It is human to long with desperation for something we desire but it is equally human to shun away the objects of our desire, the moment we achieve them. Well, you could not say that this is the sole theme of the movie ‘Finding Fanny’ but for Ferdie the quest for Fanny becomes a way of finding the true emotions for Fanny. Stefanie Fernandes (Fanny), a young maiden whom Ferdie (Naseeruddin Shah) comes across when he was a coy man in his youthful days. The movie begins with a letter that Ferdie is reading in his utter melancholy , which he had written to Fanny, 46 years ago, but it was seemingly left unread , while all this while he assumed that she had rejected him.
This leaves Ferdie with immense hope to reunite with Fannie and then he sets out in her search, with the only fear, that of, in what condition he would find her now. Moreover we see him fulfilling his dreams of being reunited with Fanny while he narrates how he fantasizes of seeing young Fanny in her wedding dress approaching him. But with Fanny’s departure from Pocolim village, all he is left with is an idolized picture of her as a young maiden, forgetting that with time even people wither. It is from then that Ferdie and Deepika Padukone playing the role of his friend, Angie set out in the search of Fanny.
The overall story which already moves in a very slow pace , becomes even more slow in its development when from a French man’s house (who supposedly was Fanny’s husband) to the funeral of a woman , the quest for Fanny seems never ending. The only phase where one actually finds an element of laughter is the later phase of the road trip which is strangely the only time the movie moves in a little fast pace.
The long awaited news of Fanny ceases to exist in the funeral scene of Fanny herself. It is only when Ferdie requests to be shown the corpse of Fanny which kills all his emotions for her only to make him further aghast at the sight of Fanny moment whom he remembers only as a beautiful young girl. The very feeling of excitement is rather marred by the very sight of elderly Fanny, as a mother to a girl now.
Another outstanding example of diminishing value for any object is rightly portrayed in the portrait that Pankaj Kapur playing the role of a painter (Don Pedro) makes of Dimple Kapadia, playing the role of a widow, Rosie. Don Pedro is throughout shown as a desperate man fancying the widows physiognomy, only to put it on his canvas. His painting draws one to another hidden message in the movie when he forcefully draws her nearly naked, and once his art is accomplished, he disposes off the woman like a piece of garbage. The scene is beautifully portrayed when Rosie after realizing that she has been misused, gives vent to her troubled emotions aloud. This throws light on the vanity of the man today who treats every other human just a piece of object fulfilling his selfish purposes.
The central theme of the movie is explicit only in the end which is with the union of Ferdie and Rosie, which tells us a universal truth that, we keep our quest on for the unknown while the best is waiting right next to us, it is just a matter of right choices.
