*contains savers (spoilers)*
Well known to the world as the ‘Badshaah of Bollywood’ or ‘King Khan’, Shahrukh Khan has without an iota of doubt, etched his name in history for his lifetime of work as an Actor, Entertainer and a Superstar. His fan following is unparalleled and like nothing you have ever seen in the world.EVER. Love him or hate him, you cannot ignore him. Especially when you happen to grow up watching him turn from your favourite actor to the Superstar today, you connect and link him with not just movies but life instances. I remember watching Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, in the hall, with a big plaster on my hand, thanks to a failed landing in Gymnastic class. I don’t remember the month or the year, but I know it was in the year K3G released. Stuff like that. So yeah, it would not be too dramatic to say that as I grew up, the Star in SRK magnified.
Usually when you get attached to something while you are younger, the emotional value associated with it is extremely high. And it is this emotional value that compels you to carry on that attachment as you grow older. In a way you believe it defines you, your choice, your taste and the person you are. But there are times, more often than not, when the attachment loses its charm on you. You try really hard to fight the change, but in vain, as slowly the magic it had on you starts to ward off. Now the reason can be anything and we will not get into that as I intend to keep this one short and intend to stick to that intention.
So now I want to understand that when this magic or spell that we have lived most of our lives in, is broken, is it a good thing or a bad thing? Hmm…Can be either, may seem like a bad thing initially but somehow I think, in the end, it should work out for the best. Because it must! Otherwise why would life take you through that ordeal if it was not to teach you an important lesson but only give people a chance to tell you who are still under their respective spells and call you cynical? -_-
FAN was genuinely my last attempt to remain under that spell, that I have grown up under all along only to understand today, that no matter how hard you try, once the charm loses its power on you, you cannot remain spellbound, even if you want to. And trust me this applies to everything else in life, making it a universal law.
So with this SRK is on a hat trick, but only, it is a hat trick of disappointments for me. A story that follows a young boy, not corrected by his parents at young age who grows up to become an obsessed FAN of superstar that he believes is his entire world as he, in his head, has established a special connection to. Because you see, he knew he was going to look like him when he would grow up! And no, that is not stupid, that is having a connection. Are you listening, Airtel & Idea? Buck up your game guys. Ye hota hai asli connection. -_-
How someone justifies a “connection” when the person you believe you are connected to is blissfully unaware of your existence let alone the connection, is beyond me.
FAN is long, amazingly boring and a drag with an unbelievable and incredibly dumb story line that makes you wonder why you paid the money for the tickets ,that you worked so hard to earn and voluntarily put yourself in the torture chamber. So I thought the fact that SRK will be “IN AND AS” in the movie the Humshakal angle will be avoided and not played out, as the idea is to portray a star as a fan and who better but the superstar himself!! But no. Trust me now a days, being right is what I’m afraid off more than being wrong.
Maneesh Sharma is making a Bollywood film, for an audience who take their superstars and the love they have for them very seriously, who have been born with the heightened sense of ability to identify fake from the real (Be it a gadget or an actor) and try and sell them the idea that they cannot tell the difference between the real Aryan and an Imposter? Yup, that is all there is to in the FAN. It is extremely convenient too, mind you. So, people do not consider him a look alike while he is growing up and enacting Aryan Khanna, but will do, when he wants them to. Lovely isn’t it?
Just like Gaurav does not die or suffer a scratch when he is being chased by Aryan, (Aryan too for that matter)for over 5km over high thatched roofs, falling off 10-12 feet walls but dies when he decides to jump off his own building, smeared in blood, BEFORE THE FALL is the time you start wondering why you brought your brain along for this one. -_- Oh and the aesthetic shot that the director has managed to pull off of Gaurav’s fall. Ah! Beauty! I don’t think a freedom fighter or a brave heart has received such a long, slow shot like this delusional “fan” has.
If you believe you can be fooled by all this and can overlook why a superstar of Aryan’s stature would have to fight on his own when you would think that stardom accompanies power you will appreciate this critically acclaimed project. If not, you will accept that Shahrukh and what he was earlier, is not the same any more. And as all good things come to an end, so has the charm of his movies, the process of accepting this fact will start sooner and hopefully end sooner.
The only good thing about the movie was the song, Jabra Fan, which was not even in it. Yeah you read that right. Or after it. (Again, read it right!) And the fact that yes, Sharukh can still act if he wants to but must stop duping the audience with scenes that have been put together for a running time of 144 minutes that make absolutely no sense. Oh and there is a scene where Aryan’s show is boycotted! I mean c’mon! To that I will say, ‘Ye toh heights hai. Hadd hi paar ho gayi.’
Can you believe, that the film maker believes that if a Superstar’s Stardom has been marred by a couple of incidents, his international show, the tickets for which are sold out 6 months in advance will be boycotted?! The fact that you are so disconnected to realty, to how the real fans out there think who have very little memory retention to such incidents and more importantly have bought such expensive tickets of a show, will actually boycott it proves your stupidity and thus I don’t have to.
You may go ahead and watch the film, because you really won’t not go even if I did ask you not to and watch a martyr being given a great send off as though he is being applauded for being a FAN because that’s exactly what it looks like when the director flashes those “happy” pictures at the end of the film.
P.S.
Oh btw, did you now? It’s insanely easy to get into SRK’s mansion. Just dress up in tracks, go by the back door, say you’re name( Shahrukh Khan ok!) height, age, college, education and the wife will let you in the house, through the lobby, into the bed room.
And you thought it was a herculean task? Silly you.
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