"My Name is Khan" (2010)



I liked it quite a bit. I was actually very surprised that I liked it so much, because for some reason I was rather wary of this film.. But it turned out to be much better than I expected. Spectacular if not sulime in some aspects (acting, cinematography, music), and very entertaining on the whole. At least, it's way better than most of the stuff Bollywood churns out. As Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India said, it's "indubitably one of the most meaningful and moving films to be rolled out from the Bollywood mills in recent times."

The film is about a Muslim with Asperger's syndrome (Rizwan Khan) living in post 9/11 US... "My name is Khan and I'm not a terrorist" is his mantra. The film is not without flaws but it's got great performances from Shahrukh Khan, Kajol and supporting cast, great music and stunning cinematography. America looks really beautiful here. For all those who don't know, Shahrukh and Kajol are the legendary, most beloved couple in Hindi cinema, Han Solo and Princess Leia or Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn of Hindi cinema, as someone put it. So this movie was a bit of a big deal because it has them reuniting after about 10 years.

Shahrukh -- well, prior to this, I've seen him in more than 30 other films, plus interviews. I had my doubts about Shahrukh playing an autist. Because he seems so far from being even an introvert. I know he's a really good actor but I was absolutely thrown by his performance here... Because I never saw "Shahrukh" in Rizwan. I totally believed in this character. Because of his condition, Rizwan is a very touching, endearing character. A lot like Forrest Gump. I don't know much about autism. I've seen "Rainman", of course, and we learned about it as part of psychology courses at my uni... As far as I can judge, it was great work on SRK's part. I've read comments from people who work with autists that it was spot-on.

Kajol is a fantastic actress. Very natural, very beautiful, very watchable, she is the only one who nearly succeeds in stealing the scene from Shahrukh. I can never take my eyes off her.

Music. The music is very modern but with national, Sufi motiffs. "Muslims in America" describes it best. It can be downloaded here. My favourite is Noor E Khuda. In fact, my favourite scenes in the movie are during this song -- Khan's journey through America.

Director. Karan Johar is one my favourite Indian directors (along with Santosh Sivan, Aditya Chopra, Farah Khan and Aziz Mirza). He's not the best director out there but I love him for the kind, warm and sincere person he is. I think his best film was Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, his debut, which he made when he was 25. In KKHH you can see that everything is from the heart, perhaps that's why it's been so popular. His other films -- Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Kal Ho Naa Ho (as a screenwriter) are interesting works and some of the few films that made me cry my heart out but they have maaaany flaws... Karan has been sort of blamed for making fluffy romances. Now, MNIK is quite different. It doesn't have any dance--song routines/item numbers. The songs are all in the background. The subject matter is quite serious but the film is not gloomy, it has some great humour.

MNIK is human. Beautiful. Touching. Sincere. Heartfelt.

All this can be said about other Johar's films as well.

Cinematography by Ravi Chandran is... well, fantastic.
Fave shots





The first half of the movie is so good in terms of scripting, that it's a bit of a shock to see how it goes downhill in the second half... It is as if Karan sabotaged himself. But I have to say, this film is such an emotional rollercoaster that I didn't really care about the flaws toward the end. MNIK has been described as "Slumdog Millionaire" meets "Forrest Gump" meets "Rainman" but this creates a slightly negative image of ideas rehashed... whereas MNIK looks really fresh and interesting.

It was released in the US in February and an abridged version (about 100 min) was released again in June ,if I'm not mistaken. In Russia, we'll see it in theatres in September but I don't think it's gonna make any collections, really, because of all the piracy.

Oh God, I could go on and on and on about it, I'd better just stop.

Official website

MNIK on imdb

wiki article



A nice review by Charles R. Larson

another interesting review, only in French

nice fan video

Some pics from MNIK

















































OK, that's enough about one film... Told ya, there'd be no stopping me. Hope I've not been too obnoxious... Please, don't kill me for the pics overload. It's just that I saw it recently and the impression is still very strong.