The film is directed by the renowned Times of India (TOI) film critic Khalid Mohamed and produced by a big honcho in TOI, Pradeep Guha. As a result, Fiza received some amazing coverage in the TOI and Mumbai Times for a month or so before the film's release, through some cleverly placed news items. And asking Subhash Ghai to review it was a masterstroke, because his panning of the film actually had the opposite result and stroked my desire to see the film.

It is a damn good movie. And after a long time, a film that makes you think.

We, humans are extremely resilient and tend to forget tragedies over a period of time, partly due to our daily act of living and our set routines. Which is why for most of us, the 92-93 riots are like a bad dream, that keeps rearing its head only when someone brings up the Srikrishna report or unearths yet another facet that has not been talked about so far. We read this in a newspaper or magazine, shake our heads over our own foibles and then go back to what we have been doing.

Except that there are people who were directly affected by the riots; people who lost their husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, parents and friends; who saw the depths to which humans can fall; who saw how there is no reasoning with a herd; who realized that religion is nothing but a method of controlling the masses and just another way of getting away with heinous acts in God's name. For them, the nightmare may never go away, though hopefully the tincture of time may have tempered the angst. Fiza is about these people.

In this film, Fiza (Karishma) launches a search for her brother Amaan (Hrithik) who goes missing during the 1992-93 riots. Through flashbacks, we learn that Amaan was almost killed during the riots, but saved himself by in turn killing others. He is then saved by Murad Khan (Manoj Bajpai) who takes him to Rajasthan and trains him to be a part-terrorist, part-thief. Fiza finds Amaan in Rajasthan through some amazing co-incidences and then brings him back to Mumbai, where he finds that he just cannot fit into the daily routine that his mother (Jaya Bachchan) and sister live. And then one fine day things suddenly turn themselves on their heads.

How can one go wrong with Karishma, Hrithik, Jaya Bachhan, Asha Sachdev (as the friendly neighbor), and Santosh Sivan as the cinematographer. Khalid Mohamed had so much to prove, considering that he crossed the fence and actually dared to make a film, after years of criticizing 95% of all Hindi films. And, he comes through, really!

Not that everything is perfect.

The song by Sushmita Sen in Rajasthan and the other one by Karishma in a discotheque are totally uncalled for. There are many loose ends; like the entire concept of Amaan running a jihad at the Rajasthan border. All we have is one scene where he robs a shop and another where he and his friends fight the police...these do not make a jihad. With just one rucksack, Karishma has too many changes of clothes during her Rajasthan trip. The music is passable...Anu Malik should stick to lifting tunes from South Indian or Western music.

After a long time, Mumbai has been filmed in such a great manner, with all its filth and grime and natural locations. The scene where Fiza tries to run after Amaan when she first sees him in an auto-rickshaw on the other side of the road is amazing. Another interesting facet was the use of an on-site microphone to capture Karishma's crying, instead of dubbing it later...the give-away is the background noise of cars passing by.

Some actors are born and some are made. Karishma, Manisha Koirala, Raveena Tandon, Jackie Shroff, etc are examples of "made" actors, who after a few films have learnt the ropes on the job. Hrithik is a born actor and confident and handsome to boot and he will be the next superstar. No one currently has it like he does. Karishma is also very good...and has a great role after a long time. Jaya Bachhan is a treat to watch. And wonder of wonders...Johny Lever in a short cameo actually makes us laugh.

We then went to Trattoria for dinner. It has shifted to the first floor of Hotel President, replacing Casa Mexicana, while renovations are on in the lobby. The food as usual was terrific...in case you didn't know, it has been and still is the best Italian restaurant in town.

And on the way home we saw the new weekly topical Amul ad, "Fiza...in search of her butter."