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Fan (2016)

Fan is a movie about passion, devotion and obsession. It is a story of all those starstruck fans for whom their idol is the reason to their life. Coincidentally and (un)fortunately, there isn't a dearth of fans like that in India who are always ready to go overboard to fulfill their craziness. You, me and our society is no one to judge them and label them as stupid, psycho or crazy because it is difficult to understand their perspective unless you are a Fan. As Gaurav says in the film, "Rehne de tu nahi samjhega"

Film starts with the tribute to SRK with footage of his old hits, his first Filmfare award and what not. SRK plays almost himself as Superstar Aryan Khanna, which must have come naturally to him. What I admired in the film was character portrayal of Gaurav the Fan (also played by SRK with 3D scanning and prosthetics). Expressions of Gaurav the Fan are praiseworthy and you'll admire his transition from a bindaas carefree happy go lucky guy to a revengeful mastermind schemer. 2 scenes which I particularly remember are:

i) His eyes popping out when he gets the call from Aryan Khanna
ii) He bites his lip and shows with action, "De de ke maara.. De de ke maara"

Other actors hardy have any screen time. Of course, when you have 2 SRKs in the film then other actors shouldn't have much hope of any footage. Waluscha de Sousa plays Aryan's wife and does justice to her role as a beautiful mannequin. Yogendra Tiku and Deepika Amin as Gurav's parents makes you empathize with them. Especially the scene where they are supporting Gaurav as backstage artists. Shriya Pilgaonkar (daughter of talented Sachin and Supriya Pilgaonkar) reminds you of cute and bubbly Priety Zinta / Genelia D'souza.

Theme of the film is quite fresh - "A crazy fan and his quest to meet his idol". But somehow script writer Habib Faisal couldn't build on the story further and story fizzles out by interval. What follows is a typical Bollywood Masala movie of "Catch me if you can". It is a hackneyed plot which is not only shown in Hollywood (The Fan, 1996) but also in SRK's own film Duplicate (1998). I am glad that the film doesn't have any songs (not even the Jabra Fan) and manages to get over under 150 min. But the chase sequence promoting tourism in Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Indra Vihar, Delhi were a bit drag.

There are limitless glitches in script which are hard to ignore. Superstar running amok after a common man, jumping from building, bleeding everywhere. Why does he has a security team and army of bodyguards? Gaurav wasn't a bright student in his class and runs a cybercafe. Suddenly post interval he becomes crime master Gogo, manages to get Aryan's phone number, gets access to his itinerary, manages to get fake id, WOW! May be Director forgot to show that Gaurav did a brief stint in Al-Qaeda where he was taught to become James Bond. Even the end of film was negative and reaffirms the fact that a fan's only identity is his idol. He is nothing without him. C'mon, is that the message SRK wants to give to another 100 psychotic fans of his who are ready to go any extreme with a drop of hat.

Verdict: This film is an out and out masala flick made for the numerous fans of SRK. If you are a fan (of SRK or any other celebrity) then it'll strike a chord with you. Else, you won't be able to relate with all the craziness going around. However in absence of any good films in theater now, you can go and watch it. You won't be pleased but not a bad idea to beat scorching heat in AC and comfortable sofas.

It’s obvious from the trailers that this film is YRF’s love letter to SRK.
This has to be the most narcissistic film EVER made. But is the movie any good ?

Yes. Definitely. The movie is good, but after the end, the entire audience was left with the question, why ? what was the point of the film ? what was it trying to say ?

Fan is about a guy called Gaurav, from Delhi who is super-Star Aryan Khanna’s (SRK) Biggest fan. He wants to meet his idol, show him his trophy. Instead his dreams get crushed and he plots revenge.

The direction of this film is very good. In the first half most scenes are VERY realistic and true to life, not over blown or treated like a typical blockbuster. But the second half raises the stakes, adds a thriller element and also becomes a bit over the top. But that is to be expected from an SRK film.

Music wise this movie suffered a lot. The music was adequate but not inspiring, nor did it manage to carry out the action scenes that well.

Now we come to big selling point of this film. SRK’s Double role and acting. I am not a huge fan of SRK, but he has truly outdone himself. His double take as Gaurav the Fan and Aryan the star are portrayed SO differently, that just from body language its clear who is who. If the aim of this film was to show case SRK’s range, it did so rather well.
Special mention for Gaurav’s makeup. His nose is very different from SRK’s real nose and his eyes are bigger to. I have NO idea how they did those, make up, FX, prosthetics, god knows. But they managed to make Gaurav look like a 25 year. It was simply amazing how much they looked alike YET different.

Normally I would rate this film a Six out of Ten. But plus 1 point for the AMAZING double role, makeup and two SRK’s interactions with each other. Also Plus Half a point for SRK’s acting as Gaurav.

Displaying shades of Darr, this is SRK’s most innovative & narcissistic film in years. This is miles and miles ahead of Duplicate by Mr. Bhatt and his best double role till date.

Rating : 7.5 / 10.

Footnote : I don’t know if this film is trying to disrespect fans in general or just saying that over the top fandom is a bad thing. But either way, why comment on it? since the first day first show audience is always the FANS!