Fan

Fan review :

There's something called as the "Curse of the second half"- a phenomenon where a film is simply outstanding in the first half raising your expectations to a pinnacle only to dash them to abysmal lows after the interval. It's more prevalent in bollywood than hollywood as those guys avoid intermission point even for their lengthy movies. Fan - SRK's latest wannabe blockbuster suffers badly from the second half curse syndrome.

The film starts like a home video of SRK's past achievements - montage of his films, awards, interviews etc. SRK is called Aryan Khanna - an aging superstar on a career downslide who still has enough crazy fans to cause a minor stampede outside his home (exteriors of Mannat). So basically, Aryan Khanna is SRK. His doppelganger fan is dilliwala Gaurav Chandna (SRK again with prosthetics) who considers him God and mimics him to win the "Kaloney wala competition" every year.

Encouraged by his parents (Deepika Amin- Yogendra Tiku, both adorable), Gaurav travels ticketless to Mumbai to meet Aryan, stays in the same motel as the superstar had during his struggling days and seeks only 5 minutes from him. He does get the opportunity but this meeting with Aryan leaves Gaurav totally disillusioned and angry. It's a very interesting scene which turns the graph of the film completely and director Maneesh Sharma nails it till here. It's interval time.

Next, Gaurav travels to London, creates a ruckus at Madame Tussauds and gets Aryan (who's shooting in the city) behind bars for his act. More, Gaurav infiltrates a wedding ceremony where Aryan is performing and gets him humiliated in front of all and sundry. Truly, it's by this point that the proceedings start looking fake and unreal. While in India, no one mistakes Gaurav to be Aryan but the moment he lands abroad, everyone assumes he's the superstar. Howzzat!! Also, Gaurav seems to know the entire work schedule of Aryan right to the minutest of details. Highly unlikely to happen!!

It's these glaring cinematic liberties which rob the second hour of its grit and realism. Admittedly, the two chase sequences are well choreographed and Aryan's advice to Gaurav in the violent climax highlights the pertinent point that a superstar should only serve as an inspiration for individual hard work and not as a blind obsession. Stars are also ordinary humans like us. In fact, Aryan Khanna is considerably humanised throughout by making him bear with a rude firangi cop or getting reprimanded by a rich businessman for arriving late at a performance.

Performance wise, the film belongs to SRK and he makes both Gaurav as well as Aryan memorable. In a welcome departure from his repetitive acts witnesed in his recent outings, SRK has actually "acted" after quite some time. No spreading of arms to demonstrate love, no silly banter bordering on hamming - Fan definitely ranks amongst SRK's better performances in recent times though it's nowhere close to the benchmark he's set for himself in the past - "Baazigar" (1993), "Darr"(1993), "Swades" (2004) or "Chak De India" (2007).

Of the supporting cast, only Shriya Pilgaonkar leaves a mark in her small role. There are no songs in the film; even the popular "Jabraa Fan" number is missing. Editing by Namrata Rao could have been tighter in the second half. Ditto for Habib Faisal's sagging screenplay.

All said and endured, Fan is an average fare but SRK - the actor elevates it to a cut above the commonplace. His fans will be happy for sure; those who aren't will also not mind.

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

As it has already been said by the critics a millions of times that SRK is back in form with his latest double role extravaganza, Fan is truly a grandiloquent comeback of the King of Bollywood after nearly half a dozen misses where he hardly reached the niche he had earlier crafted for himself.It is like a subversion from his previous self ,so much wooed by the lure of the business mathematics like Rs.200-300 Crores what some of the buffoonish movies of Bollywood earlier had made.But it seems the King soulfully listened to the prayers of the millions of his true 'Jabra'(Insane) fans.More importantly, he did actually pay heed to his inner self ,as Aryan Khanna would often advise to Gourav Chandna in the movie itself.And the outcome of this realization is a subtle, metaphorical and at times philosophical movie like 'Fan'.

It is highly unlikely that it will mint money like a Dabaang , a Happy New Year , a Chennai Express or even the pathetic Dhoom 3.But be rest assured that this reborn SRK has unleashed an unfathomable yet ingenious desire to strike the right chords in the right audience's heart.The extremities of the adulation of a fan for a megastar construct the periphery of this movie.Literally the periphery, as Mr.Khan in the dual role of Aryan Khanna and the love me-hate me- what to do to me Gourav Chandna holds the center-stage of this adrenaline rising sleek flick.A few scenes of the movie deserve to be remembered ever for the sheer brilliance of the actor who finally transcended the limits of being tipped,mocked and very often thrashed by the intellectuals as just a money monger with his obvious aspirations in his previous outings.The scene at the Delight hotel, Room No 205, the one where Aryan Khanna actually copies Gourav for his redemption or the climax scene where Aryan's eyes search for Gourav and Gourav's mirage makes him somber and self introspective- all offer you in bounty to adore and take a bow for Mr.khan's acting brilliance even if you are not his fan.The chase scenes are all Hollywoodesque barring the first one where you can easily find the VFX lacunae. The supporting actors are perfect in their minuscule roles.But once you are into the movie, you will gradually realize that the fallen king of Bollywood had chosen this as his vehicle to make his rejected and dejected fans believe what an arsenal of talent he still is.This movie like what I said for Swades or Chak De India as well upon their respective releases, would be a hallmark for the illustrious career of SRK and even if it fails to be a humongous hit, it will ever be remembered as a a benchmark of what skilled perfection of acting can do to otherwise an average movie.In the history of Hindi movie, it will be always remembered with the same respect what films like 'Taxi Driver','Vertigo' or 'Scarface' earned in Hollywood.Arguably the best movie of King Khan's career as an actor, this layered movie interwoven with myriads of subtleties is going to stay in your heart even when he broke the norms of being a mandolin playing or arms stretched hero in an exotic location to stay in the rat race of actors.By the way, did I forget to tell that this 144 minutes movie does not have a song and the lovable 'jabra' tune was only for promotion? Go watch it and do yourself a favor.

P.S: If I take a break from being a critic and tell what my heart not my brain asks me to do, I would always say that I loved the second half more... If there is one movie made in Bollywood you aspire to watch before you die just for sheer acting brilliance Hamin Asto, Hamin Asto,Hamin Asto...

Shah Rukh Khan already has many roles under his belt, but this one might just surpass them all, playing as Aryan a super star like his own real life persona, and his own biggest fans Chandna. It's one of the performances that resonates in personal level, there are times that audience would believe he's two different persons.

Chandna is a fan highly obsessed with his star Aryan, almost down to a fault. This may seem like harmless attachment, but after a certain incident, the fondness becomes volatile and it turns him against his own idol. The playful theme can be deceptively bizarre, but with more social media outreach, fan might just think they are actually connected to random stranger. It's shown here at its most extreme, though might be slightly exaggerated.

Both setting and make-up enable SRK to deliver crisp and flashy scenes. The sight of London and Dubrovnik make for great scenery even when he simply traverses them, but the zenith is the performance as two characters side by side. The make-up does a good job on creating highly different visages, the rest is sheer acting prowess. Some of the action scenes are admittedly awkward, it's mostly a thriller but there are a few overly long chase sequences perhaps added just for the sake of more action.

"Fan" is a tribute to one of the greatest actors in Bollywood. The acting is immensely appreciated whether one is a fan of Bollywood or not.

After a long time, finally a SRK movie that propelled me to take some time out and write up a post.

To begin with, FAN, by no means is a perfect and flawless movie (more on that later), but what the movie has successfully achieved is to unearth the untapped ACTOR out from the catacombs of mediocrity that has thus hindered the transition of THE STAR to an ACTOR.

Director Maneesh Sharma, who also claims to be a big SRK fan himself, surely knows that the general audience wants to see more than rhythmic extension of arms from the MAN who once gave extremely nuanced and balanced portrayals in Swades and CDI. And hereby comes the movie FAN which can be any actor's dream role. From an uncouth and lovable Gaurav Chandana to a shrewd, realistic Aryan Khanna, it was hard to imagine that the same actor did play both the characters and that too with so much attention to detail. There are quite a few scenes that leaves you in awe of the exemplary display of Acting and makes you wonder "where was this SRK hiding for so long?" Kudos to the Director for taking this bold step of making the movie without any songs, heroines or as a matter of fact any comic scenes as well. It is just one man show from beginning to end laced with some superlative performance.

Now coming to the flip side, at least for me, are the 3 exceptionally well designed and seemingly never-ending chase sequences which somewhat dilutes the impact. But again I see others really praising those sequences (so it depends on the taste I assume). Another glaringly noticeable point is the contrastingly different approaches to handle the 1st and 2nd halves. In the first half, the makers tried to keep the narrative as much close to reality as possible but in the 2nd half, Maneesh Sharma played it to the gallery where logic takes a backseat, but the sequences concerned are certainly thrilling and creepy enough to keep you glued to your seats.

Lastly the climax which might receive extreme opinions, but I personally loved the ending.

To conclude, this is not one of the best performance of SRK, rather his career best performance. And the movie might not earn big bucks because of its dark, grim and creepy undertones but will surely earn the love of moviegoers.

This film was supposed to be the masterful triumph to prove him once again after some buffoonish kind of film in recent times.. And what a bounceback by Shahrukh Khan... Fan not only restored my faith in The SRK's acting prowess, but also made me think that his superstardom is nowhere to go despite some doldrums... This film was never meant to be a perfect Masala potboiler.So earning money in the Box Office is never a concern...coz a lot of crap films like Prem Ratan Dhan Payo,Happy New Year etc are not only earning money but also considered a blockbuster in Bollywood.. What a shame..It seems we Indian's haven't evolved since the inception of Mumbai cinema.. I must reckon the fact that most of the coveted 100 crore films are nothing but a piece of trash.. Of course without few exceptions...

Now let's talk about the possibility of winning hearts by Shahrukh via his latest gem 'FAN'...He is just not a superstar, he is truly a national icon..So he doesn't need to prove his acting prowess at this point.. Still FAN is going to return his 'a bit diminished glory' into a spectacular manner for sure... I don't think that I need to review this piece of magnificent delight.. Go watch in the nearby theatres... Note: (Fan and 'Non-Fan'of SRK will be agreed by my point aforesaid until they watch this summer thriller.)