line. And Jai then goes online on some library - and almost immediately he gets caught as soon he is instructed to type things on the computer, as it is not long he gets nabbed by authorities. A twist happens is when Jai manages to escape when a shootout ensures when Baba Anna instructs his goons to get involve into his capture so that he himself is able to punish Jai himself. After Jai manages to escape the clutches both of the police and by Babu Anna's goons, by the time he reaches Neha's apartment. He then sees Neha coming out of the shower with Vikram right behind her. Giving Jai and it's viewers the assumption that it was nothing more but a set up all along. As if both Vikram and Neha knew all along Jai was going to take the bait, as well as it was both of their plan to get Jai follow Vikram all the way to the bank for the intention of robbing hi, is way too much of a coincidence. Motivating I as a viewer to ask more questions than I was getting any answers.

The movie may not be a masterpiece. But it is very good and not your regular run to the mill stuff. Flying story is that a guy falls in love with a girl who in fact is double crossing him. Her real boyfriend sets up this guy in a high profile internet bank robbery case which he has committed and gets the girl and the money while the guy somehow escapes police & the mafia don to hit back at the couple.

If someone wants to learn about how technically a film is to be made just look at this movie. Every technical area whether photography, cinematography, sound, direction, choreography etc. just oozes class.

Shahid Kapur as lead actor impresses to the hilt. He is the new star icon on the Hindi( just don't call it Bollywood please) movie horizon after Hrithik Roshan and sure would go a long way. His cute innocence impresses the audience and specially teen girls I guess :-). It is the first time that I have liked Kareena & Fardeen too. Kareena really looks good & Fardeen shows an impressive personality. People might say the movie story resembles Humraaz. But still the screenplay is racy and fully engrossing even if you guess the story. The direction by Ken Ghosh is the best. The guy is so exacting in his job that he has edited down the movie to mere 2 hours(rare in Hindi movies) and the results show - there is not even a single moment in the movie when you feel bored or look the other way. Great work Ken!!!

Music is really good but "Nazar Nazar" stands out, the other songs are just as melodious. And they have been shot really tastefully, very much expected as director Ken Ghosh was a music video director before he ventured into the movies and the class shows. All in all both Shahid Kapur and Ken Ghosh impress after their earlier hit movie "Ishq Vishq". The movie is total entertainment and full value of money. I guess a lot of people find a lot of problems in the movie, to them I would say rather than finding pointless mistakes try appreciating something once a while. Definite watching advised.

Watched Fida without any particular expectations and was not surprised by anything in it. This is an ordinary fare at best which is worth a one-time watch. The story is full of clichés, such as unconditional love and how a loving guy would give his life for a girl, how he gets accused for no fault of his own because of her and so on. Ken Ghosh's direction is nothing great. The script does not add much and at points it is ridiculous. After the so-called twist through which the truth is revealed, the film turns into a thriller but this part is heavily flawed and unconvincing, though it does have some entertainment value and suspense. The film's main protagonist is played by the very young Shahid Kapur, and the guy evidently tries very hard to do the best of what he was given. Although in terms of acting he was not there yet (as he is today with such performances as Kaminey), you can't but appreciate his efforts. Kareena Kapoor plays the bad girl probably because she noticed it was a trend for leading ladies to play negative roles. This role is sort of a take off on the many roles played by Bette Davis, but Kareena does a forgettable job. That's not entirely her fault because her role was not well written. Fardeen Khan is bad as the bad guy. The music of Fida does not stand out but I liked "Nazar Nazar" a lot as it was melodious, and I enjoyed "Maine Jisko Chaha" to an extent. Otherwise the film is simply better to avoid, with the ending being particularly pathetic. Do not expect much from Fida.

i finally got the chance to watch this movie, from start to finish, n despite reviews i thought it was pretty good, but obviously it didn't do too well in India i couldn't understand why, i suppose the Indian public don't like anything outside its usual love stories. But back to fida, its an interesting love/hate story first half sets the mood but all the action is in the second half as fardeen khan makes his entrance. Overall i would recommend watching this movie an interesting one timer, the pace is never disrupted either, not even by the songs which i have to mention are good but il let everyone find out the 2 and a half hour way.

Enjoy!!