Fitoor

Fitoor is an Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film directed by Abhishek Kapoor, produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur, and written by Kapoor and Supratik Sen based on Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations. The film features Tabu,Aditya Roy Kapur,Mohammed Abrar and Katrina Kaif in leading roles.Filming began in Kashmir in November 2014. The film was released on 12 February 2016. The film grossed Rs 3.61 crore on its opening day, according to film analyst Taran Adarsh.

Noor (Mohammed Abrar) a thirteen year old Kashmiri boy who belongs to poor upbringings meets and is deeply infatuated with Firdaus who belongs to a rich elite family in Kashmir. Her mother who is referred to Begum (Tabu) was left heart broken in her younger age (Aditi Rao Hydari) and is against the love especially with the social divide. She splits the teenagers and insults Noor about his social status. Few years later Noor (Aditya Roy Kapur) who had moved to Delhi and becomes a renowned artist comes back to town with his newly acclaimed fame and money. Firdaus (Katrina Kaif) is engaged but still has romantic flings with Noor. After initial friction with Noor Begum slowly starts realizing her mistake, but is still adamant to get Firdaus married to her fiance, Bilal (Rahul Bhat). Noor's love for Firdaus bears all the hardships of time and emotions and succeeds at the end.

Cast

Aditya Roy Kapur as Noor (Pip)

Mohammed Abrar as young Noor (Pip)

Katrina Kaif as Firdaus (Estella)

Tunisha Sharma as young Firdaus

Tabu as elder Begum Hazrat (Miss Havisham)

Aditi Rao Hydari as young Begum Hazrat

Rahul Bhat as Bilal

Akshay Oberoi as Mufti

Talat Aziz as Salman

Sameer Roy as young Salman

Delbar Arya as Shaukat

Lara Dutta as Leena Becker

Kunaal Khyaan as Aarif

Jason Shah as Aarif's friend

Rayees Mohi-ud-din as Junaid

Khalida Jaan as Rukhsar

Ajaz Rah as Kaleem

Dilnaz Irani as Samira Peerbhoy

Namit as Jagirdar

Kavita Seth as Hazrat's mother

Suchitra Pillai as reporter

Rochelle Rao as auctioneer

Nandini Srikar as singer in "Hone Do Batiyan"

Zeb Bangash as singer in "Hone Do Batiyan"

Govind Namdev

Andy Von Eich

Ajay Devgan (special appearance)

REVIEW: So, Fitoor, based on Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, meets some expectations - but not all. In a Kashmir of moonlit snows, mist-filled houses and golden leaves, Noor (Aditya) falls in love with Firdaus (Katrina), daughter of eccentric Begum Hazrat (Tabu), who lives, covered in diamonds, in a castle of chandeliers and chintz.

Firdaus leaves to study. Noor wins an art scholarship in Delhi - where he meets Firdaus again and time stands still. Firdaus finally warms to Noor. But what happens when Firdaus decides to marry Pakistani politician Bilal instead? Why does Begum push Firdaus, despite knowing Noor's love? And who is Noor's secret patron, making his art a hit?

Fitoor's acting pleases in parts. Tabu shines through moments of malevolent manipulation, snarling 'Kaisa kamzarf waqt aa gaya hai', as she glares balefully at Noor, then smiles sweetly at him. Aditya occasionally conveys a bewildered lover lost in a whimsical world while Katrina looks gorgeous but mostly stays placid. Ajay Devgn has a cameo as a growling jihadi, all bark but no bite, while Rahul Bhat, the most consistent here, impresses as heavy-lidded Bilal.

The film also looks gorgeous - but opulence takes over substance, chinars, minars and lace dominating grip, passion and pace. For a love story, Fitoor lacks heat - you wish there was less hair-styling and more hair-pulling, more rupture and less cheesecake-like smoothness.

This is problematic because Dickens' Great Expectations rises and falls, exploring terrible, tantalising class, social climbing, sharp snobberies, love, hate and shame. Fitoor doesn't dive beyond the surface though, its story's shikara paddling along pretty Kashmir, but never tearing its way to its violent, wailing heart like Haider, its art stuck in a banal Mediterranean restaurant-like world, never conveying the lonely powers of love.

You get style - including six-pack Noor painting shirtless (explains why artists score more - can you imagine writers taking their tops off to work?) - but little depth. To play with a great quote, oh what a tangled web we weave, when we learn to retrieve - in this case, retrieving a classic indeed caused a tangle, albeit one of Pashmina dhaagas.