My name is khan!!. Review on My Name is Khan

“Repair Almost Anything.” Rizvan Khan, the protagonist of the film holds  out a placard after he runs out of money during his long, arduous,  circuitous journey to meet the President of the United States of America  to tell him just one thing: “My Name Is Khan and I am not a terrorist”.

In  the post 9/11 world when the west particularly began to judge the whole  basket by a few bad apples and put a whole community under the scanner  because of their religious orientation, Rizvan Khan, the man who suffers  from Asperger’s Syndrome, the man who can’t stand loud noises and stark  colours, the man who’s scared of venturing into places he isn’t used to  and can barely cross a road without the risk of being hit by a speeding  vehicle, trudges through the length and breadth of the US and braves  racial discrimination, arrest, and even torture at the hands of the  authority only because he’s driven by deep love for his estranged wife  Mandira(Kajol)  from whom he parted with the promise that he won’t return till he’s met  the President. It’s the tale of the triumph of this indomitable spirit  of the protagonist of My Name Is Khan, incredibly played by the ever-surprising Shahrukh Khan, that touches you, moves you, makes you cry, gives you goose pimples, and enlightens you with its message.

Karan Johar,  the czar of popcorn romances, leaps into a new territory and delves  into a serious subject without totally slithering out of his old skin.  While the first half of ‘My Name Is Khan’ is as good as it could get,  the film slides onto a downward slope at many points in the second half,  when the old K-Jo kicks in and hyperbolizes the drama and overplays the  emotions. Old habits truly die hard. But thank goodness for Shahrukh  Khan, the man at the centre of it all, who comes up with an awesome  performance that doubtlessly ranks as his best till date. There’s not a  trace of the swashbuckling, flamboyant Khan with the lofty brow and  quivering lips we’ve seen repeatedly in the actor’s past films. His  Rizvan is a gauche, retiring, shy, blushing man who drawls out his lines  in a constant monotone, walks with a stiff gait and barely makes an  eye-contact with other people. Giving SRK ample support without ever  becoming central to the film is Kajol, ravishing and riveting as ever.

Writer  Shibani Bhatija has clearly researched the Asperger’s syndrome well.  SRK’s mildly autistic character in the movie takes everything literally  (for example, if you were to tell him to go to hell, he will actually  ask you its address); he is scared of crowded places and certain  colours, yet he’s gifted with an almost exceptional intellectual genius.  He has a tendency to repeat the words he’s heard but is unable to  express his own emotions well. Mostly, he doesn’t get lost in niceties.  In a scene where a couple in a bus offer him a bite of their lunch,  Rizvan actually takes all there is in the can, leaving the couple to  nibble on the only bit they luckily pre-empted before making the offer.  Or take that scene where a hostess, a next-door neighbour, asks Rizvan,  “how’s the chicken?”. “Not very good, ” is his reply. No words minced and  saying it as it is.

Apart from the fine strokes in etching out  Rizvan’s character, the story traverses an expansive canvas and touches  upon a number of issues like the communal riots in North India’s  heartland or the racial profiling at the airports of the US or the  spitfire fanatics who try to incite youth with their distorted  interpretation of verses from the holy book or the discrimination that  Muslims face in their everyday life abroad. And all through this stride,  the movie holds out one message loud and clear - that of love and  compassion. The beacon holding out this message is Rizvan. Beyond the  labels of religion, he sees people as just good or bad.

Kudos  to Karan Johar for making this brave attempt but how one wishes he had  reined himself in during the second half. The flood sequence and the  sub-plot involving Mama Jenny and funny hair Joel in Wilhelmina,  Georgia, were totally dispensable.

Music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy and cinematography by Ravi Chandran is top-notch. Jimmy Shergill(as SRK’s younger brother) and Sonya Jehan(as Shergill’s wife) come up with fine performances.

But  my salutations to the man who breathes life and soul into the movie -  the King Khan. And I say it as much from my epiglottis as from the  heart.

Rating: 3.5 / 5