Fitoor Reviews round-up: What do critics think of the Katrina-Aditya starrer?

Movie: Fitoor

​Rating: **1/2

Directed by: Abhishek Kapoor

Starring: Katrina Kaif, Aditya Roy Kapur, Tabu, Lara Dutta, Aditi Rao Hydari, and Rahul Bhatt

What's it about: Based on Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Fitoor is the story of a poor orphan Noor's (Aditya Roy Kapur) love/obsession for rich girl Firdaus (Katrina Kaif) from the moment he sets eyes on her. Her adoptive mother Begum Hazrat (Tabu) invites him to do a menial job in the stables and before long the haughty Firdaus accepts the lad with torn shoes as her friend. Soon after, he misses her birthday party due to a tragedy in his personal life, to find her gone from his life. Begum packs her off to London to study. Life goes on for the heartbroken lad, till an unnamed benefactor lands at his doorstep with an opportunity to display his art in Delhi. Noor meets Firdaus in the capital after over a decade. He hasn't gotten over her, and that doesn't change even after she tells him she is engaged. She won't repeat the mistake Begum did, and marry for love. She has been trained to marry for money. He finds fame but when Firdaus discovers she has feelings for him, she runs away yet again. He goes back home heartbroken. But he gets a second shot to make it as an artist in London, only to find she is getting married there. They both realise all too late that they are pawns in the hands of Begum. Fitoor is about love that destroys, heartbreak that refuses to heal and revenge that is blind to reason.

Here's our review of Fitoor. Read full review here. 

And here's what other reviewers think about the film. Do critics have 'Great Expectations' from the film? Or have they given it a big thumbs down? 

Indian Express:
Katrina Kaif, Aditya Roy Kapoor’s film spares no one, not Kashmir, not Delhi

‘Inspiration’ Charles Dickens is just the first casualty. Fitoor spares no one, not Kashmir, not Delhi, not London, not artists, and not even poor Pakistan, which somehow finds its way into this tale essentially about love traversing social divides. Meanwhile, having decided that in a film where all of Aditya Roy Kapoor’s hair is bunched upon his head and all of Katrina’s is plunged in a Chinar-esque red, in the hope perhaps that you don’t notice their blank faces below, Tabu takes it upon herself to act for the entire film.
Read full review here.

Catch News:
It is an exotic body with a paper heart

It's no coincidence that the striking portions of Fitoor, therefore, are the parts loyal to Cuaron's version: the introduction of a terrorist, little Firdaus (Tunisha Sharma) and her mannerisms - down to her uppity walking style, and Tabu's immortal lines. "Kya dil toota hai tumhara," she nonchalantly remarks to Noor on the occasion of his finest artistic exhibition. There's nothing like a broken heart to fuel creativity, she seems to suggest. But then again, does she realize that? With Tabu and her nuanced intonations, it's difficult to tell. Her internal struggle is palpable only because she struggles to accept it.
Read full review here.

NDTV:
The director extracts a dazzling performance from the star of the show – Tabu as Begum Hazrat Jaan. This figure is a reworking, and elaborate extension, of Charles Dickens’ Miss Havisham, a character that has been played on the big screen by the likes of Anne Bancroft and Helena Bonham Carter. Tabu makes the moody Begum her very own, interpreting the volatile character’s gradual descent into insanity with a superb sense of balance. Not a step she takes nor a gesture she makes is out of place. The lead pair of Aditya Roy Kapur and Katrina Kaif might seem at times to pale a touch in comparison. But overall, both Aditya and Katrina stay within their limitations and match Tabu’s intensity in the crucial scenes of the film. Do not expect great momentum from Fitoor. It has its share of slow-moving passages. Instead of taking anything away from the drama, these sluggish moments, more often than not, are mood-enhancing. But these are but minor hiccups in what is a highly watchable film shot with impressive flair by cinematographer Anay Goswamy.
Read full review here. 

The Hindu:
Katrina is good so long as she has to just be herself. So she dances, smiles and flirts cutely but the minute a dramatic scene comes up that patent “moist eyes and dewy lips” act draws attention to her utter inadequacy as a performer. Aditya has to look completely mesmerised by her and deeply unhappy in love which he does adequately. An air of mystery, artifice and affectation, coquettishness and stylised speech — Tabu’s Begum is a world of her own, often hard to fathom but she holds the viewer in her grasp and Fitoor eventually turns out to be her film than that of Noor or Firdaus. It’s her enduring love that has more pain and intensity than the plastic emotions of the film’s lead. Or for that matter the director’s love for the Kashmir panorama.
Read full review here. 

Hindustan Times:
Aditya and Katrina in a beautiful but shallow affair

Aditya and Tabu are undoubtedly the best bets in Fitoor. While you are likely to fall in love with Noor (Aditya), pity and hate is what Tabu’s Begum Hazrat evokes. You detest Noor for his stupidity but his haunting looks and hopeless-yet-passionate love makes your heart melt. Tabu brings in dramatic energy and a sense of gravitas to Fitoor. Watch out for one of the last sequences where Noor confronts her and Tabu’s dramatic Begum gives her best. Melodrama and a superficial love story are some of the road blocks that hinder a beautiful cinematic journey Abhishek Kapoor wanted to take you on.
Read full review here.