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 mesmerized by her and deeply unhappy in love which he does adequately.
An air of mystery, artifice and affectation, coquettish 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