SAIFF 09: FATSO Review

Let me get this out of the way fast! Don't let the title fool you, it's kind of a misrepresentation of Rajat Kapoor's film, especially with such a limited meaning in English. In fact, Kapoor doesn't even like the title and he'll probably be changing it before the film releases in India next February. Perhaps even back to the original title, Rectangular Love Story (which it is listed under on IMDb)



Now that we have that out of the way, what is this really all about? It isn't quite like Bollywood, and it isn't quite Hollywood... and I say to both, thank god! Sure they do their thing, and there is the rare occasion where they do it well... But what Kapoor has managed to do here is make a mainstream, commercial film with an independent vision. Presenting an accessible film with clear, global appeal, without sacrificing artistic integrity or undermining his characters or actors. He doesn't pander to the audience one bit, yet Fatso has an energy that is undeniably infectious.

Let's hit the sidelines for a moment. This is embarrassing, but I've forgotten the name of our kind of, sort of, starting out as protagonist played by Purab Kohli. You see this was the world premiere so there isn't a lot of info on the film, and oddly enough the film's synopsis doesn't even mention him. But it is my own fault for not writing it down *amateur*. So until someone helps rectify the matter I'll just refer to him as Kohli.

Kohli and Nandini (Gul Panag) are madly in love, so much so it might make those who aren't kind of sick. Kohli proposes to Nandini after a few too many drinks during new year's celebrations, and all their friends are there to celebrate; There's the good looking young couple, the brash, Yash (Neil Bhoopalam) and his girl (Gunjan Bakshi), and then there's Sadeep (Ranvir Shorey), affectionately called Fatso. A new year, new possibilities, new worries, new excitements... oh to be young!

Walking into a movie not knowing a thing other than the title can be a blessing and a burden. It is definitely the best way to see most films. In Fatso's first fifteen minutes of fresh faced youth in a very hip, cosmopolitan scene I was hoping that it just wasn't going to be "shy, overweight guy secretly loves his cool friend's girl", because if so I wasn't really sure if I was willing to go along with it; that felt too shallow, too easy. And then Kapoor throws us for a loop, something that would have most definitely been spoiled had other reviews been out there, so I really regret being one of the first to say it... Kohli dies in a car crash. It's a shocker of a scene, masterfully handled from all sides. The prologue is over, now we're in the meat of the story.

Nandini attends the last rites, and begins to ponder how to pick up her life. Yash and Sadeep are there to help. Problem is Yash was the one who was secretly in love with Nandini all along.
Kohli's story isn't over yet though, as he's taken up (in a freight elevator) to what can only be the offices of afterlife incorporated. As one errand boy puts it, "There's no heaven or hell. That's just propaganda." Kohli falls in step, waiting in queues that stretch an eternity, having to fill out paper work sky high; it's a fantastic send up of Indian bureaucratic red tape. Now here's the twist, Kholi wasn't supposed to die, Sadeep was. And another? Kohli's body was already cremated, and no they can't make a duplicate like a lost passport. Solution: Kohli's gotta return in Sadeep's body and Sadeep's soul will go on to... rumors are you go to a really nice garden and just walk around with not a care in the world.

Yeah, it's high concept, and may sound a bit silly, but what makes it all work is Kapoor's ability to tell a story that encompasses so many emotions and states of being simultaneously. Though the film bounces around in tone, he never betrays the world he's created.
A very well known actor in India, Kapoor asks a lot of his young cast, and with his guiding hand they carry the film beautifully, sharing a real multi-spectral humanity that lights up the screen. Schemes are hatched, people are hurt, and friendships threatened, but not one person here is a bad person. Yash may seem like a jerk, but he's a well meaning jerk if not a lot more. Kohli worries about being in Sadeep's overweight body, but as the title might wrongly suggest this isn't a film that makes fun of fat people. And nor is it about Kohli reclaiming his lost love, whislt learning to live in his new body. For by the end we get the sense that out of this ordeal a totally new soul, new person occupies the body of Fatso. More than anything it's a celebration of life and love, which, yeah, we see a lot of in movies, but this one does it without a pretentious bone in its body. A rare feat indeed.