My Name Is Khan
A Karan Johar film starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol
(May contain some spoilers)
A film about an Indian Muslim with Aspergers coming to terms with the world post-9/11, where most of the dialogue is spoken in Hindi, sounds like a difficult pitch to sell to the world, let alone the Indian market, without a reputable star. My Name Is Khan is that film, and it has three of India's leading lights - director Karan Johar, actress Kajol, and the man widely considered as the most bankable international film star, Shah Rukh Khan.
Khan plays the adult Rizwan Khan, the aforementioned Indian Muslim with Aspergers, whose aim is to tell the President of the United States that his name is Khan, "and I am not a terrorist". This is explained to us via flashbacks related to the words he writes to/for a woman named Mandira (Kajol). In the film's first movement, Khan recounts growing up in Mumbai and the lesson from his ammi (mother) which is a reoccuring theme throughout the film - that in life, there are only good people who do good deeds, and bad people who do bad deeds, and that there are no other differences between people (a lesson taught to Khan in the aftermath of the Bombay Riots). That the young Rizwan (deftly performed by Tanay Chheda) has Aspergers isn't recognised by his loved ones at this point, but his talent for memorising historical dates and fixing machinery is already in evidence, as is the tension between him and younger bhai (brother) Zakir, who leaves for America under a cloud of jealousy at the supposedly inferior treatment towards him.
After the death of his beloved ammi, the adult Rizwan heads to San Francisco to live with Zakir (Jimmy Shergill), whose wife Haseena (Sonya Jehan) manages to get Rizwan's Aspergers diagnosed. Zakir finds Rizwan a job as a herbal beauty product salesman, and whilst out with his products, he's nearly being hit by a tram on a yellow crossing, which leads to him meeting Mandira, a Hindu woman with a son from a previous marriage. Here, the traditional Bollywood love story meets modern American indie cinema; thankfully, the necessary 'quirky' relationship is genuinely human and moving, with Khan and Kajol exhibiting a natural chemistry that they have always shown in previous pictures together, without being too heavy handed in dealing with some of the film's key themes and issues.
Just before the halfway point of the film, the events of 9/11 take place and turn the story upside down; anti-Muslim sentiment rear its ugly head, and two events occur which would leave you struggling to keep back the tears. Throughout the middle part of the film, Kajol is an emotional tour de force as Rizwan and Mandira's world spirals into despair via intolerance and a heartbreaking tragedy. Shibani Bathija's script is one of those where light breaks through the cracks and hope is never conquered, but the film's darker moments have the power suck the breath out of you as if you've been punched in the gut. For a film that's rated 12, it's fairly heavy stuff.
The scope of the film's topics - primarily the attitudes towards Muslims after 9/11, but also covering Aspergers, love, and an event which loosely resembles Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath - means that there is a lot to take in and the final part of the film occasionally lapses into fairly sentimental territory, but Johar does a very good job of pacing the film through each one of its 160 minutes, and never allows the film to be bogged down by the weight of the emotional baggage attached to each thread of the story. There must also be a special mention of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's brilliant score, which fuses traditional Bollywood and subtle Western flavours to magical effect. Like the film itself, it invites you to open up your heart and mind, and takes you on a quite magical journey where everything, like the film itself, isn't just black or white - it's HD technicolour which will stay with you long after the credits roll.
4.5/5
A Karan Johar film starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol
(May contain some spoilers)
A film about an Indian Muslim with Aspergers coming to terms with the world post-9/11, where most of the dialogue is spoken in Hindi, sounds like a difficult pitch to sell to the world, let alone the Indian market, without a reputable star. My Name Is Khan is that film, and it has three of India's leading lights - director Karan Johar, actress Kajol, and the man widely considered as the most bankable international film star, Shah Rukh Khan.
Khan plays the adult Rizwan Khan, the aforementioned Indian Muslim with Aspergers, whose aim is to tell the President of the United States that his name is Khan, "and I am not a terrorist". This is explained to us via flashbacks related to the words he writes to/for a woman named Mandira (Kajol). In the film's first movement, Khan recounts growing up in Mumbai and the lesson from his ammi (mother) which is a reoccuring theme throughout the film - that in life, there are only good people who do good deeds, and bad people who do bad deeds, and that there are no other differences between people (a lesson taught to Khan in the aftermath of the Bombay Riots). That the young Rizwan (deftly performed by Tanay Chheda) has Aspergers isn't recognised by his loved ones at this point, but his talent for memorising historical dates and fixing machinery is already in evidence, as is the tension between him and younger bhai (brother) Zakir, who leaves for America under a cloud of jealousy at the supposedly inferior treatment towards him.
After the death of his beloved ammi, the adult Rizwan heads to San Francisco to live with Zakir (Jimmy Shergill), whose wife Haseena (Sonya Jehan) manages to get Rizwan's Aspergers diagnosed. Zakir finds Rizwan a job as a herbal beauty product salesman, and whilst out with his products, he's nearly being hit by a tram on a yellow crossing, which leads to him meeting Mandira, a Hindu woman with a son from a previous marriage. Here, the traditional Bollywood love story meets modern American indie cinema; thankfully, the necessary 'quirky' relationship is genuinely human and moving, with Khan and Kajol exhibiting a natural chemistry that they have always shown in previous pictures together, without being too heavy handed in dealing with some of the film's key themes and issues.
Just before the halfway point of the film, the events of 9/11 take place and turn the story upside down; anti-Muslim sentiment rear its ugly head, and two events occur which would leave you struggling to keep back the tears. Throughout the middle part of the film, Kajol is an emotional tour de force as Rizwan and Mandira's world spirals into despair via intolerance and a heartbreaking tragedy. Shibani Bathija's script is one of those where light breaks through the cracks and hope is never conquered, but the film's darker moments have the power suck the breath out of you as if you've been punched in the gut. For a film that's rated 12, it's fairly heavy stuff.
The scope of the film's topics - primarily the attitudes towards Muslims after 9/11, but also covering Aspergers, love, and an event which loosely resembles Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath - means that there is a lot to take in and the final part of the film occasionally lapses into fairly sentimental territory, but Johar does a very good job of pacing the film through each one of its 160 minutes, and never allows the film to be bogged down by the weight of the emotional baggage attached to each thread of the story. There must also be a special mention of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's brilliant score, which fuses traditional Bollywood and subtle Western flavours to magical effect. Like the film itself, it invites you to open up your heart and mind, and takes you on a quite magical journey where everything, like the film itself, isn't just black or white - it's HD technicolour which will stay with you long after the credits roll.
4.5/5
