“Hello. My name is Henry. I am a fan. Somewhere in the late 1980s I got tired of people telling me to get a life. I wrote a book instead.”
-Henry Jenkins
Shah Rukh Khan as and in Fan is a thriller technically and literally adhering to the tradition of realistic cinematography. The movie has no songs; the only song, “Jabra Fan” is missing on screen, but despite the entertainment quotient, in an age where item songs and musical scores add to the tradition of blockbuster listings, Fan should be a popular delight among Shah Rukh’s audience.
Shah Rukh plays the dual role of both the superstar Aryan Khannna and his look alike Gaurav Chandna. This is the crux, the soul, the life and the gist of the movie; Shah Rukh plays himself, the King of Bollywood, the superstar and the hero at the peak of his career but followed by a tough competition. Once in 2012, Bollywood tried to project the life of stars and described the atmosphere that the world behind the curtain depicts through the movie Heroine. Fan is an amalgam of emotions that an actor holds and the unreciprocated, unacknowledged love of any die-hard fan. If Aryan Khanna is any superstar with a large fan following, Gaurav is any die-hard fan who sticks posters, collects interviews, goes first day –to watch first show, imitates and mimics and then performs. The fan lives in a world that belongs to his hero, he forgets the demarcations and believes what his star keeps on repeating in every award ceremony, “Main jo kuch bhi hun, sirf apne fans ki wajah se hun, kyunki agar mere fans nahin, to main bhi nahin.” (I am what I am only because of my fans. Without them, I’m nothing).
Keeping aside the expected storyline, the plot and the narrative, the movie is a simple verbal throw, and the emotions remain realistic too, the fan and the star both are not able to decipher the private spheres in each other’s life. While the senior artist is unable to comprehend the trauma and the pains that an ardent fan of his undertakes in order to earn a five-minute meeting, the fan is equally ignorant of the life and protocols that govern his star’s domestic life.
Shah Rukh is amazing, the movie is all about him, the movie is a message to his fans and followers who madly wait to catch his glimpse at his house “Mannat”, where he comes to wave them in the air, inside the four walls, the viewers are bound to believe that Aryan Khanna is Shah Rukh, Waluscha De Souza who plays his wife is Gauri Khan and the kids are Aryan and Suhana. Shah Rukh is equally captivating and he is able to live through the whims and fancies of a star actor and equally remains loyal to his role as a normal, mediocre fan. He feels like his fan, he shouts like his fan, he dies for his glimpse through the crowd like a fan, while playing Aryan we are reminded of Shah Rukh Khan himself, when it comes to Gaurav being played by the same actor, we automatically erase Shah Rukh who then does not exist.
(Image Courtesy: Flickr)
Shah Rukh steals the show!
