I, for one, remember little of the Mumbai riots.
If truth be told, I have trouble recalling when it was and what I was doing at the time. Despite the violence and destruction, it happened a world away and I was shielded from the goings on because there was no local connection.
Cold but true.
So watching Fiza was less a revisitng and more an awakening of what happened almost a decade ago in India and, more importantly, a look to see whether the issues that sparked the riot have resolved themselves since. The problem at hand was, as is apparently becoming more known as common worldwide, a difference of religion – a conflict between those of the Hindu faith and followers of Islam.
Up until this point it had never occurred to me this was the central point of contention between India and Pakistan and the formation of the Muslim Pakistani nation is mentioned on a few occasions. Even in Lagaan, there is a subtle mention of the differences in faith but that film is so much about finding common ground in the face of adversity, it’s no surprise it was glossed over.
Being the central plot element of Fiza, it really is quite interesting to see the religious demarcation that occurs and the conflicts that arise because of it. But politics aside, the most interesting aspect of the movie was actually watching Karisma Kapoor act and in a role as a strong female character. It was just a complete shock to me as I’ve only seen her previously as a love interest and object of adoration. What surpises me even more is that I cannot remember her at all in a song and dance number. I’m not sure whether this is due to my dodgy memory but I sure hope that was how much I was impressed by her performance.
That being said, though, the second half of the film seems a complete turnaround. Hrithrik Roshan’s character reeneters the plot beyond flashback and so does the focus of the film. From that point on, it becomes more of his film and his attempts to reintergrate himself into proper society after suffering some trauma. Everything I’ve said about Karisma, it seems the opposite is true of Hrithrik. He’s in an early music number which is the made up of the usual music video posing that I despise so much. His acting is really quiter ordinary and he has a training sequence that is just blatant exhibitioism that serves the plot no purpose whatsoever.
Still, apart from that errant number, what impressed me about Fiza was how seamless the music numbers did pop up as compared to other Bollywood fare. The main characters did not drop everything to do their numbers to return to the plot when done. If anything, the music was presented as almost background music for atmospherics. It was still obvious when a number was on but it did not seem to break the flow of the story as it seems to do in other films.
So the first half, at the very least, of Fiza is great ,especially for Karisma Kapoor and there are parts of the second where she shines as well. Unfortunately, the second half has too much Hrithik Roshan posing for my tastes and the sooner he is no longer the flavour of Bollywood, the happier I’d be.