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| Image Courtesy: wikimedia.org |
The Story
Frame:
Maneesh Sharma's film FAN is a story about a die-hard fan and his
encounter with his Reel Star in real life. It is a story of love, adulation, and
obsession which leads to hate and
proving who is more of worth - the Fan or the Star.
Shah Rukh Khan acts as the protagonist (Aryan Khanna, the Mega star) as
well as the antagonist (Gaurav Chandana, the Fan a boy from Delhi) in this
movie. Both Aryan Khanna and his look alike Gaurav Chandana keep the viewers
engaged through their love-hate relationship. FAN offers SRK fans a young as well as a much evolved SRK
together on screen which make the viewers reminiscence the SRK of Anjaam, Darr,
and Bazigar.
FAN is the new entry in the list of Yash Raj Films banner produced by
Aditya Chopra.
Cast: Shah
Rukh Khan (Aryan Khanna/ Gaurave Chandna), Waluscha de Sousa (Gauri Khanna),
Sayani Gupta (PA to Aryan Khanna), Shriya Pilgaonkar (Gaurav's Girl Friend
Neha), Deepika Amin (Gaurav's Mother), Yogendra Tiku (Gaurav's Father), Megha
Gupta, Indraneel Bhattacharya (Aryan's Lawyer)
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Direction: Maneesh Sharma
Produced
by: Aditya Chopra
Production
Company: Yash Raj Films
Cinematographer: Manu Anand
Music: Songs: Vishal - Shekhar; Background Score: Andrea Guerra
Lyrics: Varun Grover
Film
Editing by: Namrata Rao
Distributor: Yash Raj Films
Theatre Release: 15th April, 2016
Language: Hindi
Duration: 138 minutes
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| Image Courtesy: infomovies.in |
Reviewer's
Thumb Mark
Aryan Khanna: "Whatever I am today, it's because of my fans, thank you!"
Aryan Khanna: "Who are you?"
Gaurav Chandana: "I am your Fan, can't you spare five minutes of
your life for me or what? "
Aryan Khanna: "It's my life, why should I even bother to give you
five seconds of my life"
Gaurav Khanna: "You are a liar. I am your Fan... Forget it, you
won't understand..."
Gaurav Khanna: "I am going to change the game, till date the Fans
followed their heroes and now onwards I will make them follow their fans"
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The above mentioned conversations between a celebrity and a fan forms the
plot of the much awaited and recently released Bollywood film FAN by Director Maneesh
Sharma. FAN scores well in the box office because of many reasons: 1. It's a
Shah Rukh Khan movie, 2. It offers two SRKs for one ticket, 3. It comes from
the stable of Yash Raj Films and Aditya Chopra at the helm of affairs, 4. Maneesh
Sharma has some fairly good movies like Band Baaja Baarat and Shudd Desi Romance
in his profile, and above all 5. It is about every Jabra fan of SRK.
To understand the mindset of a FAN doesn't require much effort because each
one of us have an idol, a hero, a
celebrity, or an achiever whom we follow closely and relate to - be it politicians, film stars, social activists,
writers, poets, sports players etc. But
to understand a fan's mindset who can go a bit overboard is bit difficult and
challenging. We have heard and read many stories of such fan frenzy in the
media like attempting to commit suicide, slashing wrist, writing letters with blood,
getting married to a photo, fasting on 'karva chauth' for heroes and what not.
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| Image Courtesy: i.ndtvimg.com |
Gaurav Chandana (Shah Rukh Khan) a middle class boy from Inder Vihar,
Delhi is one such fan of Aryan Khanna (Shah Rukh Khan) the Bollywood Mega Super
Star. His world is designed and influenced virtually by the presence of AK
(Aryan Khanna). Gaurav Chandana aka Junior AK is known for his obsession for AK
because every act of his daily life makes it evident. He ensures that the mark
of AK is there around him, be it naming his Chat Cafe as 'AK Chat Cafe', his
bedroom's wall plastered with AK's photographs and cutouts, his mannerisms and
style imitating AK makes him the most sought after local hero in his neighborhood.
Gaurav Chandana is a known artist who has won consecutively all the local annual
Sitara Acting Competition prizes enacting AK on stage amidst whistles, cheers
and hoots of laughter from the local audience.
This year, Gaurav Chandana bags a whopping amount of Rupees Twenty
thousand as cash prize by emulating AK on stage. His long cherished dream to
meet AK personally gets a fresh ammo and he manages to get permission from his much reluctant parents to travel alone by train without
ticket to Mumbai following AK who did the same to land in the city of dreams. The train bound junior AK had least expected
and may not have even imagined in his wildest dream that his journey to meet
his 'Reel God' would change the course of his life forever.
As thousands throng the sea-facing mansion of AK on his birthday, Gaurav
too push hard to reach the front to wave at his demigod with his prestigious Sitara trophy to gift AK
as his token of love and his other hand struggling to keep hold of a pack of
sweets bought from the famous Halwai of Chandani Chowk to present it to AK on
behalf of his dear parents. Pushed, trampled, bruised in the stampede and in
his failed attempt to hoodwink the security guards of AK's mansion to have a
glimpse of his demigod, Gaurav retires to his hotel room no. 205. It's the same
room, which the mega star used to stay and frequent as a struggler in the tinsel
town.
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| Image Courtesy: images.indianexpress.com |
Not ready to be shooed away by the security personnel of the well guarded
mega star, Gaurav finds Sid Kapoor's, a rising Bollywood star, controversial
statement and accusation against AK as a window to display his love to his hero.
Sid Kapoor is manhandled in a party by
AK because Ak find the upcoming star's advances towards his wife inappropriate
and objectionable. What followed is a series of press statements, video
footages and police complaint from Sid Kapoor that catches the nation's
attention. Gaurav Chandana's interaction with Sid Kapoor in his vanity van
lands him in jail and his wish to meet his idol AK does takes place inside the
cell but not the way Gaurav had expected and dreamt to happen.
Disillusioned, disheartened and wounded the fan in Gaurav is back to his
home town less talkative and less vocal about his love for AK. After an year of
silence and anonymity, Gaurav unleash havoc in the life of AK. Wherever AK reaches
he finds the sinister footprints of his scorned fan Gaurav Chandana present. AK
keeps finding himself in tricky situations and clearing up the mess created by
Gaurav.Love, adulation and blind faith that marked the life of a fan is filled
full of hate and hurt which leads to a cat and mouse chase between the Senior
AK and the Junior AK.
Madame Tussauds, London, Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Mumbai become the battle
field for Gaurav and AK to vent out their anger and settle their score with
each other.
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| Image Courtesy: brandsynario.com |
Shah Rukh Khan's Aryan Khanna seems to be more familiar because he is in
his natural SRK mega star style but what catches the fancy of the viewers is
Shah Rukh Khan's portrayal as the young vibrant free-spirited Gaurav Chandana. SRK
as Gaurav surpass the imagination of a 48 year-old playing the role of a young
boy that too half of his age with such conviction and ease is definitely praise
worthy. Gaurav as an innocent fan and as a tormentor is stupendous. SRK as
Gaurav brings back memories of his movies like Darr, Baazigar, and Anjaam. It
is indeed a treat to watch the yesteryear's young SRK and the much evolved
present day's SRK together sharing the screen.
SRK's colossal presence throughout the movie in every single shot makes
the other actors appear dwarfish and nothing much left to do. Deepika Amin and
Yogendra Tiku as Gaurav's parents are good. But their anxiety and their shock
of coming to know about what their foolhardy son is getting into doesn't come
on screen well and therefore, much of the last scene acts seems to be very
superficial and doesn't connect well with the audience. Especially, the last
scenes are too unrealistic but then when you have two SRKs fighting each other
you tend to ignore the flaws and get carried away by the moment. Sayani Gupta as Aryan Khanna's Personal
Assistant tries to put her best foot forward.
The scene at Madame Tussauds' gallery, the cat and mouse chase in the bylanes
of Dubrovnik and the dare devil act of hoping from one parapet to another
parapet of an already dilapidated residential building by an ordinary boy and
Gaurav seemingly emerging as a well trained
rogue is hard to buy. Gaurav's encounter with Gauri Khanna and the security
personnel and his entry into a well guarded mansion are too unrealistic. What
makes me wonder is what happens to the scriptwriters and to well established
reputed production house to approve such scenes. Is it their overconfidence
that having a superstar in the film they would be able to easily pull it off
successfully, is it that they take the audience for granted, is it that there is
a creative block that make them overlook such foolish and unrealistic scenes? Not
incorporating in the film a song like Jabra Fan which was overly hyped and
publicized and promoted is not doing justice to viewers who also had come to
watch the same on a bigger screen. What is the reason not to incorporate the song
even at the end when the credits rolls
is only known to them.
FAN cannot be stated as a well-crafted, brilliant movie of Shah Rukh
Khan. It is a good watch because SRK has many other great movies to thump his
chest like Chakde, Swadesh, Veer Zaara, Devdas, and Dil se. Fan is definitely a
relief for SRK and his fans after a series of non performing movies. The
character of Aryan Khan is not fleshed out properly.
The message of FAN is loud and clear - 1. Stars need to always remember
their beginning and need to be humble and value the presence of their fans in their
life. They are because of their fans who made them celebrities. There are ways
which are more humane to convey and claim once own privacy when a fan goes overboard.
2. Fans need to understand that what
they often watch on the screen may not be real always. Their stars and demigods
are like them who would love to have
their own space and privacy and therefore to let them be what they are. 3. It's
good to express your love and even get inspired by whom you adore but then
carve your own image that comes from hard work, commitment, discipline and
dreams.
In short, go and watch FAN for Shah Rukh Khan and not for anything else.
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