Expectations
The 90’s era was known for its music and romantic films. Many actors including Aamir Khan, Salman Khan made their mark with romantic films. Though there were few like Shah Rukh Khan, who debuted with dramatic roles and did lots of experimental stuff (‘Darr’, ‘Baazigar’, ‘Maya’, etc.) in comparison to his contemporary actors. He gradually moved towards the romantic films and established himself as the king of romance. This image also established him as a huge superstar, after which this ace actor hardly ventured into the experimental films. He started enjoying the rich fruits of superstardom and churned out back to back entertaining films. In between he did films like ‘Swades’ and ‘Chak De India’, which enhanced him as a fine actor. After a long gap Shah Rukh returns back with one more different film ‘Fan’, where he has experimented after a long time. One can see him in a totally different avatar with the help of prosthetics. Due to which the excitement level has raised high as the audience want to see him back into such good films.
Story
‘Fan’ is a story of Gaurav (Shah Rukh Khan), a die-hard fan of superstar Aryan Khanna (Shah Rukh Khan). After winning a local competition, Gaurav decides to personally dedicate his trophy to his superstar. He sets out for Mumbai to celebrate Aryan Khanna’s birthday, but fails to meet his idol. In order to grab the attention of his superstar, Gaurav does something wrong. Aryan Khanna comes to know about Gaurav’s deed and fails to acknowledge him. This breaks the heart of Gaurav the die-hard fan, due to which he decides to teach Aryan Khanna a lesson.
The ‘Glitz’ Factor
The story is interesting and exciting. Though, it has some minor shades from an international film. But besides these minor references ‘Fan’ rides high on its own merits. Right from this first frame till the interval part the movie is outstanding. You will love every frame of it and connect with the fan moments of Gaurav along with his feelings and emotions. The cinematography is good and the locations of Dubrovnik will be liked for the chase scene. Background music by Andrea Guerra works in the favour of the film. Director Maneesh Sharma comes up with a brilliant concept and highly succeeds in establishing its main plot line. He gives us a fabulous first half which can be added into the list of great films from our country, but fails to carry it forward in the second half.
Shah Rukh Khan as Gaurav, is flawless. The spark in his eyes and the smile on his face is the perfect example of what a fine actor Shah Rukh Khan is. Kudos to see this ace actor back after a long time, trying out something daringly different. Shriya Pilgaonkar lend good support along with Deepika Amin and Yogendra Tiku.
The ‘Non-Glitz’ Factor
The second half of the movie moves towards the thriller element, where the thrill part keeps fading away at frequent intervals. Everything in the film’s second half, was very easily shown without any hardship, due to which it seemed fake and unconvincing. Also, the movie goes on a repetitive mode in the second half followed by dragging and stretched finale. The screenplay too, in the last part of the film was confusing and half-baked. The whole point and purpose of the film seemed diluted in the finale.The movie is a song less film and people will miss the ‘Jabra Fan’ song. The thriller part lacked the excitement as we had seen in ‘Darr’ or ‘Baazigar’. It was just that the movie was going on and on without any excitement and conviction factor. Director Maneesh Sharma fails to do justice to the character of Gaurav in the finale part where the whole purpose of the film gets diluted due to the half-baked script. Shah Rukh Khan in the role of Aryan Khanna the superstar has nothing new to offer.Sayani Gupta is wasted.
Final ‘Glitz’
‘Fan’ has a great concept with a fantastic performance by Shah Rukh Khan as Gaurav. It’s definitely among his best performances. Sadly, the movie fails to match up with this brilliant acting and ends up among all those films where there is nothing left after the revelation of its unique story line.Still, despite of its flaws, it’s a must watch for all Shah Rukh Khan’s fans.