'To be or not to be, a Fan'

Release date- 15th April 2016

One Word which describes the film- Overblown

Best Dialogue-“Rehn de. Tu nahin samjhega." 

Genre- Drama/ Thriller

Music-Vishal–Shekhar

Producer-Aditya Chopra

Story & Direction-Maneesh Sharma

Screenplay & Dialogue-Habib Faisal

Cast- Shah Rukh Khan, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Waluscha de Sousa, Sayani Gupta,

Budget- 85 Crores approximately

Over the years I have seen all Shahrukh Khan films within a day or two of their release mostly in fully packed theaters. So the almost empty theater with just 7-8 people in the audience took me by surprise. Where were SRK's die-hard fans when their star had given them a film where he was not only the sun but also the planet which revolves around it.
I was really very impressed by the first half. We have a 25 year old Delhi boy who is a die hard fan of superstar Aryan Khanna. The boy is  energetic, simple hearted, full of enthusiasm and his only aim in life is to meet his idol.

Onscreen it's a miracle to see the shy boy turn into a confident man when he tries to copy the famous scenes of the star. But in reality how Shahrukh transforms himself into a young boy who even claps and jumps up and down in joy when he is excited is commendable. There is no trace of the star though you may be reminded of the young SRK from Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman(1992) or Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa(1994).   
In an interview director Manish Sharma said that converting a 50 year old man to a 25 year old boy was physically draining task. 'After three-and-a-half hours of make-up I had to shoot with an actor with 32 VFX markers on his face required for the post-production work. What we were seeing on the monitor during the shoot was not going to be there eventually. I had to say okay to a take imagining how it would look like after four months of post-production.'

The character of Aryan Khanna fails to measure up to the character of the Fan. Till the time the film focuses on the fan,it's a delight to watch but as the lives of the fan and the star starts entwining with each other it starts becoming too melodramatic, over the top and unrealistic.
Like we wonder why when the star should have met the fan alone he sends a team for him and later when he should have tackled him with a team he decides to meet him alone even saying,'Ab mai use apna asli chehra dikhaunga, Dilli wala'.
When the star's PA tells him, 'Sanki hai wo' his answer is , 'Accha, to mai kya hoon?' So when in the second half both the star and fan are out to prove who is more 'sanki', we wonder when will this mad chase end and what are we going to gain by watching them run after each other first in London, then in Dubrovnik, then in Mumbai and finally in Delhi.

The writer and director spend years on thinking about a subject and then converting that thought into a film but the audience gets just 2 hours to decide whether they like the film or not. So when director Manish Sharma says that the only film he ever wanted to make was 'Fan' we trust him but we as audience still feel that it's surely not that one SRK film which anyone would love to watch anytime.
The film was released in 3500 screens and despite positive reviews the film managed to collect just 53 crores over the weekend which is quite less considering it's big budget.
The film has just one song which was only made for promotional purposes and is not part of the film.
In a line, when the film has just two characters and in more than half of the film both are unhappy how can the audience feel happy after watching them?

Time-pass. Can be seen for the entertaining first half.