Apr 24, 2016 12:48 PM
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What is the difference between any ‘double-role’ movies played by almost all the lead actors in the industry and the ones played by SRK? In all others, the lead roles are both positive characters if not brothers! There are love interests, lots of songs… probably avenging the father!
Now, go back to SRK’s ‘Duplicate’. Very distinct characters- one is a good son while the other is a gangster. The gangster does everything to wreck the other character’s life.
You can expect such distinction in FAN! The roles are not only different shades, they are different ages as well. Things go from sweet to sour between them. SRK plays the aura of a mega star(easy for him) as easily as the boy next door image of second character.
Though the movie broadly at times reminds you of Robert De Niro’s “The Fan”, but it was purely made with the Indian audience in mind. Offshore shots(read London and Dubrovnik) added interest to the whole script. Definitely, I would question, how a middle class Delhi boy afforded to fly around different countries? I personally loved the fact that there were no songs. It would have just spoiled the whole flow.
SRK has once again proved that he is not the actor of ‘happy go lucky’+ Dil story+ Hero makes it all right at the end” movies only. Be it Dil Se, Hey Ram!, Chak De! And many more such non-generic scripts, he has always done justice to it. And Maneesh Sharma has once again proved that he can create fantasies. It’s a very intense story but narrated in a subtle way.
For starters, the movie is all about this young Delhi boy Gaurav Chandna(SRK) who is big fan of Aryan Khanna(SRK). He grew up watching this star’s movies, has his shop named after the star and his walls are covered by the star’s photos. The parents support him because he is their only child.
Eventually he plans to go to Mumbai to meet Aryan. As expected, he does not get a chance to get near the star. Meanwhile, Aryan gets into a media-hyped combat with another upcoming and younger actor-Sid. And the younger actor says stuff about Aryan to media. This anger the ‘Fan’. He manages to get into the vanity van of Sid, ties him up and forces him to apologise to Aryan while recording it on his phone camera. Gaurav then gets this small apology video clip posted online to make Aryan happy. When Aryan gets to know about this, he informs the Police who pick him up and keep him in lock-up for 2 days. Upon knowing that police did this on Aryan’s request, Gaurav’s heart breaks and he wows to make Aryan apologise to him.
From here starts the negative side of Gaurav. The plot moves to London where Aryan is about to do a big show. The look alike gets into Madame Tussauds and creates a scene with the security posing as Aryan Khanna. This results in an arrest warrant against the star. The shades of arrogance in a super star then reflects in the flowing scheme of events. He eventually gets a bail and goes to Dubrovnik(Croatia.ok its near Italy!) for a performance at wedding of daughter of an Indian business tycoon. The con arrives here as well and misbehaves with one of the young guest ladies’. The host asks Aryan to leave and this is all over the news now. There is a chase between the two lead characters at Dubrovnik but in vain.
Final blow to the star happens when Gaurav gets into Aryan’S house and messes up his study room, breaking all his trophies. To catch this con, Aryan reaches Gaurav’s house and tells his parents everything that Gaurav has done to spoil Aryan’s reputation.
In the final stand-off, which happens at a Delhi neighbourhood, Gaurav jumps off a building despite Aryan’s best efforts to save him. This was a big turning point for me because I would expect things to end in happy way in a SRK movie. A tragic end? A good end? I don’t know but it left me thinking to understand what happens in the mind of an infatuated fan. After a couple of hours I realised- “Rehne de, tu nahi samjhega!”
