Fanaa

Movie · 2006 · 9 people

Kunal Kohli wrote and directed Fanaa, a 2006 Hindi film that mixes romance, drama and thriller; Aditya Chopra and Yash Chopra produced it for their company Yash Raj Films. The title is a Sufi word for the dissolving of the self. It ranked among the costliest Hindi films of its day, brought Kajol back to the screen after five years away, and was the first time she and Aamir Khan played a romantic couple.

Set in Delhi and Kashmir, the story follows Zooni, a blind young Kashmiri woman who falls in love with tour guide Rehan while visiting Delhi for a performance, unaware that he hides a dangerous secret. Believed dead after an explosion, Rehan is in fact a member of a separatist organization, and when their paths cross again years later Zooni must choose between love and conscience. Released on May 26, 2006, the film was a major commercial success despite being banned in Gujarat over Khan's remarks on the Narmada Dam project, and it won three awards at the 52nd Filmfare Awards, including Best Actress for Kajol.

Director	Kunal Kohli
Production company	Yash Raj Films

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Kajol

Aamir Khan Actor · 61 years old Rehan Qadri Rishi Kapoor Kirron Kher Sharat Saxena Tabu Karan Johar Lara Dutta Sanaya Irani

Last reviewed: November 3, 2026

Through different eyes

AI-assisted editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives. They are not reader reviews; those are below.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

Fanaa starts out like a romance, then shifts gear: once Rehan's secret comes out, the story turns into a thriller. A separatist group, an explosion and paths that cross again years later suddenly raise the stakes. That turn is the film's strongest card. The romantic part takes up a lot of room before it, and it weighs on anyone who came for the tension.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

Fanaa places the Kashmir question inside a big-budget Bollywood romance, a bold but risky choice. The relationship between a young Kashmiri woman and a man revealed to belong to a separatist group shrinks the region's conflict to a question of individual conscience; it offers an emotional frame rather than opening up the political background. The film's ban in Gujarat is telling in its own way: the reason was not its content but Aamir Khan's remarks about the Narmada Dam. It shows how closely cinema and public debate are intertwined in India.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Fanaa takes its name from a Sufi concept meaning the annihilation of the self, which gives the film an ambition beyond melodrama: the idea of love as dissolving oneself in another. Kunal Kohli builds that idea mostly through Zooni; the blind young woman caught between love and conscience carries the film's emotional weight, and Kajol's Filmfare award for Best Actress does the role justice. Being one of the most expensive Indian productions of its day fits that ambitious approach. The script, though, never takes the concept to its full depth; the big emotions are mostly resolved through familiar melodramatic patterns.

Fanaa

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