Fan

Just when many of us started to think Mr. Shah Rukh Khan is gradually loosing his substance as an actor, he does a Comeback; a comeback with his unmatched acting abilities. And he picked up the right script to do it. After directing 3 youth-appealing romantic films, director Maneesh Sharma indeed gave Mr. Khan that scope to be self-indulged in the film which celebrates Khan's previous masterpieces. Being well supported by the supporting characters, KING KHAN has delivered his one of the best performances. It can never be easy to pull off double roles on screen but the way he maintained the balance between the two contradictory characters of Superstar Aryan Khanna & his hardcore fan Gaurav Chandna, it deserves a lot of appreciation. Despite being consisted of a great script, FAN is not deprived of loopholes. Climax seemed heart- rending but a bit unconvincing & irrational. But, the screenplay keeps the adrenaline pumping for most of the scenes in the movie. To be honest, the film gave few goosebumps & emotional touch at times as a SRK fanatic. The Background Music,Dialogues,Cinematography etc. are perfectly suited with the movie. The idea of a song-less film added more taste to the delicious dish. On a nutshell, Its surely a rejoice for celebrating the whole idea of FANaticism. Not only for the admirers of SRK but the movie 'FAN' is also a treat for every fanatic person,one who devoted to a particular persona from any field. It seemed good as a film but great as a SRK fan. And Mr. Khan aces his on-screen dual characters with ease. Thank You Shah Rukh Khan for gifting a worth-cherishing film after a long time.

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.

There is no doubt that 'Fan' as a movie is flawed, but the most surprising and assuring fact is that in this film, Shah Rukh isn't. We all have been a little concerned in these recent years. With no brainers like Dilwale, Chennai Express and that abomination of a film with Farah Khan, SRK was more concerned with his status as a superstar, rather than focusing on his acting attributes which is actually what his fans care about. 'Fan' is Shah Rukh's gift to all those lost people, reminding them that he hasn't forgotten his roots. He still can pull off the charm of a teenage, brawling guy from Delhi as well as he can portray the famous superstar, burdened with all the curses that come with it. Gaurav Chanda is the character you fall in love with, the guy who might not share the same passion for his idol as you do, but remind you of the universal wish, "We all want our '5 minutes' with our star." Shah Rukh pulls off one of the toughest characters in his careers with utmost ease and acting brilliance. Gaurav is a character people will talk about as long as Shah Rukh, indirectly what Gaurav wanted.

Aryan Khanna on the other hand is the character I enjoyed more. Shah Rukh pokes fun at his own personal tussles in the Bollywood industry. He displays his transparent yet controversial life for the whole world to see, and judge him, as people have done for the past 25 years. Avoiding the debacle made by Priyadarshan in Billu Barber's Sahir Khan, Maneesh Sharma's Aryan Khanna is closer to life, closer to our hearts and SRK does him a singular justice. Maneesh Sharma as a director did an okayish job; while the VFX and make up were beyond extraordinary, the second half of the film was drawn into 'post interval hell' due to unnecessary action chases and showdowns between Aryan and his fan. It gets pretty annoying at times, because by this time you already know that the film could have been a lot more. The cinematography seems repetitive at times, too many close up and reflection shots. But the focus is always where it needs to be; Shah Rukh Khan.

The irony is, 'Fan' is in fact the answer to all the prayers of Shah Rukh's Fans. To once again dazzle and mesmerize us with his surreal screen presence. We, the fans of SRK, wait for a year long to see him on screen, and we deserve something like 'Fan', he deserves something like 'Fan'. The world deserves something like 'Fan'.

I was 9 years old when Pardes and Dil Se flopped, every critic, every layman said, he is finished, and then he made a stellar comeback with Devdas. Chennai express, HNY, Dilwale all were commercially successful but SRK was losing his fan base as these films made little justice to his talent and stature. Again articles started floating through out social and print media"Is SRK's career over???". The answer was out on 15th April when FAN hit the screens. SRK has made a comeback and how. "FAN" by all means is a content driven theme, but make no mistake FAN is a average film but it is a brave film. You laugh with Gaurav, you cry with Gaurav, your heart melts when he says"Rehn de, tu nahin samjhega". Fan is an exhibition of acting and skills displayed by SRK or should we say the "Comeback Kid". They say he is stereotyped, they say he doesn't experiment, who would have had the courage to do a RA-One, though not a great film but at least an experiment at something better. No Doubt FAN was a brave move and one that has paid off. Only SRK and only SRK could have acted in a film like FAN, after all nobody loves SRK ore than himself. With few interesting projects up his sleeve fan could just be the comeback vehicle SRK was looking for. Now coming to his performance, SRK is simply brilliant in both the characters played by him, he is contagious as Gaurav and everyone could find a bit of themselves in him. He was a delight on screen, absolute magic. More often than not when SRK plays himself he tends to overdo it but this time as ARyan Khanna he got it just right, that look, that controlled aggression, that Dilliwala toughness, every thing was evident. As some body said "Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom", the rock bottom was landed on SRK but he has come back with a stunner. People who still don't understand the real SRK or the actor in him --"Rehn de, tu nahin samjhega"

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...