Fan – Shah Rukh's gone gray again!

Just saw Shah Rukh Khan’s latest film ‘Fan’. I must say I am impressed. There are millions of fans who adore and worship movie stars, and sports heroes. We all know how the fans feel, because you are probably one of them, but how does the star feel? What’s his/her feelings towards one single fan? I am sure they have gratitude and respect for their admirer’s loyalty and support, but it’s hard to for a star to empathize with a single fan, because they have their own life to lead with their own set of responsibilities. Just because fans spend all their times obsessing about the stars, doesn’t mean they can expect reciprocation. Crazies stalking stars is not a new story, but when a person spends all his life obsessing about a star and he doesn’t receive any acknowledgement, it will be a rude shock. Anyone with an iota of brain can reasonably assume that as a regular person you’ll not probably be in the radar of a star. We all know the infamous story of John Hinckley Jr. who obsessed over actress Jodie Foster and in a futile effort to impress her (unbeknownst to her), he tried to assassinate the American president Ronald Regan. Now, we can’t think of Jodie Foster without thinking of Hinckley or even Reagan, in that way his name is forever linked with her name, albeit in infamy. ‘Fan’ is such an attempt of a disillusioned fan whose love turns to hatred when he doesn’t receive the recognition he wants from his idol, after all an extremely loving psyche is also capable of extreme hatred.

Fan opens with the story of Gaurav Chandna who is probably the biggest fan of the Bollywood star Aryan Khanna. He even does stage shows as Jr. Aryan Khanna, given his uncanny resemblance to the star and his acting chops (for those who are unfamiliar with this, there are many actors/impersonators who have passing resemblance to movie stars mimic and act as them in festivals and fairs), in other words a perfect doppelganger. Like any of the hordes of people who stand in front of Ambitabh’s house and Shah Rukh’s house in Mumbai, he tries to meet with his star, and predictably turned away at the gate. To impress the star, Gaurav beats up an up and coming actor who is currently having a spat with Aryan Khanna in the media. He sends the video to the star as a birthday present. Aryan understandably becomes upset and have police arrest Gaurav. When Aryan tries to advise Gaurav to stop the nonsense and get back to his life, Gaurav feels it’s a betrayal of his trust and his love turns into hatred and white hot rage, he vows to show the power of a fan to the star and ruin him. The rest of the movie revolves around the cat and mouse game that’s played between Aryan and Gaurav.

The story is an obvious reworking of the failed Tony Scott’s venture ‘The Fan’ that came out in 1996, in which Wesley Snipes plays a baseball star, and the inimitable Robert De Niro plays an intense sports nut whose obsession begets violence when his hero does not acknowledge him. It’s not to say it’s a scene by scene lift, but you can see lots of influences including the overall story line.

Maneesh Sharma who directed films like Shudh Desi Romance and the excellent Band Bajaa Baarat, directed the movie and has done an excellent job making an authentic film. I was big on Shah Rukh until he started making only masala movies, in the movie, we can see the kind of Shah Rukh who shocked and dazzled us in Darr, Baazigar, Anjaam with his gray characters. Shah Rukh excelled in roles which had negative shades because although he is a very good actor, its tiring to play the good guy all the time because the range of emotions you can display are limited, in this outing, he really flexed his acting muscles which were dormant for a long time. He dons a double role as the disillusioned fan and the superstar, and excels in both of them by embodying the right body language and traits. After all, he knows how to play the superstar, because he is one, he must also be channeling his old self from his old college days when he used to mimic Dilip Kumar.

The background score by Vishal-Shekar really sets the right mood but becomes a bit predictable at times. The film rightfully puts less emphasis on usual song and dance routines and sticks to only one background song (which was released in 8 Indian languages as part of the audio). The camera and editing are crisp and serviceable. The only thing that really bugged me was the stunts, thankfully there are no fight sequences, but there are chase sequences and stunts like bike chases, rooftop jumps etc. which a normal person cannot perform in real life unless that person is trained in parkour or something like that, those sequences could have been avoided.

Overall, Fan is an intense story which will appeal to everyone especially for longtime Shah Rukh Khan watchers, it’s a treat. Shah Rukh joked (may be he wasn’t) in a recent media interview, he would cry if he doesn’t get an award for this, he is that good. He acted without any encumbrances of masala fodder he’s been doling out recently (and most importantly without any of his usual hamming) and the result comes out as authentic. It is a sad state for our actors if they just act, it’s something to celebrated, irony is that’s supposed to their basic trait, anyway, that’s bane of any super star from Amitabh to Rajini kanth to Shah Rukh. Fan will make you a fan out of Shah Rukh even if you were not one to begin with.

Fan – Spin Away.