Released. Critic Khalid Mohammad's directorial
debut Fiza cannot escape from criticism.
Though the film is considered in the line of
parallel cinema, it does have all the ingredients
of commercial cinema. It is the story of a
widowed mother Nishatbi (Jaya Bachchan) and
sister Fiza (Karisma Kapoor) waiting for Aaman (Hrithik
Roshan) who is lost in the 1993 Mumbai riots.
Nishatbi is very optimistic and believes that her
son will return. After six long years, Fiza is
fed up of the suspense and starts the search for
her brother. In her search she meets different
types of people and finally manages to find her
brother Aaman in the border region.
Aaman comes home but is a disturbed person. He
tells Fiza that he has joined a group that is
doing jehad. Nishatbi cannot bear the truth and
commits suicide. In the pre-climax, Aaman is
appointed to kill two fundamentalist leaders and
later finds that his own group wants to kill him.
There is no escape but death for Aaman.
The first half of the film is interesting but
sadly the main theme of the film "In search
for her brother" gets over in the first half
itself. The second half is dragged on with too
many plots. The story is good but what is at
fault is the screenplay. The director tried to
put too many commercial elements in the film like
Karisma's dance in a disco and Sushmita Sen's
dance number. Looking into Hrithik's popularity,
it seems the director pushed more Hrithik's
scenes which look out of context. And overall the
impact of the film is lost.
However what's best about the film are the
excellent performances by the lead stars. Jaya
Bachchan has given a very impressive performance.
Karisma Kapoor's character of Fiza was
very strong and she has done a brilliant job in
performing it. This role was very different from
what she has been doing till now. Hrithik Roshan
has proved again that he has all the talents to
stay in the industry for a very long time. He
emotes well and is also good in his dances. Neha
as Hrithik's girlfriend has hardly anything to do.
Same is the case with Bikram Saluja in the role
of Karisma's love interest.
Music is very good by Anu Malik, but some of
the songs are not placed well.
All said and done, even the critic has not
been able to avoid those loose points that he has
so often been critical of in his own film.
