Fan: A fan's review

It has been quite some time since Chak De, dear SRK. Almost nine years since that riveting piece of art which underlined the fact that there's more to you than well, you; year after year seeing you plodding your way through senseless piece of garbage in the name of scripts (well films had to make money, and we know good films and minting money have a very low correlation in Bollywood), we were waiting for a turnaround of sorts from you, where you would fearlessly experiment, when you can no longer, without the help of prosthetics, play a college kid. The trailer of Fan had us hoping, so did Raees, and we knew within our hearts, that this would the watershed year.
Fan finally shows that bound with a taut script, minus senseless song and dance numbers and brisk storyline, you can do wonders. One wishes that better sense has prevailed to you before you signed up for Rohit Shetty. But 100 crore club is almost like an ego massage, a hedonistic feeling, to stay abreast of the competition, and who knows competition better than you, staying ahead of them for twenty five years and counting.
On to the movie then, and  Maneesh Sharma movie means the bylanes of Delhi, with joined roofs with a backdrop of the metro. But the new age directors at Yash Raj do manage to paint a newer picture of Delhi everytime. The supporting cast is terrific, with a few recognisable faces from the ad world given a chance and they don't disappoint. SRK playing SRK is bold, unapologetic and unashamed to bring out the dark side of the star, egotistical, moody, brash, but underneath all the paint, a human being after all. But the true revelation of the movie is, you guessed it, SRK as the fan Gaurav. Prosthetic does work its charm, but the mannerism, the acting chops, the rough at the edges attitude, the brash Delhi gait, that's all talent, and boy does he kill it !!! It never sinks in that it's the same person playing both the roles, as the audience roots for the Star to win and the obsessive, bordering on the maniacal, fan to get what he deserves. At just over 2 hours and 15 minutes, it is an often edge of the seat thriller, while the chase sequences will definitely remind the loyalists of the chase sequences in Darr between SRK and Sunny Deol.
This just whets our appetite for what's to come from SRK, the actor as we now await Raees with bated breath. We are sure he will not disappoint his diehard fans, since 'fans nahi to star kuchh bhi nahi'.