Friday 15 April 2016

FAN MOVIE REVIEW

Bottom line: One of the most awaited movies of 2016 has finally arrived, and sadly it is a bit of a let down. Touted as a fan vs star thriller, it is the half-baked, far-from-cogent, and frankly puerile script which plays the real spoilsport here, as a result of which the film packs in more frills than thrills.

Review: Watching Fan felt like the flight ride, where the flight just speeds along the runway but never really takes off. Director Maneesh Sharma and writer Habib Faisal, the same two minds behind the extremely likeable Band Baaja Baaraat and Do Dooni Chaar, are known to lend refreshing authenticity to their films with a well-built storyline, amusing characters and smart dialogues. In Fan, however, all the above traits are tossed aside and they plunge headlong with a wafer-thin story that would have probably looked interesting on paper but never really translates into an equally engaging film. It is a byword for a wasted opportunity. In fact, the lapses of logic are so many that you spin your head around in utter disbelief when not one person bats an eyelid on seeing fan Gaurav Chandna in the first half, but in the second half people's common sense is thrown out of the window and Gaurav is conveniently mistaken for superstar Aryan Khanna. The dim-witted police too slap all charges against Aryan Khanna. Don't get me wrong, Fan is not as bad as Dilwale, it is much better actually, but just not satisfying enough to patch up the festering wounds left by Dilwale.

To give credit where it's due, the chase sequences are beautifully shot, especially the one between the cops and Gaurav, giving us those rare moments where we are actually engrossed in the film. Needless to say then, it is Shahrukh Khan, as the fan, who is the glue which binds us to this ambitious but flawed film. Buried under those heavy prosthetics, he plays it to the gallery and manages to convey creepiness, indignation and the sheer craze of a fan quite convincingly.

I'm going with 2.5/5 for Fan. It is a film of a fan, by a fan and strictly for the fans. A catchphrase in the film goes like this : "Gaurav hain toh Aryan hain, Gaurav nahi toh Aryan kuch nahi". On similar lines, in my address to the writers - " story hain toh film hain, story nahi toh film kuch bhi nahi ". 

5 comments:

  1. Beautifully written as ever. :)

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  2. Just watched the movie ya.... ufff was actually not knowing where was the movie heading. not at all practical.

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