You have to give points to Homi Adajania for sheer courage to make a film like this for our audience. And a pat on the back of our audience, who have appreciated the film, which has crossed 24 crores in the domestic market.

Some have called it ‘off beat’, some a ‘dark comedy’, for me it just seemed like a ‘slice of life’. A very strange slice, of 5 people who at the very least project their own insecurities and desires and at the most are as vulnerable and idiosyncratic as any of us.

The project is to find fanny, or Stephanie, an old lost love. But it turns out that the 5 (6 if you count the cat) actually find themselves, without meaning to. There is no big realization or epiphany. It is simple, mundane, albeit not entirely ordinary and in those moments we have laughed. Which I think is very difficult to achieve, and more difficult to create.

Dimple Kapadia clearly stole the show, her character having a graph of extremes. Naseeruddin Shah, our love lorn bachelor, plays his emotional and dreamy character very well. Pankaj Kapur, gave us a theatrical performance of an eccentric artist, whereas Arjun Kapoor did what he does best, underplayed, intense, with some great dialogue delivery. Deepika Padukone was perhaps the buffer, the stabiliser between all of them, the glue of sanity, and as always, she delivered an honest performance.

This film HAS TO BE WATCHED IN ENGLISH. The Goan lingo won’t work otherwise. Great writing by the director and Kersi Khambatta. Watch out for unexpected laughs, some very witty lines, expressions and situations.

3/5