My Name Is Khan

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 12th Feb, 2010
Time : ~160 minutes
Director: Karan Johar; Writer : Shibani Bathija; Music : Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Starring : Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Yuvaan Makar, Sonya Jahan, Jimmy Shergill, Pravin Dabas, Arjun Mathur, Vinay Pathak, Zarina Wahab,Sugandha Garg, Arif Zakaria, SM Zaheer, Katie Keane, Kenton Duty, Benny Nieves, Christopher Duncan

A noble message, a simple point about how not every Muslim is a terrorist is stretched, dragged and repeated over 160 minutes, till the point we really stop caring. Shahrukh acts very well (though not worthy of hyperbole), Kajol is very good, better than a lot of the heroines currently out there, there is an eye-catching performance by Sonya Jahan as SRK’s sister-in-law and a nice cameo by Yuvaan as Kajol’s son. But in the second half, the film seems to lose its plot, becoming melodramatic, emotionally manipulative and totally unrealistic.



SRK plays Rizvan Khan, an autistic child, loved and adored by his mom (Zarina Wahab), who also teaches him valuable lessons about humanity, such as the all important “there are only two kinds of people in the world, good and bad. Nothing else matters”.
After her death, Rizvan goes to the USA to his resentful brother, Zakhir (Jimmy Shergill), who’s always grudged the attention lavished on Rizvan. His wife (Sonya) however, is affectionate and caring, making sure he settles in properly. When Rizvan, after an interesting courtship, decides to get married to Mandira (Kajol), a single mom with a 7 yr old son, Zakhir promptly severs relationship with him as she’s a Hindu. Then 9/11 happens and their world is never the same again.

Even though there is a sense of foreboding throughout the film, the first half is nicely balanced and enjoyable. Moments of humour, the courtship, Rizvan’s innocence and endearing ability make us sail through. The second half ruined the film for me, I actually thought it had ended at least thrice before it actually did and towards the end Rizvan almost becomes a superhero, an icon of sorts, doing incredible things and almost becoming a typical Bollywood hero


I wish Karan had made this film only for the international audience. He would have kept it much tighter then, not populated the film with numerous characters and sub-plots which were not really essential to main plot line. The central message of the film then would’ve truly flowered and the performances of the central characters stood out even more. There is an example of that in the film, one relationship that did touch me and it was shown without any histrionics, was the one between Kajol’s family and her white American neighbours…it was kept simple and totally real and hence was all the more enjoyable.

My abiding memory of the USA, esp in visits after 9/11, is of the number of flags that cropped up in every home and office and you were almost a traitor if you didn’t join in. How good-natured folk became tense and suspicious. How the Asian community was targeted in several places. And how this has still not completely gone away. So while I’ve no disagreement with the films intent, I do feel it could’ve been delivered in simpler and better fashion…