Poor Charles Dickens! I am sure he never meant for Great Expectations to be a Bollywood romance. He called it a ‘very fine, new grotesque idea’ when he thought it up. Fitoor is this very finely shot, very bizarre breathy romance film which is saved by moments of true madness displayed by the brilliant Tabu.

…the story is decently fleshed out and all smoking guns covered. The trailer with the songs is very misleading and makes it look like one of those ‘also ran’ movies. But it isn’t like that. It is a decent story that only fails because at 154 minutes, the end is so long drawn.

The computer generated scenes are a tad cringeworthy because they are so obviously computer generated. But on the whole the story keeps moving on a predictable path.

The movie deserves praise for sticking to the sports underdog-movie formula and offering us a decent watch. Madhavan as always is delicious on the screen, despite being given the instructions that he has to be Khadoos (crotchety) all the time. Once you get used to the even louder student (marvelously played by newcomer Ritika Singh), the film sort of grows on you. But the predictability of the story makes its 109 minutes feel like three hours.

The beginning of the movie, the music, the hero’s charming presence, the funny appealing dialog keeps you so happy, you sort of believe that the movie is going to be better than fabulous. But the predictable turns the story takes throw the whole movie down a cliff and it just crashes.

We like stories of unlikely ordinary men who obey the call of extraordinary circumstances and turn out to be heroes. The story of one of the largest rescues is nicely packaged here as a movie and presented with Akshay Kumar at his earnest best. It takes its own sweet time to set up, but when the story proceeds, it literally ‘takes off’.

Although the movie has been made with the right premise in mind, and has an enviable cast, the shoddy execution makes it a terrible watch. You sit through it because it means well.

Wazir surprises us with a brilliant beginning and Amitabh Bachchan emoting with just his face and Farhan’s seething passions are near short of a miracle, you think. And then with the second half of tiresome explanations and almost laughable action sequences, the film simply freefalls into tediousness.

Surely smashing your toes by a hammer would be more entertaining. Invest in that hammer instead of buying a movie ticket. And please sign an online petition that will prevent David Dhawan from remaking Chupke Chupke.