Fan: Movie Review
Rating: 2.5/ 5

The reasons to be a cross-eyed fan of Shah Rukh Khan remain more compelling than the need to lament the pusillanimity in his recent movie choices. He fought his way up without a godfather in Mumbai's nepotism-ridden film industry, hit dizzying fame that alas his parents could not live to see. He was and is a darling of audiences of Malaysia to the USA, with wealth surpassing even that of Tom Cruise. At the height of his career, he retained the artistic sense to star in landmark films such as Dil Se. Post-2007 is another story. And then we come to Fan, the fanfare-festooned entry vehicle of SRK in 2016, helmed by Maneesh Sharma and unspooling as a progressively darkening thriller about a young man whose obsession for his movie idol spirals violently out of control.

Films, where a celeb is hounded by a crazed fan, are not a new concept, so what new spin does Fan's script bring to the narrative table? 3D scanning, no less with seamless special effects to create a "mini-me" version of Shah Rukh Khan as his obsessed admirer (Khan plays both the superstar and the fan).

Gaurav Chandna is a multiple champion of local contests in which competitors imitate their celebrity idols, and his lifelong hero-sanctifying mania for Aryan Khanna (the superstar Shah Rukh portrays in the film) is reflected in a thousand avatars of Aryan collage-papered over every inch of the walls of Gaurav's room. His parents relent to the idea of their only child finally journeying from Delhi’s middle-class mohallas to meet Aryan Khanna in his Mumbai citadel. But the realities of a cold hard world come crashing down on Gaurav's roseate dreams and soon he swears relentless revenge on the icon who seems to have coolly betrayed his most loyal fan.

The film's best moments arrive early. We amusedly witness Gaurav's goofy palpitating schoolgirl thrill as he gets his moment in the spotlight, after winning the local celeb-imitation contest. The journey to the massive playing fields of the big town then almost drowns him in a jammed sea of hysterical people as his waving hero looms far away, and then suddenly Gaurav's gaze settles on Aryan and he lets out a momentous scream as his mouth and eyes bulge ecstatically. It is an epic moment where the fan's hysteria equals the star's aura.

Where the film fails is in electing to power the story as an action-peppered thriller. The human element and dramatic wallop are just not in full-throttle supply. In postcard-pretty Dubrovnik, the action reaches its exciting peak, admittedly, with an imaginative rooftop chase and flying tackles at dangerous heights, but another action sequence set over the crumbling but formidable ruins of Hotel Delite is neither choreographed nor captured with the vertiginous thrill it deserved to sport. Wit and songs both are absent; I missed the former.

At one point we are shown that Gaurav so nefariously impersonates Aryan in certain wrong-doings that the disgraced latter's shows are deserted by fans. What a joke! Indian fans are extraordinarily forgiving, exemplified by the real-life fact that a superstar involved in a prolonged and damaging court case of alleged manslaughter, still goes on to have millions of fans thronging his film releases.

Both Gaurav and Aryan remain two-dimensional personas. When Shah Rukh portrays superstar Aryan, there is barely any halo of personality that comes through. But in his form-shifting turn as Gaurav, we witness more depth—as fanboy madness bleeds into crushing disillusionment and the sparkle in his eyes darken into a glazed glint. It's good but not great. For instance, that outpouring of regret in Aryan's trophy room could have been the wrenching stuff of awards, but what we see is more Filmfare than National Award.

Fan, with all its budget and exertions, does not reach the impact of, say, Anurag Kashyap's Murabba—a petite but eminently memorable odyssey about a supplicant of Amitabh Bachchan. Director Maneesh Sharma puts in a lot of hard work but as we know, working hard is not the same as working smart. Shah Rukh built his name with emotionally charged performances in films that were driven by dramatic conflict above all else, but Fan for all its stray emotional moments and even an audacious ending eventually comes across as a violent and bloody Tom and Jerry. SRK may remain a superstar, but this picture of his ultimately ends up being only an energetic contender.