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Release date:
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April 15, 2016
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Director:
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Maneesh Sharma
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Cast:
Language:
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Shah Rukh Khan, Shriya
Pilgaonkar, Waluscha de Sousa, Yogendra Tiku, Deepika Amin, Sayani Gupta
Hindi
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We have watched stars wave warmly
at fans from their balconies and cars, saying a kind word here and there at sundry
public dos. We have seen them interact with their admirers at well-organised corporate
meet-and-greet programmes. What happens though after those few moments of
engagement? Beyond the smiles and cordiality, how would a public figure react when
a fanatical supporter demands more than some seconds and wants to play a larger
part in his life?
Writer-director Maneesh Sharma’s Fan sets out to answer those questions not
by dispensing grandiose philosophies about fame and achievements, but in a
specific scenario featuring Bollywood superstar Aryan Khanna and a cyber café
owner in Delhi, Gaurav Chandna, who is obsessed with him. Gaurav is not a routine
fan-turned-stalker of the kind celebrities have been known to report to the
police. His actions involving Aryan have far-reaching consequences in his own
life and in the fortunes of the object of his devotion.
To say more would be to give away
too much. Know this: this film is not a light-hearted affair as it might seem
from the lovely promotional song Jabra fan. It is not a comedy drama, although the hugely entertaining opening 15
minutes might suggest that. It is funny and engaging to begin with, and then at
one point changes gears in a completely unpredictable fashion to become an uncommon
thriller revolving around one star who turns out to be a human being after all and
one very foolish fan.
While the film establishes Gaurav’s
Aryan fixation and his parallel career as an Aryan impersonator, it is
unrelentingly amusing and believable. Adopting a patronising tone towards
Gaurav would have been the easy thing to do, but it avoids taking that lazy
route to elicit laughs or turn us against him. Yet it manages to make him a
creepy, disturbing creature. When it switches modes, it remains gripping in a
way you might usually expect in a crime flick. Again, it would have been so
easy to paint Aryan as either satan or saint, but the film does neither. And though
it has a couple of flaws that are exasperating to say the least, the narrative
is so pacey and the acting so credible that there is not enough time to stop
and think too much while events unfold on screen.
Shah Rukh Khan plays both Aryan
and Gaurav with help from an excellent team of make-up artists who ensure that
Gaurav bears an uncanny resemblance to his idol yet is clearly younger and,
when you give him another glance, different. There is also some clever
camerawork at play here, which serves to make Gaurav a slighter figure.
Their personalities are dissimilar
not just because of prosthetics, creams, brushes and trick photography though.
SRK alters his body language, his posture and his mannerisms to dissolve into
Gaurav, in a way we have seen him do once before to differentiate his Don from Amitabh Bachchan. Through much of his career, Shah Rukh has played to the gallery with
his performances, delivering that charming dimpled grin and the trademark quirky
mannerisms that his dedicated followers are so in love with. It is such a
pleasure to see his star traits take a backseat in Fan while he reminds us, as he did with Chak De! India and Swades,
that he is a tremendous actor when he chooses to be one. C’mon SRK, give us
more of this.
Two problems in the script by
Habib Faisal pull this film down though. First, considering that he is such a
major film star, Aryan seems to be accompanied by a rather minuscule personal
team at a gala in Dubrovnik, Croatia – one manager, one lawyer, one
securityman. Really? Don’t know about other industries, but Bollywood stars of
that stature are usually escorted by large entourages including multiple
bouncers, which makes this a very irritating flaw since any industry observer
would know this. It is as though the writer could not think of an adequate ploy
to explain how Gaurav manages to do what he does in this sequence.
Equally implausible are Aryan’s
actions at the point when he decides to take matters into his own hands in
Dubrovnik. His moves might have appeared natural if the script had spent time
establishing him as an impetuous, quick-tempered man. Unfortunately, while a
lot of effort is devoted to drawing us into Gaurav’s life in the beginning, we
get to know Aryan far less as a person before he begins reacting to Gaurav’s
behaviour.
These shortcomings in the writing
are infuriating because they are what hold Fan
back from being the great film it could have been. This is particularly
disappointing because Maneesh and Habib had earlier too teamed up as director
and writer respectively on the fantastic Band Baaja Baaraat (Fan’s story is by Maneesh, screenplay by Habib, dialogues by
Habib and Sharat Katariya who made the heart-warming Dum Laga Ke Haisha last year). Fan
is not BBB, but as things stand it is
still a very good and very unconventional Bollywood film. SRK’s performance is
so enjoyable and the question of what will happen next is so pressing at all
times in this film, that it is impossible to look away from the screen.
Although this is not a regular
cops ‘n’ robber flick, it features three very exciting, very well-handled,
crisply edited chase scenes. Its use of music too is unusual, since Jabra fan does not appear in the film
nor is there any long ruminative number playing in the background while the
protagonists go about their business, as is typical of Bollywood. For the kind
of film Fan is, this is a wise
decision. Andrea Guerra’s unobtrusive background music is effective in building
up a sense of heightened tension and low-key poignancy as and when required.
The story is almost entirely
focused on Gaurav and Aryan, yet the supporting cast use their limited screen
time to good effect. It is also such a relief to see that producers Yash Raj
Films have not penny-pinched while casting their European extras, as most Hindi
films do. Whew!
As an aside, it is worth noting
some of the detailing in the film. Fan
is clearly made by people who know Delhi and Mumbai well. It is nice, for
instance, to see a Hindi film referencing Golcha and Delite theatres in the
national capital, and not feeling the need to have a character drive past India
Gate, the Hanuman statue at Jhandewalan or Red Fort to convince us that we’re
in Delhi.
Though Fan is far from being perfect, it urges us to think about issues
relating to stardom, fandom, idolatry and public expectations from famous
people without overtly appearing to do so. It is suspenseful without beating
drums and clanging cymbals around its many twists and turns. Much of its appeal
lies in the fact that the central characters are not stereotyped. Besides, when
Shah Rukh Khan decides to go real and understated, it always makes for
compelling viewing.
Rating (out of five): ***
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CBFC Rating (India):
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UA
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Running time:
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142 minutes
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This review has also been published on
Firstpost:
Video
courtesy: Yash Raj Films
Related
link: revisiting my review of Maneesh Sharma’s first film as director, Band
Baaja Baaraat:
http://blogs.intoday.in/headlinestoday/SWEET-SMALL-OH-SO-LOVELY!-62202.html
Thanks for the great review. haven't watched it yet but will for sure for the unique treatment the film and SRk has received in the making. I am a huge #FAN of your reviews.
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