Fatso - Mini Review

No wonder if you haven't heard of this movie. Its a small budget movie with relatively lesser known cast and took a long time to be released at only a few screens. That's also the reason why DVD is out so close to the movie release. That's part of the reason I think it deserves a review online. People need to know Bollywood is not just song and dance, although thats what still makes the most money. The movie despite borrowing from a few others is fresh in its execution. Its not the kind that shouts out any messages at you but are there for you to pick up and make sense of. Free from expected cliches, at times you want it to do what it doesn't. Naveen (Purab Kohli +/- Ranvir Shorey) returns from dead to be with his girl friend Nandini (Gul Panag) but there's a twist. He must win it all over again and with a handicap - he is in his friend's fat, boring but artistic body with its own share of dreams. The believable part here is that we are increasingly a society of people who appear friendly, interesting and lovable but shallow and looking out for their own interests. One of Naveen's friend is at that level and is leading the race to take over his girl friend. Primarily because he is more interesting and better than the fat one and knows how to appeal to a woman's sympathetic side. Nandini appears to be falling for it, being 'naive', one might say but it could easily be because she wants to do it. That's where the film is different and needs to be treated so. There is never a big revelation of an exchange of souls. No showdown that you might be craving for. Very much like real life, Nandini falls in love a second time for what she really wants her man to be like, someone who might be similar or maybe even better than Naveen. For me the film and its essence is very much like Amol Palekar's Paheli ( Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukherji) in the sense that its a silly story at the face of it. Look beyond the hocus-pocus and you discover the theoretical difference between romance and love. There are some light moments, especially in the depiction of an Indian style bureaucratic office of heavenly affairs - with files, queues, babudom and delays. It's not there just for the sake of it of course, there's some satire and some philosophy under those files, behind that red tape. To summarize - watch if you prefer subtle meaningful cinema and care to make a statement against the success of Rowdy Rathores and bodyguards.