When a Fan takes on his Hero. Review on Fan

Story of a die-hard'Fan' whose admiration turns sour.

It is a human tendency to be inspired by another human in whom they see qualities one wishes to acquire and thus gives birth to a ‘Fan’. A ‘Fan’(s) who lacks self-control can take it too far and devote their time worshiping humans as their god and mess up their lives.

Story: Gaurav Chandna(SRK) is a die-hard fan of Aryan Khanna(SRK), an established Bollywood Superstar.  Gaurav who calls himself ‘Junior Aryan’ runs a Cyber Cafe in Delhi. His performance as a copycat of Aryan wins him Rs.20, 000/- and the most coveted Trophy at the ‘Super Sitara Competition’ – a local event. With the Superstar Aryan’s birthday just 2 days away, Gaurav desires to personally meet Aryan to show him the ‘Trophy’ - an accomplishment he wishes to dedicate to the Superstar. To recreate and experience Aryan’s life, he wants to travel from Delhi to Mumbai without ticket like Aryan and stay in the same room no.205 at Delite Hotel, Charni Road. While Aryan gives a public appearance to the crowd gathered outside his home, Gaurav is unable to grab his attention. The hot topic next day is that Aryan on his birthday slapped Sid Kapoor for having flirted with his wife. Sid Kapoor is seen on TV bad mouthing Aryan. Gaurav sees an opportunity and in a nicely orchestrated drama gets Sid to apologize on camera. While the apology version goes out to the media, another version is sent out to Aryan to win his favor. Expecting a favorable response, to Gaurav’s shock, Aryan sends him to jail. Gaurav’s contention is that Aryan should be grateful and thankful to him but Aryan retorts that Gaurav committed a crime and he would not spare even 5 seconds for a Fan like him. Shocked to receive a non-caring hard hearted response from his Idol who he considered as God, he decides to turn the tables on Aryan. To fund his vengeful payback plan, Gaurav sells his business and follows Aryan’s itinerary. Posing as Aryan, he creates a ruckus at London’s Madame Tussauds museum and gets Aryan arrested. He enters Dubrovnik in Croatia ahead of Aryan and warns him that unless he apologizes to him in public, he would continue to tarnish his name and mess up his next program. Once back in London, Aryan seeks help from a Top Cop in India who expresses his inability to assist in a foreign country. With his name tarnished, there is a united effort by all event organizers to boycott Aryan Khanna, and his events get cancelled. With no support from the police who demand evidence from Aryan to prove his innocence, he then takes it upon himself to deal with his tormentor and clear his tarnished image.

Cast: The three beautiful female support cast Neha(Shriya Pilgaonkar) as Gaurav’s one way heartthrob, Waluscha de Souza(Aryan's wife) and Sayani Gupta(SRK’s assistant) looked elegant and had limited but impactful roles. Each one of them will be happy to be associated with SRK in this Super hit film. Yogendra Tiku and Deepika Amin as Gaurav’s parents supporting his dream were noteworthy.

Script: The script is inspired(not a copy) by the Hollywood film ‘The Fan’ starring Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes. The script of ‘Fan’ had a novel idea and it was possible to practically execute the entire plot logically and sensibly. With two SRK’s who did not match in their looks, height, vocal delivery or lifestyle, there was a good plot at hand. However, the execution of the script failed in the second half where the roles were reversed and the two characters were supposed to play each other. It was unconvincing and the viewer was disengaged from thereon. The characters were made to look alike, travel abroad, speak fluent English and fit in each other’s shoes whenever convenient and it was too much for the audience to swallow. We have seen that happen in ‘Rabne Banaa Di Jodi’. Also whether it was Aryan chasing Gaurav or SRK bashing up SRK, both seemed to be a drag.

Direction: Maneesh Sharma has a successful track record in directing hit films namely ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’, ‘Ladies vs Ricky Bahl’ and ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’.  With ‘Fan’ he had a tough task having to direct SRK in two different looks and characters with a script that had several loopholes. The Director’s haplessness and inability to convincingly execute the plot in the second half was strikingly evident and there was no scope for editing to cover-up the flaws. A film that could have been an outstanding sensible flick ended up just like any other Bollywood potboiler.

Songs: The movie has only 1 song ‘Jabra Fan’. Music is composed by Vishal-Shekhar and lyrics by Varun Grover. Though you may have heard the song in various other languages for promotional purposes, none of them featured in the movie.

Conclusion: It is not the first time that an actor in dual role has played the characters of protagonist and antagonist. It was SRK obsessed with SRK that made the difference. The runtime of the film is around two and half hours. The first half is inspiring while the second half is unconvincing and may disappoint a few. The cinematography is excellent and the locales in London and Croatia were nicely covered. After the movie being delayed for want of finishing touches and with all the talented cast, time & resources available, one would wonder why the second half could not be improved upon to have an enduring impact on the audience, and the answer was given by Gaurav at the end “Rehne de, Tu Nahin Samjhega”.

Bottom-line: With 99% domination of the screen time by SRK, ‘FAN’ is a total SRK product and nothing can stop this film from being a Super Duper Hit.