My Name Is Khan: Review

My Name is Khan is a film made with sincerity and sweat, ambition and conviction. It grapples with the most urgent and fraught issue facing humanity: religion. It features a striking performance by Shah Rukh Khan.

Plot

Khan is the story of Rizwan Khan, played by Shah Rukh, who has Asperger’s syndrome. This milder form of autism impairs Rizwan’s social communication skills and gives him some decidedly odd behavior patterns – he can’t stand loud sounds or the colour yellow.

He rotates stones obsessively and can barely bring himself to hug someone. Rizwan is far from crazy but he definitely moves to the beat of a different drummer. Despite this he finds love and a family with Mandira, played by Kajol.

But post 9/11, their happy home falls apart and Rizwan embarks on a grand odyssey across America so that he can tell the American president that his name is Khan but he is not a terrorist.

What Worked

The scenes of Rizwan’s childhood are some of the strongest in the film. Zarina Wahab returns after years to give a lovely, nuanced performance as Rizwan’s mother.

The film, like all Karan Johar products, is beautifully cinematographed (director of photography Ravi K Chandran).

Shahrukh's performance.

Shah Rukh and Kajol share a superb chemistry that highlights all their films, and is an important part of My Name Is Khan.

What Didn't

If there is one quibble, it would be the fact that Karan Johar could have made effective use of the talented bunch of actors who make cameo appearances.

Also the second half scrambles madly both literally and figuratively.

Performances

Shah Rukh’s performance has little subtlety about it but it is heartfelt, endearing and more controlled than anything he’s ever done before. Watch him in a lovely scene in which Kajol accepts his proposal or how he restrains his tears so that his eyes brim but never well over.

Kajol is, as usual, superb. Mandira's laughter, her determination, her joie de vivre, her grief, her anger -- Kajol brings it all to life. And, if I may say so, Kajol, no one runs up a hill dressed in a night suit, wearing floppy slippers, with no make-up on, as well as you do.

Overall, I recommend that you see Khan for SRK. The film itself is too uneven to give us the emotional high we were waiting for. But hey, this is a Karan Johar film and everyone likes a happy ending!