Finding Fanny

About the film

Finding Fanny is a 2014 Indian English-language satirical road film directed and written by Homi Adajania, produced by Dinesh Vijan under Maddock Films and presented by Fox Star Studios. Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia, Pankaj Kapur, Deepika Padukone and Arjun Kapoor feature in prominent roles. The film is based on a road trip set in Goa and follows the journey of five dysfunctional friends who set out on a road trip in search of Fanny, the love interest of Shah's character. The film had its premiere in India on 1 September 2014 and was released worldwide on 12 September 2014. It was selected to be screened at the 19th Busan International Film Festival in October 2014.

Plot

Ferdie Pinto receives a letter at midnight and realises that his one true love, Fanny Fernandes, never knew how he felt about her. Angie, Ferdie's friend, had married Gabo Eucharistica, who died suddenly during a wedding party. Determined to find Fanny, Ferdie and Angie set out on a journey, joined by Savio Da Gama (a friend of both Angie and Gabo), Gabo’s mother Rosie, and the unsavory artist Don Pedro Cleto Collaco. In the past, Savio had loved Angie but stepped aside after she married Gabo.

On the journey, Ferdie throws Rosie's cat out of the window by accident whilst sneezing as he is allergic; so to keep her unaware, he retrieves the dead cat and pretends that it is sleeping. They visit Fanny's old house and find a deranged Russian, Vladimir, who tells them Fanny sold him the house 20 years ago and moved to Tivoli. Ferdie tells Savio that Rosie's husband is not dead, but instead had run away to Madagascar with another woman, and Rosie had simply lied to the village for the sake of her pride. As they approach Tivoli, Ferdie thanks everyone for joining him on his journey – but unbeknownst to him, most of the other passengers have their own reasons for making the trip. Savio soon realizes that they have gone the wrong way, and are now in the state of Karnataka due to wrong navigation by Ferdie, who cannot read a map. When they run out of petrol, Ferdie volunteers to go and get some in the morning, so the group spends the night in the open field next to the road. Don Pedro tries to seduce Rosie into being a model for his painting, whilst Savio and Angie go away from the others to talk. Savio tells Angie that he does not have a big business in Mumbai as presumed, but rather, he was a waiter for 5 years and is not wealthy. It is revealed that Angie only married Gabo because Savio never asked her, and she was in love with Savio as he was with her. He kisses her, and sh…

In the morning, Ferdie goes to get petrol and comes back to find Rosie posing in the field for Don Pedro, Angie and Savio busy talking. The artist has now dropped his charming attitude of suave sophistication and is mistreating Rosie. When she sees the painting, she is devastated to find that it is a nude, unflattering portrait of her. Don Pedro walks off with the painting and finds the can of petrol that Ferdie has left, along with a letter explaining that he is going on alone and thanking them for coming this far with him. The rest of them start to leave, but Rosie refuses to go, saying that they can't leave Ferdie. She gets extremely upset and begins to yell at Savio, telling him that he should have died instead of Gabo and that Gabo only married Angie because Savio was in love with her. Savio angrily tells Rosie that she is selfish and reveals that her cat is actually dead, but she hadn't even noticed, leaving everyone else to look after it. They bury the cat and set off home. On the way, Rosie accidentally opens the glove compartment in the car and finds Savio's father's revolver. She puts it to her head, intending to shoot herself. When no one notices, she coughs, and Savio sees his dad's revolver, which is an antique and worth a lot of money. He begins to wrestle with Rosie for the gun whilst driving, causing it to go off, and Don Pedro gets shot in the head, without any…

Production

Homi Adajania wrote the first draft of the screenplay during his month-long stay at the village Salvador do Mundo. During this period, he also studied local Goan Catholics, and added some dysfunctional characters into what he called, "hybrid Marquezian Indian village", which became the fictional village of Pocolim. To get local nuances and cultural research right, he took the help of Goan writer Cecil Pinto. Adajania didn't intend to write the film as a road film; instead, he placed it in the genre of As Good as It Gets (1997). This was his second collaboration with Kersi Khambatta, who also wrote the dialogues for his debut film, Being Cyrus (2006). Khambatta wrote the scenes, chapter by chapter, like a novel, which aided in the development of the script. The screenplay of Finding Fanny was adapted from a novel by Kersi Khambatta. The 200-page novel is expected to hit shelves later in 2015.

Key details