FAN – Fans will not be Disappointed but Over Expecting Critics will be

Rating :  ( 3/5 )

There was a certain big expectation from this film as Shahrukh Khan was teaming with the young director,Maneesh Sharma, of the quite exceptional BAND BAAJA BAARAAT fame, plus the subject of a look-alike fan seemed good and different material for Bollywood. But, though we are sure to get another hit here, we still do not get the Shahrukh Khan film we can rave about. Here, an interesting tale is made to look just above average, thanks to the oh-so-many flaws and loopholes. But what goes to the credit of the film is that Shahrukh as the young fan does look half his age and Shahrukh as the superstar Aryan Khanna does look debonair. Still it is far from a landmark film or a career-defining performance. Why SRK cannot pull up his socks and give us a superior film is inexplicable- for he has the means, he has almost every director at his beck and call and he can easily choose a subject that can be made into a memorable film. Dear Shahrukh, if not now, when ?…..you are in FAN is a near songless thriller, and almost without a leading lady. Waluscha de Sousa does partly fill the bill, though, in the character that hints at Gauri Khan. Rest of the cast is routine or is it that two Shahrukh Khans vying for time don’t leave any scope for any other character or actor.

The most glaring loophole in the story is that in the first half the FAN Shahrukh Khan, in spite of his stark similarity in looks to the superstar, turns no heads and gets no attention in his city Delhi , nor in the train or on the roads of Mumbai or at the hotel or even outside the superstar’s house. But in the second half, with the same face, he is able to get all the attention and is taken for the superstar,Aryan Khanna by the public and successfully creates a furore at Madam Tussauds in London and at the wedding in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The very basis of the story receives a jolt here.

How this film’s writer, Habib Faisal, who is the National award winning director of the thoroughly believable DO DOONI CHAAR, slept after writing these parts of the story is unimaginable! However,if logic and commonsense are left out of our assessment, then the film works to a certain extent and also brings back the days of anti-hero Shahrukh Khan (Baazigar, Darr, Anjaam). All in all, there will be enough fans thronging the theatres to watch FAN, but the ones who will miss it won’t be left poorer in any big way !