Fitoor

About the film

Fitoor (Madness, Obsession, Passion) is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic drama directed by Abhishek Kapoor, produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur, and written by Kapoor and Supratik Sen based on Charles Dickens' 1861 novel Great Expectations. The film features Tabu, Katrina Kaif, and Aditya Roy Kapur in lead roles. Filming began in Kashmir in November 2014 and concluded in October 2015.

Now considered a cult classic, Fitoor was released on 12 February 2016, coinciding with the Valentine's Day weekend, and proved to be an underwhelming success at the box-office. Upon release, the film received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, with high praise for its soundtrack, cinematography, costumes, and performances of the cast, with Tabu's performance receiving widespread critical acclaim; however, its screenplay and pacing received criticism.

Plot

Noor Nizami, a 13-year-old Kashmiri schoolboy from a lower-middle-class family, works as a part-time errand boy in order to earn some pocket money. His employer is Begum Hazrat Jahaan, a rich widow who lives in perpetual mourning and never leaves her sprawling but run-down mansion. She therefore needs an errand boy to do the shopping, go to the post office, the bank and so forth, and for this she employs Noor, the son of a respectable but poor family. Noor becomes infatuated with Hazrat's daughter, Firdaus, who is the same age as him. Hazrat notices this, and disapproves of her daughter being so friendly with an errand boy. Nevertheless, Noor and Firdaus grow closer until Hazrat sends her abroad to a posh boarding school, insulting and taunting Noor as she breaks the news. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Hazrat had been left heartbroken in her youth by her lover, presumably Firdaus's father.

Ten years later, Noor is a grown-up young man with artistic talent. He wants to go to a prestigious art school in Delhi but lacks money. He suddenly receives a scholarship to attend the same art school, sponsored by an anonymous benefactor who has seen his work at a patrons' symposium organized by the school. He moves to Delhi, where he encounters Firdaus and Hazrat. Due to several coincidences, Noor begins to believe that it is Hazrat who is paying for him to go to art school. By this time, Firdaus is engaged to Bilal, a Pakistani diplomat. However, there is an immediate rapport between her and Noor even after so many years. Hazrat habitually treats Noor like an underling or errand boy, and after she observes the rapport, she makes her behavior towards him even more peremptory and insulting. This is acceptable to Noor, who thinks that beneath her tough exterior, she is actually his patroness. Noor's feelings for Firdaus have not changed, and they begin a friendship, which evolves into a relationship. Hazrat sees that Noor is now a successful artist who moves in posh circles, and she slowly begins to realise her mistake, but she is still adamant that Firdaus should marry Bilal. A flashback of Hazrat and her lover, Mufti, who left her pregnant and ran away with all her jewels, indicates why she is so adamant that her daughter should treat Noor with maximal wariness and marry Bil…

Noor travels for an art show in London, where he finds out that his art scholarship was actually sponsored by Moazzam, a Kashmiri terrorist who he had saved when he was young, and not by Hazrat. Noor is deeply alarmed to distress on realizing that he is merely a pawn in Moazzam's scheme, but is even more shocked and upset as it dawns on him how Hazrat has been playing him all along. Noor confronts her; she denies manipulating him and bursts into a fit of rage, where she rants about her former lover Mufti. Noor realizes that she has been seeking redemption by transposing her desire for vengeance against Mufti towards him by tormenting him and plotting to destroy him; she cannot bear to see other young people happy, not even her own daughter. Noor goes back to the gallery and burns his artwork, which was related to the memory of Firdaus. Another flashback shows that in fact, she lost her baby and Firdaus is her adopted daughter. She wakes up from that semi-dream distraught at what Noor has said about her bitter and diseased inner self and she then commits suicide.

Production

In October 2013, Disney UTV announced its upcoming production Fitoor, a Bollywood adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations to be directed by Abhishek Kapoor with Katrina Kaif and Aditya Roy Kapur signed as the lead pair. Rekha was confirmed for the role of Begum Hazrat in January 2014 but later opted out and was replaced by Tabu. The film also stars Aditi Rao Hydari, Rahul Bhat, Akshay Oberoi, Lara Dutta, Suchitra Pillai and Andy Von Eich in supporting roles. The script was written in a span of over one year with the British writer and Katrina Kaif's then rumored boyfriend Ritwik Wrights leading the production unit.

Principal photography began in Srinagar, Kashmir in November 2014 and continued at Nishat Bagh on the banks of the Dal Lake in Srinagar in January 2015. The film was also shot at Humayun's Tomb in Nizamuddin East, Delhi in March 2015. The remaining portion of the film was shot in Mehboob Studios, Filmistan Studios and Film City, Mumbai from April to September 2015. In September 2015, the cast and crew flew off to Poland to shoot the last leg of the film at the Goetz Palace, Brzesko and Warsaw's traditional and contemporary art galleries. The shooting of the film was wrapped in October 2015.

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