Fiza (2000)

Director:

Khalid Mohamed

Writers:

Khalid Mohamed (story)
Javed Siddiqui (dialogue)

Release Date:

8 September 2000 (India)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

In Search of her brother

Plot:

In 1993 Fiza's brother disappears during the riots in Mumbai. In 1999 Fiza is tired of waiting and goes looking for him.

Plot Keywords:

Mother | Politician | Mumbai Riots | Suicide | Manipulation

Awards:

4 wins & 18 nominations

Cast

Jaya Bhaduri	...	Mother Nishatbi (as Jaya Bachchan)
Karisma Kapoor	...	Fiza
Hrithik Roshan	...	Amaan Ikramullah
Neha	...	Shenaz
Asha Sachdev	...	Ulfat
Bikram Saluja	...	Anirudh
Isha Koppikar	...	Gitanjali
Dinesh Thakur	...	Sayed (Muslim leader)
Sanjay Narvekar
Ravi Jhankal
Anup Soni		(as Anoop Soni)
Shivaji Satham		(as Shivaji Satam)
Sabir Masani
Johnny Lever	...	Laughing Club Comic (as Jhonny Lever)
Manoj Bajpai	...	Murad Khan (Guest Appearance)

Runtime:

170 min | UK:167 min (cut version)

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi | Urdu

Color:

Black and White (some shots) | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | Malaysia:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Haji Ali Mosque, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Company:

Culture Company, The

Trivia:

Originally Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan were supposed to have cameo appearances, but their numbers were removed due to running time considerations.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The dead mother shows eye movement in her first shot as a body.

Movie Connections:

References Missing (1982)

Soundtrack:

Gaya Gaya Dil

Movie not flawless, but leading cast shines

Hrithik Roshan's second and film critic Khalid Mohamed's first movie is an art house film with commercial interludes, obviously deemed necessary for box office performance and integrated with various degrees of success. The film suffers and profits at the same time from the 6 song/dance numbers and one prayer. While the prayer is wonderful and convincingly marries the plot with musical and visual elements, providing an esthetic and also emotional highlight of the film, the dance number by Sushmita Sen and the disco number by Karishma Kapoor, although solid and attractive per se, look forced in the context and have little connection to the film's central themes. The Karishma-Bikram song could be easily edited out at no loss. This is less the case with the Hrithik-Neha sequence which looks and sounds great and adds some desperately needed happiness to an otherwise rather sad sequence of events. And of course it's the only time Hrithik dances. Cutting this one would probably have caused riots in cinemas. The funeral piece is also well integrated and is not an artistic liability. Finally the martial training montage is as commercial and obvious as it gets, exploiting Hrithik Roshan's 'Rambo' aspect at its fullest. Technically well done and a blessing for the box office, no doubt, but artistically a capitulation. A very guilty pleasure indeed. The reason "Fiza" is nonetheless a quite impressive debut film is due to the three leads, two seasoned performers and a newcomer, but all three giving wonderful performances, and an uncompromising look at a subject that is controversial but anything but irrelevant, the Mumbai riots of the early 90s, the ethnic and religious hatred behind it and the unscrupulous forces causing and exploiting it to further their dubious causes. Watch the movie for its cast. This is clearly Karishma Kapoor's best performance so far and likely to fetch awards. As Fiza she shows great strength, resolution and the courage to lay bare emotional depths unseen from her so far. Jaya Bachchan as the mother is solid and turns in a fine performance. Hrithik Roshan, finally, puts to rest all worries that he might be a one film wonder and no real talent. His performance is simply amazing considering this is only his second film. There is hardly one wrong note to be found. His acting comes very naturally, his facial expressions speak volumes. His riot scenes have to be seen to be believed. His screen presence is impressive. He's probably the most charismatic new actor working in films these days, and I'm not talking about India alone. His performance would be very good for an old professional. For a newcomer it's incredible. His future in India and abroad looks extremely bright if that's a standard he can uphold and probably even improve upon. This is an actor to watch very closely in the future. International superstar material.