Can earnestness kill? Fanney Khan proves it and how. Despite the presence of a heavy duty cast, the film is just not able to fly. So bogged down does it get with its predictable arc and overt sense of righteousness that it ends up flat and deadening; silly rather than scintillating. Based on the Belgian film, Everybody’s Famous , it would, perhaps, have soared a bit had the director decided to make it whimsical and quirky. The overindulgence in emotions, however, proves to be detrimental.
- Director: Atul Manjrekar
- Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao, Divya Dutta, Pihu Sand, Girish Kulkarni
- Run time: 129 minutes
- Storyline: A factory worker turned taxi driver hatches a plan to bring his singer daughter in spotlight
Anil Kapoor plays a factory worker turned taxi driver Prakash, aka Fanney Khan, who wants to bring the singing talent of his daughter Lata (Pihu Sand) in spotlight and works out a weird strategy for that. Helping him out in his plan is a young colleague Adhir (Rajkummar Rao) and the pivot of it is the star singer Baby Singh (Aishwarya Rai). Almost all of the characters end up being single-note and clichéd, their relationships with each other lack spark. Kapoor, Divya Dutta and Sand, despite all the sincerity put in the show are unable to rise above the mediocre material. And it’s a pain to see one of our best actors — Girish Kulkarni — reduced to an awful caricature.
Last year we had Advait Chandan’s Secret Superstar , on a similar theme of trying to make it big in the world of music. Despite its share of naïveté and narrative contrivances it was able to forge a connect with the audience with its emotional authenticity and freshness. Fanney Khan , unfortunately, leaves one cold.
Published - August 03, 2018 09:26 pm IST
