In Hindi cinema, probably there is only one actor who can make us love a negative character time and again. It’s incredible how one can generate sympathy despite being an antagonist. After a very long gap, SRK gets into those shoes with FAN.
First and foremost thing you will notice is Gaurav, a character which would resemble any hard-core fan of a movie star. There is a vast difference between a movie lover and a FAN. A FAN is always in an illusion that his star is the ultimate god and his words are wisdom. A FAN has a totally unique point of view and occasionally ignores rationale. A FAN has an unconditional love which probably a family member of the star cannot give.
Gaurav (Shah Rukh Khan) is a 25 year old Delhi boy and a FAN of Aryan Khanna (Shah Rukh Khan). He is also called Junior Aryan Khanna in his colony as he always displays Aryan’s mannerisms perfectly. He even wins a trophy for imitating Arya is the most unique way possible with the help of his parents. Gaurav decides to gift that trophy to Aryan as an expression of love. His craze for Aryan has no bounds that he deliberately travels without ticket to Mumbai as SRK travelled without ticket to Mumbai in that train without ticket in his struggling days. . He is caught by the railway police but he insists that he will pay the money for the ticket but will not take the ticket. He even threatens to jump off the train. With such matchless love, he tries to meet Aryan Khanna but ends up being thrashed in jail. The obsessed fan is broken when he learns that Aryan has ordered to put him in jail for two days. The war between the FAN and the star begins.
First things first, this is very special film keeping in mind the way SRK’s film usually works. This one doesn’t have a single song. Yes, Jabra doesn’t even come after the rolling titles. There is no heroine. There is no romance.Maneesh Sharma has purely stuck to the script without any deviations. The movie introduces the conflict very early though and because of which the rivalry aspect is saturated after a point of time. Habeeb Faisal’s screenplay was excellent in some portions. He is very good when he teams up with Maneesh Sharma. SharatKatariya along with Habeeb’s golden dialogue was ‘Rehne de tum nahisamjhoge’ which has been used in the film at very crucial stages. Namrata Rao’s editing could have been a bit crisper. The chases were too long. And most of the action choreography was unsolicited.
Performances wise, SRK as Gaurav was top-class. The screen presence was something very magical. The body language he carried was priceless. SRK as Aryan Khanna was very ordinary, but killed it when Aryan Khanna pretends as Gaurav.
FAN is one such film where it confuses you whether to support the insane unconditional love or practical and bounded liking. This is the movie, especially if you are a fan of some star or if you want to feel the madness of a fan.
