Fitoor

I saw the movie 3 years after its release on Netflix and to my surprise I think this is the best Aditya Roy Kapoor has done so far. I never really was into his acting before this but he surely has earned a fan. Tabu has been excellent as always! And I cannot even begin to describe the cinematography. It's beyond beautiful!!! I'd request people to just see and not judge this piece because art is only understood when you leave your judgements behind

When a novel as renowned as Charles Dickens' Great Expectations is adapted for cinema, there's not much that can go wrong with the plot, right? After all, the original piece of work received worldwide critical acclaim, and is revered as a classic.

Abhishek Kapoor's Fitoor begs to differ. This is a pointless film, meandering along in no particular direction, stopping and starting until finally it stumbles to a rather boring halt.

For the uninitiated, Fitoor tells the story of a poor orphan boy and his childhood love for a girl who is from a rich elite family. How their social status comes in the way of their romance forms the rest of the story. Oh, and somewhere there's a disjointed flashback as well.

Aditya Roy Kapoor plays Noor (Pip) to Katrina Kaif's Firdaus (Estelle). Kapoor looks alright for the role, but his character is obsessive to the point of creepiness. It's hard to sympathize with Noor when he does the most stupid and desperate things in the name of love, shredding every bit of his self-respect.

Kaif does what she does best: look pretty and not act.

Abhishek Kapoor casts Tabu as Firdaus' mother, Begum Hazrat (Miss Havisham) and despite being burdened with a role where she hardly gets scenes to shine, she's a treat to watch. Her Urdu diction is impeccable and there's a striking resemblance to her portrayal of Ghazala from Haider. She rightfully gets top billing in the opening credits as well.

If there's one thing Abhishek Kapoor did right, it was to make Kashmir the setting of this movie. The place is majestic, as evidenced by the beautiful shots cinematographer Anay Goswami has captured.

Amit Trivedi's music stands out once again, like it always has, in a movie that doesn't deserve it. Pashmina is a gorgeously mounted song, setting the tone for the rest of the movie, only to amount to nothing.

A lot was expected from Abhishek Kapoor after his refreshing Rock On!! and the fact that he made Chetan Bhagat's worst novel into a passably good film in Kai Po Che, but here he definitely falls short of the mark.

Fitoor is a pointless adaptation, and a disjointed film. Not only does it add nothing to the original source material, but it can't even manage to do justice to Dickens' vision.

As to whether you should watch Fitoor, ask no questions and you will be told no lies!

I had no expectations when I watched this movie on Netflix. Although I had liked the trailer at the time I had also read the poor reviews the movie had received when it released. I mainly tuned in because of the nice soundtrack and I was pleasantly surprised that this was a visually stunning and very well acted movie. All the actors depicted their characters beautifully and this was the first time we see a mother hindering her daughter from chasing love because of her own sad story. It was very well directed and a beautiful film, even if is much slower than the usual bollywood fare it was a convincing tale and captivating.

As soon as I realized it's an Abhishek Kapoor's film, my hopes raised. But the movie was worse than its trailer. It is very slow but has a calm flow. The focus is harshly on love story only and nothing else. In fact there isn't anything else that's thought of. It's boringness often becomes killing. Second half tries to save it a little and hints some potential turner. However it boils down to the same uninteresting plate.

Abhishek Kapoor was a disappointment this time. I've stayed biased on him for so many years because of Rock On. His effortless performance is really disheartening. He was never able to bring the pieces together.

All the actors were below average and not worth mentioning. They were confused whether to act starry or be down to earth. There wasn't even a scene where the acting could be appreciated.

Amit Trivedi's soulful music was good sometimes but it lacked variety. May be he didn't get a variety in the storyline to perform inline.

Overall, a mere love story, that wasn't garnished by anything else.

What worked:

• adaptation; it will be unfair to compare the novel with the movie but the movie overall is not bad. It takes the jest from the novel and adopts to the context of the culture and timeline. Since it keeps the main idea almost true, the movie as a storytelling works. Amit trivedi is a gem. Also interesting is the cameo of actors like Devgn and Lara Dutton's added the charm.

What did not work: -the final impact; although everything is rightly done, it fails to give the strong impact it should have, maybe because of the two main lead characters Aditya and Katrina. That being said , it's still a good watch. Final verdict: recommended, a one time watch