Fan 8/10

Behold! The king is back with a bang (double bang actually), as we get to see SRK in a double role after many years (Don being the last film in which he essayed a double role). Fan is the story of an obsessive fan who considers a bollywood superstar his everything, his God. The films takes us into the complex actor - fan relationship and shows both, the good and ugly side of it. SRK plays Gaurav Chandna, the obsessive Fan of superstar Aryan Khanna also played by SRK himself. The twist or the interesting part of the movie is that Gaurav looks very similar to Aryan in the movie which serves as the main point of action of the movie. We start of with the introduction to Gaurav's life, shows what a passionate fan can be like and its like nothing you have ever seen, cannot be described in words. 25 years have passed into Gaurav's existence when he decides to go to Mumbai to meet his God, Aryan Khanna on the latter's birthday. He has everything planned out and thinks that he is a special fan so he will be treated nicely but he has no idea that thousands of fans seek an audience with their favorite superstars. Upon his arrival at Mumbai and then subsequently to Mannat everything goes haywire. Subsequently how the obsessive love turns to hate and how it changes both their lives, forms the jist of the story with a solid climax which you won't see coming.

Gaurav Chandna will definitely remind you of SRK's Anjaam and Darr days wherein he played similar characters and won millions of hearts before turning into the romance genre and making it his own. Choosing a side in this movie will definitely be a headache. To feel bad for Gaurav or to support Aryan as the line blurs between an actor and his fan you will be in a dharam sankat situation :p

Now, I'm am very much disappointed with the shoddy execution of a great plot. The screenplay was over the place most of the times and editing could have been a lot tighter. It would have made the film less of a drag. Fan has a lot of extended scenes like 2 action chase sequences between Gaurav and Aryan, a chase sequence between The police and Gaurav and then a Aryan Khanna portrayal by Gaurav in a street competition in Delhi. These scenes are very well shot and executed but they again could have been a little shorter. The 2nd half is definitely better than the 1st half which was a total drag. The actual story unfolds after the interval wherein you will be left wondering what will happen next. SRK as Gaurav Chandna was simply exquisite to watch and it his among his best played characters along the lines of Rizwan Khan(MNIK) and Kabir Khan(chak de India). Being Aryan Khanna he just has to play himself and he does that with ease, but being Gaurav was challenging and he did it with such ease and grace that you will be amazed. It's actually his acting that made the movie watchable after Director Maneesh Sharma messed up a great story with bad screenplay and no editing. The whole film rides on SRK's shoulders and he carries it from start to end. Another talking point of the movie is the VFX with SRK's prosthetic makeup and action sequences. They have been designed so well that the movie looks really great during those high octane action sequences. Only if the screenplay had a little teeth and with a little better editing this movie would have been a masterpiece. Fan is certainly not for entertainment junkie people, its a very different movie and if you don't like slow paced movie with little entertainment please don't watch it. Fan certainly is for SRK's jabra fan brigade and they will absolutely relish this movie as i did. But i had to write an honest review and here it is. I will definitely recommend people to watch it just for SRK's mind blowing portrayal of Gaurav Chandna.