Film Review - My Name Is Khan

Well my friend Aditya Tibrewala is very good at writing reviews and has been posting quite a few on his blog but since I love SRK and this film touched me, I could least restrain myself from the enticement of writing my own review.

Rizwan Khan (Shahrukh Khan), suffering from a disorder, leaves India to settle with his brother (Jimmy Shergill) in San Francisco after his beloved mother’s (Zarina Wahab) death who taught him that there are two kind of people in the world, good and bad, and they do not have a religion. Unaware about his disorder’s precise details, Khan’s sister-in-law (Sonia Jehan) finds out the reason behind his plight and discovers that he suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, a state of Autism, in which the patient has a disorder of neural development characterised by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and recurring behaviour. He cannot tolerate loud sounds, and gets startled on seeing strong yellows. Rizwan works as a salesman for his brother’s company selling beauty products and comes across a salon employee and single mother, Mandira (Kajol Devgn), to whom he tries to sell the products with great honesty and inherent innocence. Mandira and Khan fall in love with each other, and the mother and son duo accept Khan with his ailment with open arms. The 9/11 debacle shatters the state of Muslims in the US. Inevitably, an unfortunate event occurs in the life of the Khan family and thus Khan sets out on a journey to meet the President. During his entire journey he meets some evil and some good people. The essence of the film is that despite suffering from a disorder it seems that Khan is saner than others, that goodness always prevails over the bad.

Story & Screenplay: First things first, the story seems to be clichéd and boring with a handicapped protagonist and the 9/11 backdrop, however the treatment of this film is entirely different than what other Indian films of this genre have been like. Shibani Bathija’s script has allegorical references and balanced characters. The entire Wilhelmina sequence in Georgia is written well (except for the rescue scene), and SRK’s character is well sketched.

Direction: Karan Johar has gone a step further than his usual style of storytelling which involves a heavy dose of romance, dance, songs and melodrama, most of which is missing in this one. He is triumphant in this attempt to make serious cinema. There are several sequences that he has taken care of perfectly well, especially Wilhelmina. You shall not say this is a signature Karan Johar film except for the hurricane rescue sequence. He has used his actors perfectly well and has got the best out of the Shahrukh-Kajol pair. KJo’s love for the USA is pretty evident through fine detailing.

Acting: Well what can I say about SRK! This perhaps is Shah Rukh Khan’s best performance till date and deserves a standing ovation simply because of his effortless work; believe me I am not being opinionated and biased. You may quite forget that it is the country’s number one superstar in front of your eyes. He without doubt manages to make you believe that he suffers from Autism. The sequence where he first introduces himself to Kajol, the monologue in the church in Wilhelmina and the interaction with Jimmy Shergill outside his house, are astonishingly performed. Hats off to him.

Kajol is in top form again. She has played her part exactly as one should and has supported Shah Rukh’s character quite well. One cannot challenge this Jodi in any way. The chemistry, romance and friendship between the two is all subtle and mesmerising.

Others like Jimmy Shergill, Sonia Jehan, Zarina Wahab, Parvin Dabbas, Tanay Chheda (younger Khan) and Yuvaan Makaar (Kajol’s son) are all impressive. The rest of the cast, both Asian and American have all done justice to their roles. Thus the acting department is top notch.

Cinematography: Ravi Chandran has shot this film magnificently. He has made everything look beautiful and pleasing. The interior scenes in Borivali are notably lit well along with hurricane and rain sequences in America.

Music: Well there is not much that can be said about Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy’s music. They have done an okay job with the film and the 3 songs. However, the Khan theme that keeps playing several times in the film is superb as is Sajda. You would not stop humming it. The background score is also fine.

All the other departments including Editing have done the job well and are in sync with the film.

Key Points

1. This film is not meant for those who look for hardcore entertainment in each scene. It is a sensible and straight forward serious film that principally caters to an international audience. The film’s graph, style and storytelling are perfectly fit for any successful Hollywood flick of this genre thus the conventional Indian audience might not completely identify with it.
2. As I told my family 11 months back, SRK shall sweep all the top awards next year for his performance in MNIK. You shall be compelled to love him in this film. The film belongs to him and he has indeed raised the bar.
3. For all those who like to draw comparisons, SRK’s performance is better than Aamir’s in 3 Idiots, simply because of the kind of role he plays, and that of Amitabh Bachchan’s in Paa, because as Mr. Bachchan himself said he could emote easily under the blanket of makeup whereas SRK did not have anything to hide his face under and could have got caught had he not performed this well.

I would not overrate this film as many have done by giving 5 on 5 but I give it 4/5 primarily because of the mindboggling performance by Shah Rukh and the honest and striving attempt to make serious cinema that has a larger audience cover. Catch it even if you are not a Shah Rukh fan because this one might just turn you into one.