Fida - Movie Review
Published: August 10, 2010
By EKTA R. GARG
Starring Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Fardeen Khan
Current heartthrob Shahid Kapoor got his start in Bollywood under the direction of Ken Ghosh; both made their debut with Ishq Vishk (2003). Young girls couldn’t get enough of the teenybopper flick, and the actor-director duo came together for their second film, Fida.
It’s love at first sight for Jai (Shahid) when he sees Neha (Kareena Kapoor) and he pursues her relentlessly. Despite her initial reluctance, she eventually reciprocates Jai’s feelings, and the two seem to progress through a typical boy-meets-girl love story, when director Ghosh throws audiences a curveball. A parallel plot track about a series of Internet bank robberies suddenly intersects with Jai and Neha’s life; Neha says she needs a lot of money, and through a series of unexpected events, Jai turns himself in with a false confession about being the thief. The love story becomes, by turns, a thriller as Jai disappears and then reappears in Neha’s life.
Fardeen Khan appears in a supporting role, but as in all of his films, he comes across as a fake version of himself. One can’t help but get the idea that he thinks of himself as a big star and is trying to be a star throughout the entire movie. What could have been a challenging role turns out to be nothing more than an exercise in unfounded arrogance.
Only a year old in the industry when Fida released, Shahid doesn't yet have the maturity needed for a role of this caliber. Despite that, however, he acts well and there are hints of the older Shahid his fans got to see much later in films like Jab We Met (2007) and Kaminey (2009). The fact that Kareena has more acting experience than Shahid shows, making her seem older than him. Nonetheless, the two obviously had fun during the songs and the first half of the film.
Incidentally, Shahid and Kareena became romantically involved during the shooting of Fida. (They broke up three years later during the shooting of Jab We Met.)
For die-hard Shahid Kapoor fans, Fida is Worth Watching, but others may feel like it deserves a Skip post-intermission.
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