Movie Review: Fan

The badshah is back!

Just when I was ready to give up on Shahrukh after years of being a fan (having watched Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, RaOne, Don 2, Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Diwale on screen!), I think I won't give up yet. And what an irony, it happened after watching the movie 'Fan':).

Every year on Diwali, we would go and see the first day show of the latest Shahrukh release. Just because it was the thing to do - of course we had to see his movie in the theatre! After Dilwale I had vowed that this had to stop. I would not go for his movie, just because it was his movie.

And so even after seeing the trailers of Fan, I did not plan to go for it at all. I did not even check the reviews online as I had no hope. But when I got reviews from a friend that it was worth going (online reviews don't count for much here as they are not really honest and dependable;-)), after a lot of debate and thought, I decided to go for it. (Btw it might be true for a lot of other people - Saturday evening and the theatre was empty!).

And I can say with a lot of happiness, I was not disappointed. Fan is hopefully the return of the better chapter of Shahrukh's movie career, his initial years. It reminded me of the days of Darr and Baazigar when Shahrukh was supposedly different. I hope after having been the badshah of the box office for so many years, he will derive some satisfaction now from doing different roles as this one and spare us from the atrocities like from the last few years.

As for the movie, its better than what it looks like from the trailers. Its the story of a fan of Aryan Khanna who looks like him. When his fan-dom is not appreciated by the star, he decides to make him notice and appreciate him. The movie has a simple story, not too complicated. It does have various layers to it but not deep enough that it makes you over-think.

One thing though I would like to point out - I wasn't clear in the end who to have more sympathy for, the fan or the star. And to be honest, I think both are shown to have shades of grey. This was a not a clear Darr kind of story, where one's obsession was totally out of bounds and wrong (or was it?). And I did read reviews of the movie being unbeleivable in parts. I mean, its a Hindi movie, come on!

By all standards, the movie is different from all of Shahrukh's last few offerings. It has no songs (yes, no songs at all!). Even the title song that has been playing across all television channels has been missing from the movie. Shahrukh does not go overboard with himself playing the star. He plays the character of Aryan Khanna and not himself, Shahrukh. Which is a big deal! This was one of my biggest fears because of which I did not want to watch the movie. He has been so obsessed with himself over the last few years that I just expected this movie to be an ode to himself. Surprisingly, and thankfully, it wasn't.

Both the characters of Gaurav and Aryan look and feel different. And they both look good and young. After ages, I saw the SRK that we all had crushes on in DDLJ. He has looked like that after a very very long time. And his acting as both the characters was different too. You could sense who it was even when they were switching between each other. After a long time, I saw the Shahrukh who could act. Most of the other cast though could not:)). His secretary, Sunaina was quite a low point of the movie. As were many of the other actors. But it did not matter, it was Shahrukh - the actor's - movie:) (and thankfully not the star's).

I think my entire review was more about Shahrukh than the movie. But then this is what this movie is, a return of the actor Shahrukh which made him the star. Hope this phase continues...

Would rate this as a 3.5 star.