Movie Review: Fan





Directed by: Maneesh Sharma

Produced by: Yashraj Films/ Aditya Chopra

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan and Shriya Pilgaonkar





Maneesh Sharma is the writer and director of Fan. Yashraj had roped him earlier for Band Baja Baarat which was his debut as a director.





Shriya Pilgaonkar is the daughter of Marathi superstar Sachin and Supriya Pilgaonkar. Sachin Pilgaonkar who? Okay, Sachin is the actor who played the role of the yound kid Ahmed in Sholay.





There is Hollywood movie staring Robert De Niro with a similar title "The Fan". While the title is similar the plot and story are different. So one cannot say that Shah Rukh's Fan is copied or inspired by the Robert De Niro starer.





So what is so special about SRK's Fan?

What is special is the man himself. Shah Rukh Khan delivers one of his best performances in a double role. He has done equal justice to both the roles: Superstar Aryan Khanna as well as the Fan Gaurav Chandna. He has made both the characters look very different and very convincing.





Special effects are Awesome. Shah Rukh's makeover as a 20 year old Gaurav Chandna is amazing. Before the release of this movie Shah Rukh mentioned in one of the interview that the shooting of the film got over about an year ago but the special effects took a lot of time. His make over is mind blowing and with the effects and camera work they have ensured that Gaurav looks leaner and shorter than the superstar Aryan Khanna.





Story: If you have seen the promos then you kind of know 70% of the story. Rest is predictable .





Production Value, Screenplay, Direction: Production value is excellent. Movie is shot in Delhi/ Mumbai studios and Europe. Background score is good. There are no songs in the movie. Jabra fan was a promotional number but it is not included in the main film. Screenplay and direction is crisp. Pace is fast and keeps the viewer engaged at all the time. Post interval is better than pre interval. Of course there are loopholes and there are few sequences which are unwanted and illogical but we can safely excuse and ignore them in the name of cinematic liberty.





What is not so special about SRK's Fan?

There is a program on National Geographic Channel called Science of the Stupid. In this program real life stunts are covered, especially those stunts which go wrong. So those are kind of very funny stunts for the viewers but the folks who perform these stunts actually get hurt and suffer a lot. The program also tries to capture the scientific reason of why the stunt went wrong and what could have been done right to succeed. The people performing the stunts have a lot of passion, they also put in a lot of effort but what they miss is a very basic fundamental scientific understanding which results in failure and cause of pain.





SRK's fan is very similar to the science of stupid. It has got everything right except the very basic fundamental of story telling: When the movie ends the audience doesn't come out smiling and that is a big let down. It has great performances, tight script, apt screenplay and very good direction. Wish they had a positive end too. Wish they had made the Fan Gaurav a Hero and not a villain. After all the movie is titled as "Fan" and not as "SuperStar".



