Some days ago, I read a hilarious tweet of someone which was closer to “That film in which Shah Rukh is a fan of Shah Rukh and dying to meet Shah Rukh but couldn’t, because he himself is Shah Rukh“. That film is “Fan” in which Shah Rukh Khan acted as a fan of Shah Rukh Khan. Directed by “Maneesh Sharma” who got famous with films like “Band Baaja Baaraat”, “Shuddh Desi Romance”, this film was produced by “Aditya Chopra” under his “Yash Raj Films” production house.

Plot :

Gaurav (Shah Rukh Khan) who resembles Bollywood superstar Aryan Khanna (Shah Rukh Khan) is an ardent fan of Aryan and always wants to meet Aryan. But the day after he meets him he decides to defame Aryan’s stardom. What’s the reason behind this? How did that decision change the lives of Gaurav and Aryan? form the rest plot.

Narration – Direction :

The basic plot of this film had a very interesting line that a superstar is defamed by his own fan. Director Maneesh should be appreciated for this point but should be highly criticised for not narrating it in a convincing way.

This plot has a lot of space for the director to discuss various points but Maneesh had just concentrated on a single point of meeting Aryan with Gaurav, in the first half. That’s good but the deeds of Gaurav seemed very unconvincing. It was very hard to digest him making Sid Kapoor apologize Aryan. After harassing him physically, couldn’t a star like Sid take an action against Gaurav? Let’s leave this as Aryan had taken some action, which seemed right and Gaurav deciding to defame Aryan showed to what extent an immature fan goes. Out of the entire film, the first conversation between Gaurav and Aryan was written and shot well. Here Shah Rukh’s performance was good as usual.

When Guarav thought at the intermission that “Ab fan ke peeche star bhaagega“, I thought the second half would be interesting but nothing was done well apart from employing good production values in London and Dubrovnik. The scene where Gaurav enters Aryan’s house and destroys all his awards tested the patience and increased hatred towards him. It increased more when he tried to shoot Aryan at the drama place. If Maneesh had written this script to sympathize Gaurav then I’d say he failed because all these deeds of Gaurav to defame Aryan made me sympathize Aryan rather than Gaurav. Still, I expected a good ending but the ending shown was very indigestible. Somehow, it tried to force audience that “fans” are always right and “stars” shouldn’t have any emotions. Though Aryan said he is also a normal human being with all emotions, Maneesh failed to convey it to the audience in a proper way and made Aryan burn with guilt forever.

On watching all these, I had a question in my mind whether this script was forcibly written to portray celebrities’ problems and support them. If yes, then Maneesh should’ve convinced Gaurav.

Conclusion…

Aryan didn’t apologize Gaurav, instead I want to apologize him, not that Aryan ignored him but for me hating him. “I’m really sorry Gaurav! I hate you!“. I also want to suggest Shah Rukh like how Aryan suggested Gaurav, “Ab chod dijiyega yeh paagalpan please!“. I’m also a fan of Shah Rukh and I don’t want to see him troubled with these kinds of fans. Hope “Raees” would entertain well.

Performances :

This film is a two men show of Shah Rukh as Aryan Khanna and Gaurav Chandna where he tried his best to differ both of them from body language to vocal language. Despite narration, there is nothing to criticise Shah Rukh’s performance. He is always “Baadshah”. Remaining cast like Yogendra Tiku, Waluscha de Sousa, Sayani Gupta, Shriya Pilgaonkar and Deepika Amin were fine.

Overall Eminences :

1. Basic Plot. Just the basic plot of a fan trying to defame his star was good.
2. Manu Anand’s Cinematography. Lighting was very well done. I liked the aerial shots of Aryan running behind Gaurav on Dubrovnik rooftops.
3. Andrea Guerra’s background score. Very well recorded.
4. Production Values. When there is Yash Raj Films corporation behind, there is no question regarding production values.

Lowlands :

1. Story and Narration. Though basic plot was good, the story woven around it and the narration was completely unconvincing.
2. Runtime. Due to sluggish narration, the film got extended for 143 minutes.

– Yashwanth Aluru