‘Fanney Khan’ is a story of hopes, dreams and relationships. It’s about a father who will stop at nothing to put his
daughter on the grand stage as the next singing sensation of India. It is the remake of the 2002 Oscar nominated Belgian film Everybody's Famous.
He couldn’t become Mohammad Rafi, but harbours a dream of his daughter becoming Lata Mangeshkar. Prashant Sharma (Anil Kapoor) popularly known as Fanney Khan among his gulley friends, works hard to make ends meet, idolises Shammi Kapoor and lives only for his dream of superstardom. He fails to achieve that and hence pins his hopes on his new-born, even naming her Lata (Pihu Sand). Now in her teens, Lata not only sings well but also dances like a dream despite her plus size that regularly makes her an object of body shaming on stage.
The movie takes its time to pick up the pace and it is a roller coaster ride as it moves forward. The script, however, has its loopholes and could have been tighter to make it more believable. Woven into the narrative are short but touching messages of body shaming and celebrity prejudice. For a musical, the soundtrack doesn’t live up to the expectations. The finale song, however, has an energetic vibe to it.
There is also the matter of Baby Singh and Adhir, and Aishwarya and Rajkummar play out those scenes with real feeling. They have a chemistry that’s genuinely sparkling, and I’d have liked to spend more time with them, but that track ends too abruptly.
Instead the film gives too much screen time to a track involving a betrayal by Baby Singh’s cunning manager, played by Girish Kulkarni, the extraordinary Marathi actor who’s wasted here. He has an especially creepy scene with Lata that made me cringe.
For a film with music as one of its central themes, the songs in Fanney Khan are underwhelming, except for the rousing climatic ballad Tere jaisa tu hai. Pihu Sand lipsyncs to the number with such gusto, you’ll be easily fooled into thinking she’s actually singing it herself.
Fanney Khan squanders so much potential, it practically breaks your heart. Only Anil Kapoor succeeds in leaving his stamp all over the film, making your heart go out to this 'selfless' man on a mission.
But it’s the words of his wife, played by a lovely Divya Dutta, that stick with you in the end. “Kya star banna zaroori hai?” she asks, as if predicting the price they will have to pay to achieve his dream for Lata. That’s a question worth pondering. A question this film completely disregards.