Fan

Rating : 6 /10
Release Date : 15th April, 2016
Time : 143 minutes
Director, Writer : Maneesh Sharma; Music : Vishal-Shekhar (songs), Andrea Guerra (background score)
Starring : Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Amin, Yogendra Tiku, Sayani Gupta



A young boy (Gaurav) is obsessed with Shahrukh Khan, the star (named Aryan in the movie), and coincidentally looks like him too. In fact the high point of his life is winning the local star look-alike show. And then, on SRK’s birthday, he decides to make the trip to Mumbai and meet his idol – with dreams of handing him the trophy he won, hugging him etc. Things don’t go to plan (understatement of the century) and when he returns from Mumbai, he decides to make the star pay – especially as he was found wanting on one of his favourite sign off lines – ‘I am what I am because of my fans, if the fans aren’t there, I am nobody’.

It’s a fascinating premise – who in India doesn’t recognize obsession after all, and what if that infatuation turns sour - and it’s fabulously enacted by Shahrukh, but thanks to two bloated chase sequences and an end that goes nowhere, it pulls you down. There is a strong message somewhere – but it’s lost in all the filmy touches and several implausible moments.

Our boy has the cutest, most supportive parents imaginable – and his normal life pretty much revolves around his idol. Several touching scenes – the imaginary conversations in our head, the wall to ceiling posters, the fighting with others for our star – we would recognize these traits, after all, we all have idolized someone at some point. And, we’ve all felt at some time or the other, that our stars have let us down, they sometimes let success and adulation get to their head, become arrogant, forget why, who made them big in the first place. And in this film, the star’s biggest fan, decides to teach him a lesson.

SRK is very good, after a long while. It’s been ages since he did a film with some meat, substance and this couldn’t have been an easy project to say ‘Yes’ to – so kudos to him for agreeing to it, making it come alive with a great performance. Unfortunately, at script level, there were too many inconsistencies – events happen that have a close to zero chance happening in real life – and the end just didn’t connect. Wasn’t something else possible here ?

As a total aside - it was nice to see Dubrovnik, a lovely, quiet Croatian coastal town feature in a Hindi film – Star Wars VIII, Game of Thrones have also been shot here, quite extensively too.

Obsessions, especially those not our own, don’t make for easy viewing, especially on the big screen. Several moments when you wish the character didn’t do what they did, you cringe, face-palm, which ensures that the repeat viewing potential of this movie is nil. But then, as our star obsessed fan points out several times – what they do isn't done or possible for others to understand. And at the end, who are we to judge ?