fan movie review

Fan
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Waluscha de Sousa, Sayani Gupta
Director: Maneesh Sharma
Rating: 3.5/5

Just when you thought Shah Rukh Khan is losing his edge, he makes a comeback. And how? Going back to his early acting days, where twisted characters gave him his big break, Bollywood’s king of romance still has what it takes to give you the creeps.

Though one of the better Shah Rukh Khan scripts in years, Fan is not devoid of holes, but it still makes for a thrilling watch. With the actor playing the two main characters in the film, especially two that are at such odds with each other, it can’t be easy to keep a smooth narrative. However, Fan may just well be an inward journey for Shah Rukh Khan where his large celebrity persona meets the humble old him that represents the thousands of his fans.

The premise: Superstar Aryan Khanna (Shah Rukh Khan) started out small. He didn’t bother to buy train tickets and stayed in a small, claustrophobic hotel when he first set foot in Mumbai. His insatiable greed for success and an indomitable spirit eventually makes him one of Bollywood’s biggest success stories; a brand unto himself (sound familiar?)

Gaurav Chanana (also Shah Rukh Khan) is a 25-year-old who runs a cyber cafe in West Delhi’s Inder Vihar. Unusually confident, he’s a pro at mimicking his idol Aryan. A ‘best actor’ trophy in a local competition gives him a new purpose in life: Now he wants to show his trophy to Aryan. Like a true fan, Gaurav traces Aryan’s journey in Mumbai – he stays at the same hotel, travels without a ticket... but when he finally reaches the star’s house, the boy from Delhi is lost in the sea of other fans like him.

After much planning, Gaurav meets Aryan, but the encounter is nothing he expected it to be. A disillusioned Gaurav tries his best to persuade the star to show some gratitude to his fans, but Aryan is too narcissistic to share his credit with a million people.

This is where the story truly begins.

The conflict between the two arises from the fact that Aryan Khanna is not the same person he projects to be. He is menacing and mean in real life, but takes a moral high ground on certain issues. He is in awe of himself yet wants to sustain an image which doesn’t hurt his fans’ adulations. But, he is also not ready to acknowledge their contribution to his stardom. Nevertheless, he is human, and is scared to lose it all.

Gaurav is a sharp antithesis to this. He is a regular Joe; he is intelligent but impractical and disconnected from reality. His protective parents indulged him always and never discouraged him from doing crazy Aryan Khanna-inspired antics. When we’re introduced to Gaurav, his mannerisms subtly hint at his cynicism, and the lengths to which he’d go to meet Aryan Khanna. But the question is: How far can he go?

The thrill of the movie is watching Shah Rukh Khan trying to one up himself. It is Shah Rukh versus Shah Rukh.

Director Maneesh Sharma gives Khan a chance to be self-indulgent in a film that celebrates his Darr-Baazigar-Anjaam days. In a way, Sharma demands the superstar to surpass his previous hit roles. But Shah Rukh walks a tight rope, for he plays both an ageing superstar and a no-name nobody.

With his years of practice, SRK aces this role with ease. We see film stars making appearances at wedding parties or ready to do anything as long as they are getting paid. Aryan Khanna is no exception. He is humiliated in the process, but also understands the value of his stardom. Self-deprecating humour and honesty is what makes Aryan Khanna a character to watch out for.

The dialogues stand Fan in good stead. Sharat Katariya, the dialogue writer, stays true to origins and renders the Delhi tone to Shah Rukh’s Mumbai-ness. He is also the one responsible for giving Gaurav a lovable outlook.

Though Fan is irrational at times, it keeps the adrenaline pumping all 143-minutes of the movie. Also, the idea of keeping it a song-less film works because that keeps the overdramatic tone from seeping in. It’s a total throwback to Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘90s avatars, but he once again shows how good he still is in that genre.

Maneesh Sharma may appear inspired by Hollywood, but he keeps Fan original enough.

As a whole, Fan delivers what it promised in the trailers. Logic may not be its strong point, but Shah Rukh most definitely is; he’s back in his element after a long time. Watch it for him.

Theri movie review and trailer

       

theri crew at audio launch

cast:

Vijay, Samantha, Amy Jackson, Mahendran, Baby Nainika, Radikaa Sarathkumar, Rajendran, Prabhu, Kaali Venkat, Azhagamperumal

direction :atlee

genre:action,romance,sentimental,masala

duration:2 hours 38 minute

SYNOPSIS: A cop who loses his loved ones goes into self-inflicted exile to bring up his child, but when her life is threatened, he decides to settle an old score.

REVIEW: With the right material, Vijay can elevate even an ordinary scene with his amazing screen presence. And he can effortlessly play to the gallery. It is these aspects that Atlee repeatedly calls upon from the actor in Theri, a cop story that is entertaining despite being predictable. And the actor, too, responds in style — he appears in different looks, bashes up the goons, swoons over the heroine, plays along with kids, lectures on raising a child, using a helmet and quitting smoking, and even gamely turns into a dwarf for a brief moment!As he did with Raja Rani, Atlee borrows tropes from earlier films (the elderly villain from Chatriyan, the metal rod being used as a murder weapon from Ghajini, the gigantic henchman who has to be vanquished before the hero can lay his hands on the villain from various masala movies of the 80s and 90s, the mother as the best friend from the post 2000 movies, the cop who quits the force for his offspring from Yennai Arindhaal) and with help from his cinematographer George C Williams, presents them in a riot of colours that almost makes us believe that we are seeing something new. But this is a formulaic film and can be best described only with another cliche — old wine in a fancy, extra-large bottle.The film begins with scenes between Joseph Kuruvilla (Vijay) and his little daughter Nivi (Nainika), who behaves in the way most movie kids behave — talk like an adult, behave like a brat and still have us go 'Oh so cute!' Her teacher Annie (Amy Jackson, as a Malayali, no less!) becomes close to the two, but following an incident, realises that Joseph is hiding something. And like her, we, too, are told of his past, when he was the intrepid deputy commissioner Vijay Kumar. By investigating a rape and murder case, Vijay earns the enmity of minister Vanamamalai (Mahendran, making a solid debut). And the minister kills Vijay's mother (a jovial Radikaa) and wife, Mithra (Samantha), and leaves the cop for dead. And when Joseph realises that Vanamamalai knows his secret identity, he decides to end their enmity once and for all.Unlike Chimbu Deven, who got carried away with making his star a darling of the kids in Puli and ignored the actor's core fan base (the youth), Atlee comes up with moments that satisfy all segments of the audience — the scenes between Joseph and Nivi for the kids, the portions involving Vijay's mother and Mithra for the family crowd and most importantly, the episodes between Vijay and the various bad guys for the cheering youngsters. And he uses these moments cleverly. So, every time the film seems to be sinking into banality, a whistle-worthy moment or a comic line or a sentimental scene comes along and saves it.But Atlee takes too long to narrate this familiar story. We get two fights to establish the machismo and goodhearted nature of the hero and two songs to liven up his romance when one could have done these jobs. Like his guru Shankar, he also crams in too many societal issues — rape, rowdyism, child beggars — to manipulate his audience and earn their sympathies. The major fault, however, is that he turns the villain into a sitting duck after building him up for most parts of the film. This is why the final portions lack the punch they deserve.