Introduction:
Finding Fanny revolves around five rather dysfunctional characters that live in the quaint sleepy village of Pocolim, nestled deep in the interiors of Goa, India.
Pocolim is a village where pointless conversations are a way of life. Nothing ever really happens here and the people of Pocolim, well, they just exist.
One night, the old postman Ferdie, receives a letter that is slipped under his door. He realizes that it is the letter he had written 46 years ago to the love of his life, Stefanie Fernandes, asking for her hand in marriage. To his utter shock, he discovers that had never been delivered. All these years Ferdie has lived a life of melancholy regret, believing that Stefanie had rejected him. He decides to find his beloved Fanny (as he fondly called her) and tell her the truth. Where would she be after 46 years? Dead? Happily married? Would she even remember him? Or is Stefanie Fernandes merely a figment of Ferdie's imagination?
Four colorful characters from the village join the trip under random pretexts, though in actuality everyone wants a distraction from their mundane lives. A young virgin widow, a bitter mechanic, a belligerent artist and an obnoxious self-appointed "Lady" of Pocolim join Ferdie as they experience various hilarious and moving events that change their lives forever.
Finding Fanny is an off the wall, comical story about a bunch of oddballs who venture out to find Stefanie Fernandes (Fanny); in the process, they discover a strange sense of solace and love amongst each other, and end up seeing a point to their previously pointless lives.
Ferdie (Naseerudin Shah), 65 yrs, is the village Post Master. Finicky, quirky, highly emotional and a perpetual worrier. Ferdie goes about his life focusing on mindless details, rather than consequences of his bizarre actions. His only reason to wake up every morning is his passion for singing - Ferdie is the main soloist in the Pocolim church choir. He finds a larger purpose to his life, soon after the story starts.
Savio da Gama (Arjun Kapoor), 24 yrs, is a broke and embittered car-mechanic. He is cynical, anti-social and feels victimized by the several bad cards Life has dealt him. He is the quintessential loner, and has been extremely independent from a fairly young age. When the story starts, Savio has reluctantly returned from Bombay (where his business has failed) to Pocolim to secure a crumbling inheritance (which is all he has). Savio has loved Angie ever since they were teenagers. Unfortunately, he never made his feelings clear to her, and though she did love him then, she never knew he felt this way.
Angie (Deepika Padukone), 26 yrs, is a virgin and a widow who has a childlike curiosity about life. She is very simple and speaks as she thinks. Often, this brutal honesty comes across as brash or eccentric to people who do not know her, but she is unaware of this. Angie tolerates her mother-in-law Rosie's insufferable behavior, because she does not judge, and is blissfully unaware that people judge each other. Her best friend is Ferdie, the postmaster, whose obsessive quirks she finds endearing and lovable.
Rosie Eucharistica (Dimple Kapadia), 55 yrs, is a plump, very opinionated and obnoxious woman. She believes she is the only 'Lady' in Pocolim. She prides herself on being a martyr and a servant of the church, though in reality she is a lazy slob who makes her daughter-in-law Angie do all the work. Rosie lives lamenting her son Gabo (Angie's brief husband) who died 8 years ago on his wedding day, leaving behind his bride whose virginity Rosie feels dutybound to protect. Her only other obsession is her scruffy, narcoleptic cat, Nereus, who has a penchant for dozing off in his milk and having near-death drowning experiences.
Don Pedro Cleto Colaco (PankajKapur), 55 yrs, is the fiery, reclusive, temperamental artist who has recently rented a villa atop a hill outside Pocolim. In the art world he is known for his Rubenesque style, capturing large people whose largeness he celebrates on his canvasses. Pedro finds this extremely erotic and satisfying. When the story starts, we see a very frustrated artist who has lost his spark and finds nothing inspiring until he sees Rosie for the first time. He obsesses over her, decides that she will be his muse, and that this will be the grand rebirth of his flagging artistic career.
