FAN (review)

Superstar Aryan Khanna sits stigmatized in a detention cell while a local goon pisses a few inches away & right after a humiliating police interrogation, instantly agrees to pose for a selfie with a female officer, while few scenes later he performs like a monkey for a rich NRI’s daughter’s wedding even after he is spoken curtly by the man who thinks the star is his personal toy he just acquired the rights for. Ah! stuffs that our stars are made of! As Aryan Khanna it was interesting to watch Shahrukh as a non apologetic narcissist, self deprecating himself & being extremely critical about his own stardom in the film, from being insecure about his fading age & the rise of younger actors to playing safely for the gallery over the years, the actor took a huge leap from his romantic hero image.

No, i haven't seen Misery or The king of Comedy, so i m not sure of the references, but 10 mins into the film and you are introduced into the intriguing world of Gaurav Chanana, a lookalike to the superstar Aryan Khanna, whose craziness, love & almost platonic relationship with the star is even celebrated by his doting parents, lovingly indulging him in impersonating his antics on stage. With his lovable child like exuberance, he creates a space for himself in your hearts, but post his meeting with the star & being reprimanded & dejected by the star's rudeness, his hero worship turns into hatred, so much so that he almost turns into a psychopath. The scenes where the star & the fan or rather the master & his puppet comes face to face are brilliantly executed with much credit to Shahrukh's Gaurav emoting entirely with his innocence in the first half while with vengeance in the pre climactic scenes. So far so good with the reality, but post intermission the film falls terribly into the same conventional pattern with some illogical hide & seek game of the star and his doting fan! From selling his cyber cafe to reaching london & dubrovnik all of a sudden in his rage & revenge, to slyly getting inside the star's personal space, Gaurav's sudden transformation from a child like buffon to a smart 'man on a mission' image doesn't quite fit into the narrative,

But even with all its commercial loopholes, the film is watchable mostly because of Shahrukh's returning back to his Darr, Baazigar, Anjaam days with sweetness of Duplicate's Babloo thrown into the character. Wish the script had stayed a little bit more 'realistic' post interval.