My Name Is Khan - Movie Review

MY NAME IS THACKREY AND I AM A TERRORIST

Movie Review

MY NAME IS KHAN

* Shah Rukh Khan & Kajol

Music - Shanker Eshaan Loy

Directed by Karan Johar

Before I start the review, I have my own theory about the whole Shiv Sena – SRK drama.



I am sure some one must have shown a leaked copy of the movie to Bal Thackeray and his cubs.

My Name Is Khan makes a simple point, there are only 2 kinds of people in this world:
Good People and Bad People. Simple! Period! End of story.

Going by that principle, there are no Pakistanis to hate, no Biharis to harass and no Muslims to cast doubts upon.

Just Good & Bad People.

You do Good, you’re Good. You do Bad, you’re Bad.

So by that parameter the Shiv Sena falls somewhere between Bad and Absolutely Horrid.

And if I were crazy and perpetually paranoid like Bal Thackeray, I too would be afraid of the kind of message this movie is sending.

Very, Very Afraid.

So I don’t buy the whole Pakistan-IPL reason for the Sena’s ire.
It is something much bigger. It is about the common man seeing past their tirade and actually seeing them for what they really are. Very Bad People.

Now coming to the movie.

It isn’t a classic. Lets get that out of the way.

But more importantly it could not have been. Or else we would not be lining up to go watch it. It’d be another of those dreadfully boring documentary type movies that goes straight to video. So to make people go watch it, it could not possibly have been less than it is. So lets not expect it to be something it wasn’t trying to be.

What it was trying to be is a splendid masala movie with a message but without being boring.

And now better to do that than to get SRK and Kajol together again.

This is purely their movie. And boy, do they deliver the goods.

Kajol’s role in particular isn’t very well fleshed out but she brings such effortless charm to it that you can’t help but fall in love with her. And when she is finally given a scene to sink her teeth into......well.... she bites like a great white shark.


In the stunningly heartbreaking scene she lets her acting rip and by the end of those 4 minutes she manages to tear your heart apart with the sheer pain of her grief. I’ve seldom seen such raw pain at the movies. Compare that with the scene in Sarkar II where Aishwarya breaks down after Abhishek's death and you'll know the difference between 'acting' and 'performing'.
Simply Stunning.

And Shah Rukh Khan… a few years ago SRK was doing the showy formulaic movies with Aamir left to do the histrionic heavy lifting and yet this year its a role reversal where we’ve had Aamir with the corny 3 Idiots while SRK gives his 4th best performance (after Chak De, Swades & Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa).

Without letting it slip even once into a caricature, SRK does the whole movie with that rare display of naïve guilelessness. And the best part is that as Rizvan Khan, the mask does not slip even once. I’m sure you must have heard of many adjectives used to describe him but I’m betting that before this movie ‘cute’ wasn’t one of them.

Quite incapable of telling a lie and manipulating words, he keeps asking Kajol to marry him and finally on a cold foggy morning, overlooking the beautiful San Francisco skyline (shot like a dream by K Ravi Chandran) when Kajol finally asks him to marry her, watch him squirm, blush and giggle like a school boy.

He shines even in simple scenes like when he first lands in San Francisco all he can do is gape open mouthed at the huge city from the taxi window.

Apart from the lead pair, Zarina Wahab (as Ammi) and Tanay Cheda (as the young Rizvan) have also performed admirably. The legendry Noor Jehan’s grand daughter Sonia Jehan (last seen in ‘Taj Mahal’) also brings a quiet dignity to her role as Rizvan’s sister in law while the boy playing Kajol’s son is thankfully allowed to be a normal teenager. Neither too cute nor too precocious.

I watched this movie at the Dubai Mall multiplex, surrounded by a mostly Muslim audience and apart from the usual laughs and a few claps the sound most audible was the approving “hmmm”.

It was almost like Rizvan Khan (and the Movie) was saying exactly what they felt.
“I AM A MUSLIM AND I AM NOT A TERRORIST”.

When Zarina as Ammi, explains to young Rizvan, the difference between Good and Bad people she shows him 2 simple figures. One is holding a stick and the other a lollipop.



“Can you tell me which one of them is a Muslim and which a Hindu?” she asks before explaining that “there are only 2 kinds of people in the world. Good & Bad. And its what you do that makes you Good or Bad. Not your religion”.

“Always remember that” she tells him, and if we too can remember that for ourselves, then we will automatically know who are the Good ones who we should support and who are the Bad ones who we should shun.

So if I were one of those shiv-sainiks with a brick in my hand, ready to hurl at the cinema door, I would be afraid of this movie. Very very afraid.

And that is it’s greatest asset.

Go watch it.

Luv

Vish