My Name Is Khan

Director: Karan Johar

Starting with the humming of “tum paas aye” at the beginning, slowly shifting to a serious mode with clever shots of a disabled protagonist that Karan had mastered through the benchmarking characterization of SRK in KANK, MNIK jumps directly into the story of a man on a mission, without attaching any frills (even the credits are pushed to the end of the film).

What starts as a mission to make a statement: “My name is Khan & I am not a terrorist”, and lets freeze it at this stage; seems to follow the path of Forrest Gump (& others) telling the tale of Rizwan Khan traveling unfazed by test of time and that of nature. He either moves us with his innocence in those situations or entertains us with his witty lines as he narrates his past every time he thinks of Mandhira.

Playing a man who couldn’t stand his name being mispronounced, SRK portrays Rizwan deftly with his quivering laugh. Even though it’s about a person suffering from Autism, the movie doesn’t become sympathetic & try to overdo it. From how it is shown, it could be an aversion to certain things or a sudden rise in headache when someone shouts near your head, making sure this film is for everyone; well apart from the indulgence in Quran: which could make this movie into a documentary on Islam.

But, once the loose thread reveals, the impact that was created kind of fizzles out, turning into a routine film saved only by the dire effort of SRK. If not for his seriousness I would have really laughed at his heroic acts & the portrayal of the President (People who had watched at least the trailer of “Tamizh Padam” will agree). When Karan could think of ingenious ways of portraying peace with all religions (scene with Rizwan & mom, Rizwan & Mandhira’s prayer session) why does he resort to on your face display of the same? From dialogues to scenes intended as a speech from the director to the audience (madhumakki) than between the characters, Karan may have lost the battle but when stars are there to back him everything can be covered up: for am sure people coming out of the movie will have the strange seriousness on their face unintentionally displaying the askew look that SRK carries.