Ever since Gaurav was introduced, FAN was on the top of my list for this year’s must watch movies. I found the concept of a fan’s connection to his star very compelling but after watching the trailer of FAN, all my curiosity has been dumped to dustbin.
In India fandom has a different meaning especially for fans of movie and cricket stars. The love, the big stars get in India is unlike anywhere you will find. We have all heard some of the crazy things these die hard fans can do for their own God like bathing their star’s large cutouts with milk, marrying their photos,building temples, keeping fast, naming their kids after the stars and what not. Well, cricketers can also have their effigies burning if India loses a match. Heck, people don’t support their local IPL team too. They don’t celebrate their own birthday with so much enthusiasm as they do for their stars.They can stand all day long outside their house with a placard reading ‘I love u’.
For neutrals like us, these fans are beyond our understanding. They always make us wonder ‘Don’t they have life ??’. You almost feel like calling them mad, but it would be really rude. A connection between a star and his fans is a thing of intrigue for me. Just like planets revolve around a star, the lives of fan revolve around their stars. Anything happening to Sun is a concern for Earth and anything going on with a star’s life affect his fan’s life. No Sachin, No Cricket. A new life starts. Swallowing food becomes difficult, swallowing achievements of younger stars become difficult. When a Star retires, for us its end of an era , for fans life loses meaning.
So when you have Shahrukh Khan and his legion of fans, you have something on your hand. The concept of fandom to be explored. Present us the intricacies of this strong bond. Dive into the minds of a fan, swim in the feelings of their heart and come out with the reasons behind this unconditional love. There is so much to see, think and accept for us neutrals. The prospect of witnessing Shahrukh Khan and his connection with fans was too much for me to miss or even wait. But the just released trailer of Fan proved to be a damp squib. I wanted to see unadulterated obsession(i know ‘obsession’ is itself a negative word) like what Lance Armstrong’s fan had for him even when USADA proved that all his championships were a big farce. Not until he himself admitted, people were not convinced.
FAN gives us a story of a loser, like those roadside romeos who cannot accept ‘NO’ from a girl. From being someone who can love them to the world’s end to being their harasser. Gaurav is ready to do anything to meet his idol. He will jump security like this
He will ask Aryan Khanna for five minutes out of his busy schedule. Well if you knock down someone’s security personnel(or may be friend), that person has got to be angry and at the spur of moment will refuse your proposal. 
Now what to do ?? All your life, you were concerned with the well being of this person and he treats you like this. You are very hurt and decide to teach him a lesson. You start this by stalking him and disrupting his work.
After all this, that person comes to know your intention and thus confronts you. An altercation takes place and that person leaves you with a warning. This makes you all more determined to drive point your home and now you will do everything in your capacity to bring down his name.
- Three legends in one frame Johnny Depp, SRK, Leonardo Dicaprio
Now you are more than a stalker to this person. You are not only dangerous to him but also his friends and family. He cannot take you lightly and decides to beat you at your own game. Since you both look similar, you transform into each other with prosthetic makeup
- He is Aryan Khanna, Gaurav didn’t had dimples
whaT I understooD 
I think you nailed it !!
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Thanks for your comment
What are your expectations from FAN?? Looking forward to or disappointed….
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Most self obsessed childish post. this is exactly what FAN movie should not be about. Dumb, retarded, 3 hours YRF tear jerker between a superstar and his superstar fan referencing to every YRF SRK release about how he became his fan. SRK would have become the butt of jokes as to how extremely narcissistic is this guy that he don’t even need a lead actress anymore for this first of its kind homosexual bromance tear jerker between star and far melodrama.
I am so glad FAN is a shocker of a thriller. Instead, it’s dark bollywood version of THE DARK KNIGHT. All hell breaks loose and everything else falls apart which can make FAN a classic, non-commercial (no songs, no masala), niche masterpiece.
In the end, it is we the audience get to decide who is the real villian of FAN. The innocent naive stubborn passionate Gaurav Chanda or extremely hard working very busy publics superstar who does not even have 5 mins to give to his family but completely misunderstood private family man, THE Aryan Khanna.
This childish article is the example why bollywood audience is extremely immature and fail to hit the puberty and grow up. At the same time they complain about bollywoods failure to come up with THE DARK KNIGHT trilogy, LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy.
Instead when they see the FAN trailer, they are extremely disappointed, the film has no commercial jabra songs filled 3 hrs tear jerker rona dhona. Same audience fail to realise they themselves are reponsible for bollywoods poor quality in terms of story telling, screenplay writing due to blatant copying of South regional block busters remakes and hollywood rip-offs.
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He nailed nothing. Calling it bullshit over nothing but the fact that the film isn’t how he expected. Fan explores both the connection between fans and stars leading to obsession as well as the consequences of unchecked obsession – hence the action thriller elements. A positive tale of star and fan or admirers has been done before. This is different.
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I’m sorry, I should have written ‘in my opinion’ for calling the storyline bullshit. I totally accept we all have different expectations and FAN definitely is not to my liking. I have seen Robert Niro’s ‘The Fan’ and therefore I don’t believe there is any novelty in this storyline. I don’t remember the name of the movie but it had same concept starring Sushmita Sen and released in 1996.
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@Khan
First of all the movie is in no way a niche movie, running on the roof, flying like a desi spiderman and a bit of cheesy dialogues throw that concept right of the window. And I was not asking for a tear jerker but a film which moves me. A food for thought kind of movie not some average suspense movie which has been already done in earlier films. This is on the lines of Robert deNiro’s ‘The Fan’.
The kind of star SRK is and the fans he has can make for a wonderful character study or simple case study but instead director gives us a stale storyline.
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Just because both share a common link of an obsessed fan, doesn’t mean they’re similar. Fan stems from the obsession for bollywood stars (or more specifically SRK, which is how Maneesh came up with the story) and will have it’s own story to tell.
Take all great films released – they would have something in common with past films and therefore, according to you, have no novelty and are average. Name all great films released last year and you can find films similar to them.
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How can you call it an average suspense movie without seeing it and jump to your own assumptions about the plot? The film clearly does explore the connection between a star and fan and how that connection leads to unchecked obsession. It also explores how superstars think and the misunderstanding between mindset of a fan and star. It’s much deeper than you think. Read this from the official synopsis “In an edge of the seat thriller, FAN will peel away at both Gaurav and Aryan’s personalities and characters as the two men discover people within themselves that even they didn’t know existed, and we’re left wondering who to sympathize with and whom to root for – can we really pick a side, after all, Superstars are also human beings but each one of us is also a FAN.”
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I have clearly mentioned that after watching first two teasers I was excited for this as hell but trailer has dampened my spirit somewhat. It could have been what ‘The Truman Show’ was, a satire on our obsession for reality shows on television. The whole concept was presented in such a unique manner, not a tear jerker but a moving film it was. I felt FAN will give me that unique experience as SRK was playing both, the star as well as the fan himself. This storyline of love, rejection and revenge is average. Treatment of the subject can make it a good film but it won’t be the game changer I was expecting.
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It’s an action thriller that explores the psyche of a fan and superstar and their connection (which is what you’re looking for). It’s that connection that forms the basis of the conflict. Definitely deeper than a standard revenge story. Watch the film first before rushing to conclusions. Besides, even if it isn’t a game changer, it can still be a great film. But I prefer that it isn’t a standard exploration of star and fan (which it still does) but takes a dark turn which is something we haven’t seen in bollywood.
Sports films had been done before and so had sociopolitical films so does that make Chak De India, Lagaan & Swades etc lesser films?
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I know novelty is not the only factor that makes a film great but I wanted FAN to show what has never been attempted in the history of cinema. Even if treatment is not up to the mark, the subject must go deeper ( I didn’t wanted a great film but a different film). Point one thing in trailer which haven’t you heard about the fans doing for their star, everything in trailer is just a general observation we all have about the fans. Its like saying 3 idiots is a masterpiece ( the movie never went into the depths of issues like suicide, peer pressure etc.), its entertaining but an average flick.
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The crux of the film is the action thriller element & element of revenge. Watch the film to see how that develops. It will be deeper than just star chases fan. It’ll explore both characters deeply. The first teaser showed what fandom is all about (which is what you want) and that will be in the film as well.
Entertainment is dabangg like films, 3 idiots was more than that. It didn’t delve into one particular issue but tackled a number of them in relevant and entertaining ways which is why it touched many people. They couldn’t spend the whole film dealing with one issue in big depth could they?
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I have already written a post on why 3 idiots is just another superficial entertainer, so I won’t go into it. If you want to discuss 3 idiots then we can do it on ‘3 idiots’ post.
From the synopsis, FAN does look promising but from the trailer, emphasis looks more on the commercial part. To me, it looks like Gaurav Chandana’s journey to meet his idol Aryan Khanna will not have much screen time. Obviously, people are going to love this movie even if it is able to do what trailer suggests, as big stars in India hardly work in movies of this genre. And as you said crux of the film will be its element of revenge, I don’t think YRF will miss such a chance to rake in moolahs by presenting SRK in a new avatar. That is precisely why they have missed the trick. In Amitabh Bachchan’s Paa, a complex issue of parenthood was dealt so beautifully but in FAN I don’t expect much about Gaurav Chandana’s parents, considering this guy is not a normal fan but an obsessed fan. How could they let him go and follow Aryan Khanna to other countries just to seek revenge? How a person of Aryan Khanna’s stature will not have a security to deal with such an emotionally unstable person?
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Let’s wait for the film and see but I believe a substantial portion will be devoted to Gaurav’s journey to meet the superstar and leads up to the interval (my guess). And I’m guessing the conflict between star and fan will have a number of twists, going by the trailer.
Regarding the commercial or box office aspect, that wouldn’t have been on Maneesh’s mind when he scripted the film and thrillers have generally not been big hits in India. It’s much different from a commercial thriller like yrf’s ek tha tiger that was expected to rake in big money.
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Once film releases we will be able to analyze it better. The only thing is, my expectations are not high and maybe it is a good thing.
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