The Fakir of Venice (2008)

The Fakir is a black comedy/drama in English and Hindi based on a true story. An Indian con man is hired to find a fakir who can bury himself in sand for an installation art project in ... See full summary »

Director:

Anand Surapur

Writer:

Rajesh Devraj

Stars:

Farhan Akhtar, Annu Kapoor, Kamal Sidhu

Cast

Credited cast:
Farhan Akhtar	...	Adi Contractor
Annu Kapoor	...	Sattar
Kamal Sidhu	...	Mandira
Mathieu Carrière	...	Massimo
Valentina Carnelutti	...	Gia
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Umesh Bajpai	...	Baliram
Alessandro Bressanello	...	Danielo
Jhilmil Hazrika	...	Hameeda
Igor Horvat	...	Paulo
Sushma Prakash	...	Avantika
Marta Paola Richeldi	...	Gallery Attendant
Vikram Sahu	...	Billoo
Joginder Singh	...	Goldtooth

Storyline

The Fakir is a black comedy/drama in English and Hindi based on a true story. An Indian con man is hired to find a fakir who can bury himself in sand for an installation art project in Venice. He passes off a poor slum dweller from Bombay as the real thing, conning the European art world successfully. It is the story of a strange relationship. A relationship between two characters who are brought together to carry out a deception. To pull it off, however, they must learn to shed the layers of deceit, and move towards understanding themselves, and each other.

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

India

Language:

English Hindi

Release Date:

2008 (India)

Also Known As:

The Fakir

Filming Locations:

India

Company Credits

Production Co:

Phat Phish Motion Pictures

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

User Reviews

interesting in parts but misses the mark overall

I saw this film at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. Annu Kapoor was excellent and the film definitely has some nice moments, but overall the film lacked a cohesive direction and suffered from a poor sound mix and sloppy editing. I understand that the film's producers were not working with the largest of budgets, but one would think that a portion of the money which must have been spent to shoot on location in Venice would have been put towards hiring decent film and sound labs. I also thought that many of the supporting characters and subplots were poorly developed and in some instances, simply mistreated by the director. An example is the two "boy/girl" Italian art fans who play an important role in the film but are characterized in such an over-the-top manner that the audience cannot take them seriously.