EVERYBODY SAYS I’M FINE!

Patrons get the makeover of their lives, literally, in EVERYBODY SAYS I'M FINE! That clip joint in “Barbershop” was just a, well, barbershop compared to Xen's, the supernatural salon that Alexander ('Xen' for short) operates in an upscale neighborhood of Bombay. The boy Xen saw his musician parents' deaths while he was locked in a soundproof recording studio during a fire; now he's traumatized with psychic abilities. He hears peoples' innermost thoughts, so much that he sequesters himself apart from the mental din of other human beings, nightly alone in his apartment above the shop. Still, when he's trimming and styling by day Xen can't help but learn the darkest secrets and desires of his regulars, including fallen socialite Tanya, dour businessman Mittal and egomaniacal actor Rage (director Rahul Bose). Finally Xen starts to take action, as he turns matchmaker, counselor and even avenger for his unsuspecting clients. But it's the mysterious and tantalizing Niki who gets under our handsome hero's scalp the most. For one thing, he finds himself unable to read her mind. And secondly, she has him curious about his thoughts, at last. Photographed in brilliant, saturated colors, with an eclectic soundtrack by Zakir Hussain and Carlos Santana, and dedicated by the filmmaker to his father (“who's taught me everything about love, loss and laughter”), EVERYBODY SAYS I'M FINE! is an effervescent, English-language masala of fantasy, music, romance and melodrama. It surely offers the best hair day you can have at the CIFF.