Starring : Shah rukh khan, Waluscha de Sousa, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Sayani gupta, Deepika amin, Yogendra tikku.
Producer : Yash Raj Films
Director : Maneesh Sharma
Music : Vishal - Shekhar,Andrea Guerra
Review by : Kriti Agarwal
Rating : 3 out of 5
What's about : Tony Scott's 'The Fan' [1996} revolved around a sports star and his maniac fan. SRK's Fan features a Bollywood star and his crazy fan.
1987 Stephen King novel ‘Misery' has a bestseller author locked into a deadly duel with a woman who calls herself his ‘biggest fan', and who will —even kill– to preserve the image that she has of him. In some ways, ‘Fan' reminded me of that King novel, which is part horror, part thriller, and part a rumination on how obsessive fandom and the object of all the worshipping is connected, and how when things go wrong, they can go horribly, inexorably south.
The extremes of the obsession of a fan is beyond the deciphering capabilities of a normal human brain.
In June 2015, when the actor completed 25 years in the industry, a survey showed that while nearly 2.8 billion people knew who Tom Cruise is, around 3.2 billion were aware of Shah Rukh Khan.
Location :Mumbai, Croatia, London and Delhi. First ever film to be shot at the Madame Tussauds in London.
Story : The 50-year-old Khan described the creation of Gaurav as a team effort combining Sharma's script, Chopra's vision, the VFX, input from costume and make-up people and his own performance.
Gaurav Chandna (SRK ) is not just a fan of Aryan Khanna (SRK again) but a disciple. He calls Aryan his God. From the by lanes of Delhi, young Gaurav embarks on a journey to the city of dreams- Mumbai, in order to wish his 'God' on his birthday. But when his plans fail, Gaurav, who has the most distracting set of white teeth, jumps to the dark side when Khanna unwittingly rejects his eager advances for a five-minute meet and greet.
Gaurav has a ‘kind of' girl-friend who wants to go to Amreeka,
Gaurav even names his cyber cafe as : AK Cyber Chat. He impersonates Aryan Khanna at the annual Dussehra mela and walks away with the best performer trophy every year.
Gaurav engineers a bitter confrontation between fan and idol that plays out in London, Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Mumbai. Soon, Aryan finds an imposter taking hostages and molesting girls. Even as Aryan tries convincing police and public it's not him, another 'Aryan' enters his own home, meeting his wife (Waluscha) and kids - how will this freaky face-off end?
In the first half, Neither the guards at the entrance of Aryan Khanna's Mumbai bungalow nor the hundreds of fans take any notice of Gaurav.
The repeated identity switcheroos that Gaurav pulls off are contrived to the point that even Aryan Khanna's wife falls for the ruse.
Self-deprecating humour and honesty is what makes Aryan Khanna a character to watch out for. Delhi, where heat & dust, violence & want, make tempers explode in peculiar Dilli ki garmi. Shah Rukh captures this rage with irony and empathy - he is mind-blasting.
Characters :
Shahrukh Khan [ Gaurav chandana+ Aryan Khanna ] : played to all his strengths, and he plays it just right, glids in and out of the star/fan, creates distinct identities and outlines in one scene, and blurring the lines in the next. It is a wonderful, grasping, knowing performance. It is SRK versus SRK. he rocks as Gaurav– the way he seems innocent, adorable but also villainous. Even As Aryan, he is quite brilliant and makes a tremendous impact.
Waluscha de Sousa [ Bela] : is fine but has limited screen time.
Shriya Pilgaonkar [ Neha] : makes a confident debut.
Sayani Gupta [ Sunaina) : making a mark despite limited scope
supporting cast : don't have much to do but are all able wheels to carry Fan forward.
Deepika Amin and Yogendra Tiku are very good as Gaurav's parents.
Taher Mithaiwala(Sid Kapoor) gives a good performance.
Farah Hussain(girl at the Bhutani wedding) manages to stand out. Others are fine.
Pros : Cutting-edge story, settings sharp, good dialogues that render the Delhi tone to Shah Rukh's Mumbai-ness. a song-less film works because that keeps the overdramatic tone from seeping in. cinematography commendable - bylanes of Delhi, orange rooftops in Dubrovnik, Croatia shot well. unpredictability, novel concept, mind-blowing action and chase sequences, Shah Rukh Khan delivering a fantastic performance.
Cons : Action scenes towards the climax are long. ?editing, screenplay.
Music : Song "Jabra Fan" has 8 different versions, in 8 different Indian languages, sung by 8 regional singers.
Highlights :
Gaurav takes a ticketless rail trip to Mumbai to meet Aryan Khanna. The TTE and the railway police force men give Gaurav a long rope and he makes it to Mumbai instead of ending up in jail. The hounded movie star decides to take matters into his own hands and confront his rogue fan head-on.
On a chartered flight from London to Dubrovnik, Aryan's assistant (Sayani Gupta, ) advises him to ignore Gaurav. "He is neurotic," she tells him. The star retorts rhetorically: "What, am I?"
The second half begins on an exciting unpredictable factor. But, visitors at Madame Tussauds as well as the London police are taken in by his visage and believe him to be the movie star the world knows.
If the London episode is fun, the Dubrovnik sequence is just out of this world!
A couple of quibbles : to make it audience-friendly, long sequences are devoted to star and fan chasing each other, racing down roads, leaping up and down high walls and difficult inclines, accompanied by loud background music. We see Aryan shake his tingling hand after a punch : aah, so a star also hurts!
It tells us that a ‘different' film also adopts populist measures.
Bottom line : It's engaging to watch a powerful actor and his powerless admirer indulge in a twisted battle of wills. it is a film made by a fan, for the fans of the superstars. Fan is proof that even if SRK is 50 years old, he has the enthusiasm that might put 25 yr old stars to shame. Fan ends with a Baazigar-esque twist,makes you feel Darr all over again.
Logic may not be its strong point, but despite the flaws and cinematic liberties, makes for a great watch.