‘Fitoor’ re-imagines Charles Dicken’s dystopian tale
MUMBAI: For a film supposedly based on Charles Dickens‘ Great Expectations, director Abhishek Kapoor seems to have started reading the book before abandoning it halfway.
To Kapoor’s credit, his vision is ambitious and Fitoor (Obsession) has the look of a brooding, sweeping romance that transcends time.
Kashmir replaces the marshlands, and Hazrat Begum (Tabu) is the Miss Havisham of this tale. Katrina Kaif is Firdaus, the ice maiden who thaws and freezes again depending on circumstances.
Noor grows up adoring Firdaus, in spite of the Begum’s many attempts to play with his emotions and scuttle young love. He spends his days pining for her, until an unknown benefactor sponsors him for an art program that will propel him into Delhi’s hallowed art circles and, more importantly, into the same social circles that Firdaus inhabits.
But even that doesn’t seem to move Firdaus, who is unable to muster up the courage to escape from the Begum’s all-encompassing presence. Meanwhile, Noor goes from besotted to obsessed with Firdaus, almost channeling the hero of another classic English novel – the notorious Heathcliff. Actor Aditya Roy Kapoor broods, sulks and rants, and sometimes it is difficult to tell one from the other.
The director and co-writer Supratik Sen reduce Magwitch’s role (the benefactor in Great Expectations) to a two-scene cameo and dilute a lot of the book’s other underlying themes, including Pip’ attitude to his sudden fortune. What Fitoor does focus on is the individual hand of the Begum, dictating all that Noor and Firdaus do, just as Miss Havisham haunts Pip and Estella.
And fittingly, it is Tabu who steers this film with a supremely confident performance, holding you captive right till the end.