That was an excellent one.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Fanaa was a commercial success upon its release a little less than a decade ago. It was Kajol's well-awaited comeback to movies after a five-year hiatus, and that's how it was mainly promoted. It was the first movie in which Kajol and Aamir Khan where pitted against each other, and sadly nothing between the two of them really works. There's little chemistry, little understanding, and the relationship is left to the big songs. In the end we are left with a story so feeble and uninteresting that one would wonder why the hack an actress of her caliber chose it. Fanaa is one of those pretentious potboilers which want to be seen as poetic but then they have so little to offer on their own. The story is melodramatic and unconvincing, and all the tough job is given to Kajol, of whom naturally so much was expected. And thankfully, she doesn't disappoint. Even within the limits of a weak script (and a badly written role), Kajol rises above it to deliver a heartfelt, fully complete performance. There's something about this lady - she comes across extremely real and does so little to convey big emotions. She is always relatable, and never a star. This movie really shows why this natural actress is one of the most popular in the country and appeals so much to the masses. And then we have Mr. Khan, who suddenly looks overly jaded and old, and the terrorist part of his character was so amusingly amateurish and poorly done that no one would take this nonsense character seriously anyway. Fanaa has nice music and no story, it also wastes the talent of Tabu, Rishi Kapoor and Kirron Kher. In the end, Kunal Kohli, who was responsible for the wonderful Hum Tum, disappoints big time with this silly, silly film.

Fanaa is a gripping tale of true love, terrorism, loss, and freedom. It's also about making the right choices, and listening to your heart, which is cheesy but kind of true.Zooni Ali Beg (Kajol) is a beautiful, confident, witty Kashmiri girl, whose only problem in life is the fact that she can't see. She's blind. Despite this, she shares a warm and loving relationship with her parents, Nafisa (Kiron Kher) and Zulfikar (Rishi Kapoor), who adore their daughter and always dream of her finding her 'prince'. Zooni travels to Delhi with her friends, who are also her dance troupe, for a performance, and secretly hopes to bump into love on the way. Once in Delhi, Zooni meets Rehan, their tour guide, who has a roving eye for women. Rehan is completely fascinated by Zooni, and she by him, despite her friends' warnings about his Casanova personality. Rehan shows Zooni how to see without her eyes. How to view Delhi's beauty despite her blindness, and bowls her over with his poetry. The two soon fall in love, and Rehan admits Zooni to a hospital for an operation that will regain her vision. Zooni's eyes open, but they never see Rehan. He was killed in a bomb blast by IKF - Independent Kashmiri Front - a ruthless organization that desire an independent Kashmir. Zooni's world is destroyed, and she returns home, where she later delivers a baby boy, who she names Rehan Jr, in memory of her love. Seven years later she gets a desperate knock on the door, by a wounded army officer in need of urgent medical attention. Zooni helps nurse him back to health, but she has no idea how this one man can turn her world even more upside down, and cause her to make decisions in life that she never thought she could.Kajol owned all the way through. I though Aamir was very good also but just could not match her. She looked completely stunning and held the top spot till the end. I strongly believe this is one of her best performances, and was quite surprised because I have seen a lot of Kajol's movies and I have never thought she'd play a blind girl with so much conviction. But she was amazing. Aamir was not as powerful compared to his female counterpart but he was extremely convincing as Rehan. But I liked him much more in the 1st half, sprouting poetry. He looked a little old in the 2nd half, which was slightly off-putting. Tabu delivered a very fine performance, second only to Kajol. Her new look really suited her and she was great as the intelligent Anti-Terrorist official. Rishi Kapoor and Kiron Kher were perfectly cast as Zooni's parents, and an honourable mention goes to Ali Haji, who played Rehan Jr. He was so cute and outstanding for his age. Shiny Ahuja and Lara Dutta made small, forgettable appearances.For me the best thing about Fanaa was the chemistry between Aamir Khan and Kajol. They were superb individually and when they were together it was even better. Some of Aamir's best moments were when he was with Kajol, and vice versa. I never thought they'd make a good on-screen couple but I was proved wrong.The soundtrack of Fanaa is a big plus point. Each track is beautiful and I thought worked very well in the film. My favourite was 'Mere Haath Mein', a lovely song with even an even better picturization. Not forgetting that Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan together is like sex on lyrics!:) 'Des Rangila' is an inspirational melody, and 'Chand Sifarish' has a really catchy tune to it. 'Dekho Naa' is also worth a mention, I loved the way it was used to create a romantic mood. The dialogues and choreography were great.All in all, Fanaa is a very well made movie, that isn't exactly up to the standard that Kunal Kohli set with Hum Tum, but close. And Kajol's performance makes it worth it.

I give it 2 for the photography, which is nice.Bollywood movies defy logic, copy blatantly and most of the times make you cringe and this movie helps further establishing these facts. I was not expecting that from an Aamir Khan enterprise, but oh well...I can't list the number of annoying and WTF type plot holes, they are just too ridiculous for me to even waste my time writing (look at 50 things you learned from Fanna in the forum).It's hard to establish how well acted this flick is, given the shitty plot/screenplay, however I think Aamir still did a good job. I can't understand why people think Kajor is a good actress, she either has that big grin on her face or a serious (semi-agro, argumentative..call it what you will) face. But then in mainstream Bollywood, someone with 2.5 expressions is considered a good actress.The romance did not move me and the action is a joke.Dil se is a much better movie, with a similar theme.Give it a miss.

This is the kind of film with both enchants and annoys you. it is charming for the photography, for the poetic dialogs in the first part, for acting (it was nice seeing again Kajol), for the music (the songs where fine, even though they were sometimes spoiled by some cheap arrangement). It annoys you because of some avoidable discrepancies: first of all, if a blind person regains sight, it is unlikely that s/he will recognize shapes and people instantly. On the contrary, it can even be that this person won't be able to see as normal people at all (there is an insightful essay by Oliver Sacks on this matter). This sensorial nonsense is repeated when Zooni (Kajol) and Rehan (Khan) meet again: seven years have passed, she still lives in the middle of nowhere, but hasn't forget her first love yet; he's wounded and knocks at her door, she can see but has never seen him. Nevertheless I had expected that she would have recognized him from his voice, but this didn't happen. The director set up a series of misunderstandings full of suspense and very enjoyable indeed: since their child (a child conceived during their only night together: I know people that would make a vote for such a fertility) is also called Rehan, she keeps shouting his name, making us believe that she's finally recognized her beloved. but this won't happen until he says something that he has already said in the past. Then the element that makes the recognition possible is in words more that in how they are said. I noticed elsewhere in Indian films this tendency to privilege words. I have also noticed the belief that knowledge is not possible out of seeing (two instances: Bairaag and Amar Akbar Anthony). Still we all know that voices can easily identify people, even many years later, and this would be even truer for someone who was blind. Besides, another thing that I find hard to believe is Zooni's unconditioned happiness when Rehan decides that she has to undergo an operation; in fact I read it as a sign of his not acceptance of her being the way she is. But discrepancies are so many that it is no use counting them. For instance, all the plot revolves around a trigger, and we are supposed to believe that someone is able to build an atom bomb capable of destroying a town, but not its trigger – the trigger is the size of a handy, was it not enough. And if you took for granted that Rehan takes some attentions in hiding it, you would be quite disappointed seeing it ticking off its jacket. But we know that the value of Bollywood films lays less in its realism than in other aspects. Only, I would expect at least some kind of emotional consequentiality, but even here I am often disappointed. During the entire second half, I am constantly upset by Zooni's impotence to understand what kind of man she is in love with. It is as if this love would cancel everything else. It is no longer a matter of choosing between two different evils (this seems to be the moral of the film), as far as love hides every other aspect of reality. For instance, Rehan kills Zooni's father, but this doesn't cause a big reaction in her, and for the umpteenth time she still shows her unimpeachable love. On the other hand, Rehan fights for a cause (right? wrong? is this terrorism or fight for independence? The point is quite ambiguous: in fact we see Rehan killing soldiers and not civilians, like if the director didn't want to compromise certain portions of the market; on the other hand, we see soldiers as human beings, therefore it is not easy to understand what the director thinks - I can see on the forum that this ambiguity gives space for quite different kinds of readings). I find annoying that love is confined to the couple, and that fight is assumed to detach people from every kind of emotional bond as well as rational attitude: the soldier Rehan simply obeys orders, he has to accomplish his mission and never asks himself if what he is doing is right; on the other hand, also Zooni, blinded by her love, doesn't care about what Rehan does out of their relationship. She doesn't care whether he has killed ten soldiers or not, as long as he decides to stay by her side. But, I ask myself, what kind of love is this, which doesn't have any regard for the world outside the couple? An unconditioned love without values? Maybe love, with its tendency to isolate couples, is not one of the pillars of society, but at least it could be less destructive when considering also the rights (not just civil, also emotional) of other people. What more can I say, this film stimulated me a lot of thoughts, therefore it was worth seen. As I said, it was annoying, but this annoyance lead to a lot of thinking. Better than just another boring film.