Fiza

Some of the poignant scenes and music in the movie are etched in my mind. The jarring note of the funeral and the subtlety of Karisma kapoor's acting. Being the grand daughter of the greatest Indian Film Maker-Raj Kapoor, she has certainly inhertited the genes. Now the much ballyhood actor of recent times- Hrithik Roshan, This guy is so chisseled and handsome that he almost looks like a funny looking kid. Can he act? yes,sometimes; but it is almost painful to watch him. With a V-shaped body, a biceps as big as the state of Montana,and a good disposition towards the opposite sex he will make a good Indian Bond, if only some producer could catch on to this. The problem with the so called "stars" of the 80' generation is that they count on the looks so much they forget they are actors first. If you watched the Movie Monsoon Wedding there is this charecter "P.k. Dubey" done by an actor called Vijay Raaz,who no one in right mind accuse him of being handsome,but he churned a great performance and he repeated the feat in some small roles in"Road" and "Shakti".Frankly I rather watch him or Morgan Freeman in Shanshank Redemtion. The looks draw the audience initially but to sustain thereon you need a talent like Anil Kapoor or Amitab Bachchan. Sorry Kiddo you are not going to cut it. I loved the music including the prayer song, the duet, and the very aesthetic and sexy number by Sushmita Sen so much so she made it to the cover of a Hollywood Film Magazine. Some of the best "Bollywood" dances in the recent years were in "Om Jai Jagdish" and "Humraaz". Suffice to say that I have seen the above movies just for the Song and dance numbers and if done well they could be highly entertaining.

Hrithik Roshan's second and film critic Khalid Mohamed's first movie is an art house film with commercial interludes, obviously deemed necessary for box office performance and integrated with various degrees of success. The film suffers and profits at the same time from the 6 song/dance numbers and one prayer. While the prayer is wonderful and convincingly marries the plot with musical and visual elements, providing an esthetic and also emotional highlight of the film, the dance number by Sushmita Sen and the disco number by Karishma Kapoor, although solid and attractive per se, look forced in the context and have little connection to the film's central themes. The Karishma-Bikram song could be easily edited out at no loss. This is less the case with the Hrithik-Neha sequence which looks and sounds great and adds some desperately needed happiness to an otherwise rather sad sequence of events. And of course it's the only time Hrithik dances. Cutting this one would probably have caused riots in cinemas. The funeral piece is also well integrated and is not an artistic liability. Finally the martial training montage is as commercial and obvious as it gets, exploiting Hrithik Roshan's 'Rambo' aspect at its fullest. Technically well done and a blessing for the box office, no doubt, but artistically a capitulation. A very guilty pleasure indeed. The reason "Fiza" is nonetheless a quite impressive debut film is due to the three leads, two seasoned performers and a newcomer, but all three giving wonderful performances, and an uncompromising look at a subject that is controversial but anything but irrelevant, the Mumbai riots of the early 90s, the ethnic and religious hatred behind it and the unscrupulous forces causing and exploiting it to further their dubious causes. Watch the movie for its cast. This is clearly Karishma Kapoor's best performance so far and likely to fetch awards. As Fiza she shows great strength, resolution and the courage to lay bare emotional depths unseen from her so far. Jaya Bachchan as the mother is solid and turns in a fine performance. Hrithik Roshan, finally, puts to rest all worries that he might be a one film wonder and no real talent. His performance is simply amazing considering this is only his second film. There is hardly one wrong note to be found. His acting comes very naturally, his facial expressions speak volumes. His riot scenes have to be seen to be believed. His screen presence is impressive. He's probably the most charismatic new actor working in films these days, and I'm not talking about India alone. His performance would be very good for an old professional. For a newcomer it's incredible. His future in India and abroad looks extremely bright if that's a standard he can uphold and probably even improve upon. This is an actor to watch very closely in the future. International superstar material.

Having not really watched Bollywood films, since the days of the action movies of the 70's & 80's, I wasn't really interested in watching the more recent offerings from Bollywood, since I assumed they were mostly love stories and were full of songs which had no reason for being there.

But, having watched a few (subtitled) films shown as part of an Indian season over here in the UK, I've started to change my mind.

I watched Fiza last night and even though it was full of songs and was let down slightly by the second half, I was amazed to find a film dealing with the Bombay Hindu/Muslim riots of 1993 and it's consequences on a Muslim family.

It starts with the 1993. Amaan (Hrithik Roshan) lives with his mother (Jaya Bachchan) and sister Fiza (Karishma Kapoor). One night Amaan goes out into the riot-stricken streets of Bombay and disappears. We then jump to 1999 and the first half of the film then deals with the consequences, as Fiza determines to find her brother.

Through flashback we find out what happened, as Amaan finds himself a outsider in his own country, but the real reasons for his disappearance are only discovered when Fiza discovers her brother hiding out with terrorists.

I won't reveal the rest of the story, but I will say, it was refreshing to see a film from the Indian-Muslim viewpoint and having central characters who were Muslim. Being British and of Indian-Hindu descent, I hadn't really thought about it before.

I know the film isn't an in-depth look at the problem or even that it represents Indian-Muslims in general, but it did open my eyes slightly to the problems facing India today, especially since the recent (2002) Hindu/Muslim riots in Gujarat showed how bad the violence could be and how much politics played it's part in them.

One last point, the performances from the three main leads is excellent. Hrithik Roshan was much better than I expected, but Jaya Bachchan and Karishma Kapoor were really outstanding.

Although, not a perfect film and still very Bollywood in it's style, I still found it much better then the standard Bollywood fare and I would highly recommend it.

A powerful movie with superb acting from all the actors and actresses. Beautifully choreographed music. This movie was the best movie I've seen this year. Hrithik Roshan is a brilliant actor as the role he played was very demanding.Karisma Kapoor was also outstanding and the special appearance by Sushmita Sen was in a class of its own ! Go and watch the movie with an open mind. You will not be dissappointed!

Fiza is definitely one of the better movies churned out by Bollywood in recent times. It carries a message that every religion is good but it is the politicians who are using religion as a weapon and destroying innocent families for ulterior motives. It deals with the problems being faced in India currently which have been repeatedly erupting and causing a huge dent in the economy. Since the past 50 years, every time India has got back on its feet a new politician created calamity has dragged it back down preventing it from being a power to reckon with and doing away with national problems like poverty and illiteracy which prevents people from leading a normal existence. And every time the roots of these calamities can be traced to religion. Everything is not fair in the name of religion. The film has good music and both Karisma & Hrithik have rendered superb award winning performances. Some people may feel that Hrithik's character is not very strong but looking at it from a perspective of what he is subjected to and circumstances which he cannot control make him the person portrayed in the movie. The silent scene of him in the train says it all.