Movie Review : My name is Khan

Rating : Above average (3.5/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2010
Running time : 2 hours 45 minutes
Director : Karan Johar
Cast : Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Zarina Wahab, Jimmy Shergill, Sonya Jehan, Tanay Chheda, Navneet Nishaan, Vinay Pathak, Parvin Dabbas, Arif Zakaria
Kid rating : PG-13




MY NAME IS KHAN : A KHAN-DO FILM !

You know when you go to watch a Karan Johar film, you go in there expecting lots of color, song and dance, beautiful cinematography and people, all coated nicely with that extra helping of sugary-sweet emotion. It’s overdone, and milked to kingdom come, but it’s classic Karan Johar, and you can’t take him seriously. He has defined a new genre of candy-floss cinema, which I can tolerate maybe, but never quite applaud.

All that said, lately Johar has been trying to move towards “serious” cinema – “Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna” being a mixture of Joharesque-joie-de-vivre and a semblance of a “realistic” story. “My name is Khan” walks the same path moving Johar that much closer to the “serious” cinema category.

The story of MNIK is one of hope and tolerance, and it’s main character is Rizwan Khan (Shahrukh Khan), an autistic (specifically Asperger’s Syndrome) man, full of goodness. Brought up by his loving, tolerant mother (Zarina Wahab), Rizwan moves to the United States to live with his brother (Jimmy Shergill). There Muslim Rizwan meets Hindu Mandira (Kajol) and hopes for a happy life with her. However when 9/11 happens, their tenuous relationship is threatened . . .

MNIK is quite well-written, so much so that even when you know that Johar is squeezing in every tear-jerking trick in the book, you cannot stop your eyes from welling up. A big reason for that is Rizwan Khan, a well-drawn character, who because of his autistic condition, has the ability to NOT read between the lines. A straightforward, guileless person, Rizwan possesses the ultimate gift; he speaks the truth, come what may. Shahrukh, who is naturally given to twitches and that hyper-buzz of excessive energy, channels it very effectively to portray Rizwan.

A slimmer Kajol, who is seen with SRK after many years, glows with effervescent feel-goodness, like she always has. Now Kajol, who may not in truth be the most beauteous of all women, is still a cinematographer’s dream, conveying with that one raised uni-brow all that is required of her, and more. In fact I must applaud the entire cast, from the very in-your-face Navneet Nishan, to Sonya Jehan (playing the brother’s wife), to Zarina Wahab to make this film what it is.

But there are problems. While Johar is well-intentioned, he does not quite succeed in maintaining the balance between “realism” and his brand of fantasy. Thus Rizwan, who we already love, and do, because he is caught just like the rest of his us, in an unforgiving world, is caricature-ishly turned into a super-hero of sorts when he goes into savior mode, rescuing stranded Americans from their flooded town (incident inspired by Katrinagate ?). Not only that, but his family and friends too follow him into the flooded waters pretty easily, but hey, the US Coast Guard, or FEMA cannot/will not get through. A most definite no-no, and very, very hard to believe, this flight of fantasy ruined the delicate balance of the film, and takes the quality down a couple of notches.

Other than that, this film has strong direction and some very beautiful songs. I must also mention that it pays tribute to the classic “Jaane bhi do yaaron” via it’s much loved anthem “Hum honge kamyaab” (which is actually based on this song). MNIK packs enough star power to ensure that it does well at the box-office; for a one-time watch, this film will do.

Kid-wise : This flm has some pretty violent scenes involving kids, make this film unsuitable for younger children. Allusions to the sexual act although nothing overt is shown, might bring up questions in curious minds. Also unless your children are well-informed on world issues, racial/religious tensions, some of this film might go right above thier heads.