Review: 'My Name Is Khan' remains on the fringes of great cinema

Film: My Name Is Khan (U/A)
Director: Karan Johar
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Zarina Wahab, and others
Rating: ***

The other day, I managed to catch bits of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (KANK) on TV — the first time since I saw the film when it released in 2006 — and remembered how disappointed I had been after watching it. It’s not like it was a bad movie or anything of the sort, but given its interesting plot, it failed to rise above the multi-starrer entertainer it ended up being.

Four years later, KANK director Karan Johar’s latest film, My Name Is Khan (MNIK), suffers from a similar problem. It has everything a director needs to execute a grand vision — an interesting plot (Shibani Kashyap gets story/screenplay credit), good actors, excellent production values (art direction, locations etc), and is technically superior (Ravi K Chandran’s cinematography is a treat). And it’s fairly entertaining, too.

But, sadly, MNIK ends up somewhere between a film with a larger statement that strikes you with its honesty and a film with the typical trappings you would find in what is annoyingly referred to as a ‘Bollywood’ film.

MNIK is quite good, but not the great piece of cinema it could have been.

Rizvan ‘Shah Rukh’ Khan suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, a disorder which makes it difficult for people to interact socially, and comes to live with his younger brother (Shergill) in the US after their mother dies.

Here, he meets hairstylist Mandira (Kajol), a free-spirited woman who lives with her six-year old son, Sam, from a failed marriage. While Rizvan falls in love with Mandira, she too grows fond of the good-natured Rizvan. An unlikely romance later, Mandira gets married to Rizvan.

The perfect existence of the Khans gets disrupted, howevrer, after the September 11 attack on the twin towers in New York City. Sam gets involved in a tussle with a few college ruffians who beat him up because his second name is Khan.

Sam dies of his injuries and a shattered Mandira blames Rizvan for his death. "He died only because his name was Khan,” yells Mandira and asks Rizvan to leave her. Rizvan tries to assure Mandira that things would get better, but she tells him that as long as he remains a Khan, he would be looked upon as a terrorist, even if he persuaded the US president otherwise.

Rizvan sets out on a journey that takes him from one US state to another, following the movements of president George W Bush, for whom he has a message: “My name is Khan, and I’m not a terrorist.”

The film makes an important point. Not all Muslims can be typecast as jihadis — something that is not entirely novel, but is still valid. A two-hour-long intense drama with well-crafted, emotional sequences (which MNIK has in plenty, actually) would have driven the point home.

Instead, the film combines elements of a love story with a message-oriented theme and ends up being what can now be referred to as a ‘Johar’. At 2 hours 45 minutes, it’s a bit long, and certain sequences in the first half are welcome only because they give you opportunities for quick toilet breaks.

The love story between Mandira and Rizvan, pre-interval, is likeable in places but makes it that much longer for the film to settle into its groove. Once that happens, however, MNIK is a compelling watch.

The scene showing Sam’s tussle with the bullies, and what follows, grabs your attention and sets up a dramatic second half. Certain sequences tug at your heartstrings and the film moves you and leaves you feeling satiated in the end.

What adds to the enjoyment is the performance of the real-life Khan. Shah Rukh, as someone suffering from a disorder, gets the character just right. His body language and expressions are fabulous. Some may find his way of talking monotonous, but Shah Rukh inculcates that aspect in his character well enough for you to stop minding it after a while.

No Karan Johar-directed film would be complete without a Shah Rukh Khan monologue. Be prepared to be bombarded with a few here, too. Thankfully, though, Khan nails it every single time.

Kajol is the perfect foil to Khan, as she has always been, but how you wish she wasn’t the bubbly, ‘cute’, loud woman she has already played in previous Johar films. In scenes requiring her to display emotional and intense histrionics though, she is at home. Watching the two performers in their element together after a long time will be cherished by fans of films the duo appeared in through the 1990s.

With the two dominating the proceedings, the other actors — Shergill, Sonia Jehan, Arjun Mathur, Parveen Dabbas, and others — are left with little to do. Zarina Wahab, in a cameo as Rizvan’s mother, is a welcome addition to the long list of ‘mummies’ in our films, while the child actor playing Sam is quite good.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music is strictly functional, ‘Noor-e-Khuda’ being the only song that stays with you.

For Karan Johar, the film is another step in the direction he has been charting since KANK and with his recent productions — of giving audiences their fill of escapism, but finding a way to experiment within the minimum space his entertainers allow him. He may not be there yet, but in MNIK, Johar shows sparks of the brilliance he displayed with his first cinematic effort, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, which remains a personal favourite from the director’s stable.

Hopefully, he will better even that soon. C’mon KJo, let’s have a sappy romantic comedy — melodrama, music, family values, et al — next. Others can worry about social issues.