Review of Fan (2016) by Seth W — 16 Nov 2018

Maneesh Sharma's Fan (2016) is a high action, high drama, and highly suspenseful thriller. Guarav Chadna is a dorky kid who works at a cyber cafe, and prides himself on his ability to embody, his favorite celebrity Aryan Khanna, even calling himself Aryan Jr. to everybody who will listen. After winning a talent show (in which his act was impersonating Khanna as a tribute of sorts), he uses the money to visit Khanna on his birthday. Suddenly Guarav winds up in jail for going too far to try to impress the celebrity, Guarav realizes that the one who imprisoned him was none other than Khanna himself. From here on in Guarav turns his love of Khanna into hatred, and uses his abilities of impersonation to ruin Khanna's reputation and life unless the star apologizes.

Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan shines both as the fictitious Bollywood celebrity Aryan Khana (not so subtly modeled after himself) and, with the aid of special effects, as the obsessive and volatile fan Guarav Chandna. His acting chops are truly a sight to be seen in this film. Khan'ss calm majesty as Khanna juxtaposed with his fidgety and excitable Guarav could not be more incomparable, yet each character is so enticing on their own. Other performance highlights are Shriya Pilgaonkar as Guarav'ss close friend Neha, as well as Yogendra Tiku and Deepika Amin who portray Guaraav's well meaning but inept parents.

This film is at times both a testament and a foil to classic Bollywood cinema. As a testament, it plays homage to the cinephelia, that early 1990s to early 2000s Bollywood cinema such as KJo and Main Hoon Nah thrive on. In Main Hoon Nah they make fun of how Shah Rukh Khan always has to play roles younger than himself despite being an older man. In this film, they use CGI to realistically enable him to become a younger version of himself. This is the most prevalent example of how self-aware this film is. It pokes fun at itself by having Khan in both roles, one as the celebrity that he is and the other as the fan that he fears in his worse nightmares. However, if you are looking for the song and dance sequences, cheesy catchphrases, and stock characters that define 1950s- Modern Bollywood (Gopal 16) you will not find them in this film. In that sense it is more Hollywood, steeping itself in action and realism, rather than melodrama and music. That is not to say that this film is completely free of parody, but silly overdramatic lines such as, "It is my life, why should I even give you one second?" and "You are a Fan" are far and few between.

While departing a bit from Bollywood's roots, this film is an excellent display of Maneesh Sharma's skills as a director, and Shah Rukh Khan's versatile acting abilities. It is definitely worth a watch!