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Review - My Name Is Khan: And I spread goodwill with restraint
Quick Review
![[Poster for My Name Is Khan]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/4347607863_8d389ce540_m.jpg)
Simran and Raj have grown up. They have crossed a few hurdles in the past 15 years, and now they face new ones. They are left to now deal with terrorism and racial divides. Director Karan Johar has grown up too and shows respect to his growing audience too. There isn't super-sappy emotional drama. There is no over-the-board filmy dialogue. There aren't frolic-y dances. All HUGE plusses. But, every once in a while melodrama takes a quick peek, and by the end it takes over. The lines aren't super-mushy but they are still belong to Utopia. And the background score takes over the gap left by the song and dance sequences.
If I could give marks to improvement that a director, this movie deserves garlands, accolades, awards, and more. Surely, when something as sappy as "We shall overcome" gives me goose bumps, the director has done something very, very right. But, if a movie was only rated for the mistakes it didn't make, all credit would be taken away from films that don't have any intention of making them in the first place. And the argument could go round and round in circles.
Well, then let's focus on what they did. I was wondering, if there was any need at all to bring in the "autism" angle at all? And I realized the film wouldn't be engaging at all if that wasn't a part of the whole schema. Shah Rukh Khan, would then be Shah Rukh Khan. And there is zero-tolerance for that. But, here his character, Rizwan, suffers from this syndrome which gives Shah Rukh completely different material to deal with.
The permanent cock-eyed-ness, the no-eye-contact with any character for the entire length of the film, the restricted body movement - all keep you attached to Rizwan and far way from Shah Rukh. And kudos to the latter for that!
:) No people, that was not the only purpose of making Rizwan suffer from Asperger's. Here’s this person who had difficulty identifying emotions let alone expressing them. He just follows one guiding principle, "That he is a good human being and will not let bad enter him." Now, when a person with a low EQ knows that, how can we as a head and a heart allow bad things to happen in this world.
Beautiful, ain't it? Unfortunately, anything with such high sentimental content has to give way to sappiness. Though, Karan Johar and his team of writers do manage to keep a huge chunk out for most of the film. The last 40 minutes complete lose all sanity. The moment you see a mother who has just lost her son change into whites while her child is lying still in the house, you know this film has very little hope, now on. Though, ironically, it's trying to say there is hope.
Add to this drop, a super-shrill Kajol throughout the film. The lady's voice is high-pitched when she's excited/happy and piercingly so when she's upset/sad. Considering that, there are only two main characters whose personalities we are exposed to; it is actually heartbreaking to see zero chemistry between the two. Save a couple of "moments", there is no romance in this love story.
However, you do see a lot of romance between the camera and its subjects. The arid deserts, the city sky-lines, and the general magnificence of the US is covered beautifully. The puller-downer is that it is almost like it was shot for their makemytrip.com advertisements.
Given all of this, I *might* have urged all of you to wait for the DVD for the first two hours of the film and would have also equally vehemently urged you to skip the last 40 minutes or so. But given the "illogical" conditions revolving around the release of the film, I'd say - all those keen to support the entire team of My Name Is Khan should go watch it in the theaters. It is not a waste of money, time, energy and certainly not a waste of your courage.
- meetu, a part of the audience
Parental Guidance:
- Violence: A few strong scenes where a child is beaten up brutally.
- Language: Everyday abusive language. No sexual expletives, that is.
- Nudity & Sexual content: A bed room scene with mention of intercourse.
- Concept: That of spreading goodwill across religion and color.
- General Look and Feel: It's not stark, it's not happy. It's in-between and has a lesson or two for the next generation.
My Name Is Khan - Movie Details
- Official Website: Link
- Banner: Dharma Productions
- Producer: Hiroo Yash Johar, Gauri Khan
- Director: Karan Johar
- Lead Cast: Arjun Mathur, Sugandha Garg, Shah Rukh Khan, Zarina Wahab, Kajol, Katie Keane, Kenton Duty, Benny Nieves, Christopher B Duncan, Jimmy Sheirgill, Sonya Jehan, Parvin Dabas
- Supporting Cast: Michael Arnold, Dominic Renda, Tanay Cheda, Navneet Nishan, Sheetal Menon, Arjan Aujla, Yuvaan Makar, Jennifer Echols, Adrian Kali Turner
- Story: Shibani Bhatija
- Screenplay: Shibani Bhatija
- Dialogues: Shibani Bhatija, Niranjan Iyengar
- Dir. of Photography: Ravi K Chandran
- Editor: Deepa Bhatia
- Background Score: Loy Mendonca, Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani
- Action Choreography: Shyam Kaushal, Spiro Razatos
- Choreography: Farah Khan
- Music Director: Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonca
- Lyrics: Niranjan Iyengar
- Running time: 160 minutes
- Reviewer: meetu
- Categories: Hindi Movies
- Genres: Social, Terrorism, Religion
Comments (55)
You are really quite cynical when it comes to SRK, aint u? ;-)
Really looking forward to know what u thought of the film anyways... make it soon!
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agoMeetu,
Constrained to give marks for the Music?
Music was released much earlier and should have at least 4. And Story 2.5?
I think you were juggling to make the average of all aspects at 3 and hence randomly distributed like "ina mina mina moo"!!
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agoU seem to be extra strict these days
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agoWhy are you rating, Only the keen watch in theater??? This movie is so lavish and grand that the DVD will never do justice to this wonderful film. Going by your biased opinion, why didn't you rate 3 Idiots to watch on DVD since there were no effects, locations, grand scale and sound effects. I agree 3I was one of the greatest movies ever made but what is your criteria to rate "Watch on DVD". MNIK has to be watched in theaters absolutely!!
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agoCan anyone tell me whether this is MNIK's plot? - Kajol is a terrorist & she uses SRK's decency & honesty to help her associates to attack the twin towers.........
posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago"MNIK" is a awesome movie...n the performance by SRK is mind blowing..My rating to this film is 5 out of 5..
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agoI think you meant to say 'restraint', not 'constraint'. And in 'General Look and Feel: It's not start, it's not happy', I think you meant to say 'stark', not 'start'. Let me know if they work better.
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agoI'll really appreciate if someone can answer my question.
Can anyone tell me whether this is MNIK's plot? - Kajol is a terrorist & she uses SRK's decency & honesty to help her associates to attack the twin towers.........
Please reply ASAP. TIA.
posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago@Sesh thanks for pointing those mistakes out. Will take better care. Much appreciated.
posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago@ROBERTSON:
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agowhy do you beleive sms messages floating around, go watch the movie in theatre, nothing good if you know the plot before watching a movie...
@meetu
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agoI dont reckon your judgement to be correct, the movie has a nice plot, and most of all Shahrukh's powerpacked performance alone is capable of taking you to the theatres. For me it was one of his finest performances after Swades... Go everyone watch the movie, thumbs up....
@sumit, @everyone @ meetu --- I think meetu's opinion was very right ... the movie is completely dvd watchable and SRK's performance ? I mean come on, I can't understand where it was highlighted, the kid in TZP acted better though he did not have a disease like autism, AB acted better in PAA. I'm not biased to SRK or any actor, just that the movie does not connect on any account. You don't feel sympathy for SRK, you don't feel the love between Kajol and SRK, you don't connect to a over used muslim theme, and you just don't buy him addressing everyone in Hindi and all American's understanding ! you wanna watch a performance, go watch Borat interact with Americans, mama jenny sure would have a good time with sacha baron cohen .... pathetic movie, karan johar is definitely going down the lane, screenplay might be good in one or two scenes, but that's it ...
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agoSRK rocks we all love u shahrukh and hatsoff 2 karanjohar amazing direction wonderful script and ofcourse shahrukh and kajol mesmerize with their acting as well as looks love u guys i definitely give 5 out of 5
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agoFrom all those who are going gaga over 'Khan', I want to understand if the film would have been worthy of viewing (in theaters) even without the surrounding controversy??
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agoIn my own view, it would perhaps not have been such a rage, and one would have easily waited till the DVD release.
The audiences were anyway exhausted of 'Muslim protagonist + Terrorism + US + innocent love story with a twist in the tale' formula, post 'Kurbaan' and 'New York'. They were also tired of Sharukh not delivering for the last couple of movies.
Given this scenario, it is pretty obvious that Sharukh's own stake in 'Khan' were huge -- a consistently sinking image that needed to be hugely salvaged after Billu, and after Amir had snatched all the attention for 3-Idiots, a less dependable story (a score of 2.5 is perfect), and (not to forget) a producer wife. Given such stakes, it is quite possible that Mr. Khan was under great pressure to deliver a 'hit' (more than a good film). It is also quite possible that Mr. Khan would want his movie to be a 'hit' at any cost...even if it meant arranging the entire controversy. It is difficult to not believe that the controversy was plotted, or why else the film would the film be allowed to run so smoothly after only a day's forced delay?
Once the film did manage to reach the theaters, the act got even more gimmicky. Khan absconded to Dubai, tweeted his lungs out from there, and made the producer wife do rounds of theaters to express gratitude over the solidarity expressed by the viewers. If only Khan could pay more attention to his screenplay than marketing his films - by hook or by crook. As for the ‘Khan’ in question, don’t give in as yet, wait for the DVD release!! You’ll thank me later. ;-)
Agree with your assessment! Here's my review of the film
http://morethanfilms.blogspot.com/2010/02/film-review-my-name-is-khan.html
posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago@Robertson:
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agoWhy would you post something like that ?
I read your comment before heading to the theatre, and was really mad at you for spoiling the movie for me. Thank God that your spoiler wasn't true.... Regardless of whether it is true or not, why would you post explicit spoilers, without any consideration for others ? If you wanna find out the plot, go watch the movie yourself. And considering that this site is named 'without Giving the movie away', meetu, don't you think its best if comments were moderated before they show up on the site ? People like Robertson are only too keen to ruin the show for everyone else.
@B H Harsh yeah man, I am really apprehensive of his 'acting' skills. He has the tendency to annoy, but this one he's got it right.
@Ravikiran not at all.. i didn't like the music that much. too standard and forgettable. And the story was super down hill towards the end.
@Perx no man, that is just me...
@Adam well, my rating for dvd watch or otherwise is not based on cinematography only. It is the overall experience. And the experience of this film can be enjoyed at home too, where as with 3 idiots a theater watch is much more fun with a huge crowd around you.
@Robertson we don't like giving away the plot here dude, watching the film is the best option for wogma readers :D
@Harpreet Ouch i liked the film better than that.
@G-10 usually i think that such controversies are schemed and fixed. But this once, it went a bit too far to believe that.
@BollywoodBuff anything that is fairly common knowledge, i let it pass in the comment section. This question about the climax has been doing its rounds on sms and twitter. so...
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agoBut thanks a ton for standing by the theme of the blog though. much appreciated.
wow , I like the idea of short review ..
posted 5 months, 2 weeks agoWell, then let's focus on what they did. I was wondering, if there was any need at all to bring in the "autism" angle at all?
I think the main reason to bring the autism angle was to make Rizwan go after the US president. Being autistic, he took the words of Kajol literally when she (out of anger) asked her to go to the president. Had it not been for autism, the plot of the movie would have been absurd.
posted 5 months, 1 week ago@Prashant oh, the president bit made it less absurd, really? anyway, my line was supposed to be a joke...
posted 5 months, 1 week agoThis Meetu recommends wasting our money on an art niche movie called " Harishchandrachi Factory" by rating it: Passion for Cinema! Watch in theater and recommends to watch MNIK on DVD!! I m not sure if Meetu was on some kind of medication while watching MNIK and Harishchandeachi Factory. I m still not able to figure out Meetu's criteria to watch on DVD and Theater?!? When it comes to Factory, maybe Meetu thinks that the ticket prices are cheap and we can go ahead and waste our money. And when it comes to MNIK, Meetu thinks that ticket prices are very expensive and recommends to save for DVD. Is this the logic?? If it is, it is absolutely flawed and stupid!! My recommendation: Meetu, go back to your day job and stop writing stupid reviews.....
posted 5 months, 1 week agoI don't i think i should trust a stupid biased bitch's review.
posted 5 months, 1 week ago@Adam RixWan wow and a very good morning to you too!
I'd love to hear what you have to say about wogma's No Smoking review vis-a-vis the Jodhaa Akbar review. Not comparable, right? I rest my case.
posted 5 months, 1 week agoYou are right that Raj and Simran has grown. But i dont think that they will be able to create history like DDLJ by this movie. This is not a movie that can be a big hit. Yes the opening was great as there was publicity stunt done by Shahrukh Khan, Shiv sena and Ashok chauhan together. But overall its ok if you miss it in theatres but dont miss it on DVD.
posted 5 months, 1 week agoidlebrain.com jeevi says:
Story: The basic characterization and plot is heavily borrowed from Forrest Gump. The following similarities substantiate it –
1. Like Forrest Gump, this movie too is the journey of an unusual person.
posted 5 months, 1 week ago2. Forrest Gump’s mother says, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." Khan’s mother says, “There are only two people on this earth. The good ones and the bad ones.”. Both these characters repeatedly utter this dialogue at important occasions.
3. Over a period of time, both these characters become celebrities and they are focussed heavily by the media. If the media wants to know why Forrest Gump is running, the media in this movie wants to know why Khan wants to meet the president.
4. Both these films are about differently-able man helping others and becoming a public hero.
5. Both these movies have similar narrative style (starting from their childhood).
@Vinay, exactly what I wanted to say!! I did not watch the movie, and neither am I going to, you could figure that it is Forrest Gump all the way, from the promos and the write ups of the film. The only difference seems to be that the Muslim angle / terrorism has been added, and at the end the respective heroes get their girls!
posted 5 months, 1 week agoIs he autistic, schizophrenic, alzheimic, dyslexic, or does he have Asperger's syndrome? Does it really matter, the plot demands someone "different" and guranteed to make the soppy audience weep buckets.
posted 5 months, 1 week ago@Manu :) I thought I was cynical. Boy, you beat me hands down!
posted 5 months, 1 week agoThe movie lacked direction and substance. Initial hype will fizzle out from today onwards. I felt New York was a much better movie in terms of keeping the audience gripped and entertained. Watching MNIK I got bored watching it and would of left the cinema has it not been on valentines day with my wife. Some funny moments but the movie would not be watched twice.
posted 5 months, 1 week ago@Manu,
He could have been an 'aam-admi' to be 'different'. What say?
@Meetu: I never mentioned about absurdity. What's absurd for some may be novelty for others. BTW, You crack great jokes! :-P
posted 5 months, 1 week ago@Ashfak Dedicated you are!
@Prashant good one about "aam-aadmi". And which joke did you like?
posted 5 months, 1 week agosirasiri posted on greatandhra.com:
It’s a movie made with amateur script by a director with amateurish understanding on international terrorism for amateur audience. Only the audience those can get carried away by majority opinion with sheep-mentality can relish this stuff.
And you may not have heard the other side of criticism so far. And here it is. I didn’t write this as a professional Film Critic. Hence I don’t call it ‘review’. I have just watched the movie as a common audience and I expressed my grief on killing my happiness after watching this flick. Since I killed my happiness, I call it ‘post mortem’.
Bottom Line: Operation Success- Patient Dead!!!
posted 5 months, 1 week agoI'm not here saying this is the best movie ever, nor am I saying it's flawless (which movie is after all?) but I do think overall it was a very good film. It showed throughout 90% of the film that a lot of effort was put into this. Therefore I do think it is a film that deserves 4/5. And for those of you who said it lacked direction...are you out of your mind? Do you guys understand wtf film is? I feel bad for you guys. After all, Meetu is not correct in her review nor am I, it's a piece of art and everyone will judge it from a different perspective. But speaking from the most unbiased perspective unlike half of you idiots on this forum, it is a film to watch.
posted 5 months, 1 week agopeace out
Certainly one which can wait until its DVD release. The plot begins strongly, and so do the characters. But half way through, the plot diverges from its point - meet the president - to random floods in middle America. I mean, keep it simple and short, and it would have been a much more pleasant experience. The last 45 minutes were painful.
posted 5 months, 1 week ago@ Meetu, I think you should delete / block the kinds of Adam and RixWan who are unable to have a simple mature discussion on the quality of cinema. Clearly they haven't heard of differing "opinions".
posted 5 months, 1 week ago[Comment edited due to abusive language and personal attacks]
lowlife ******* trying to make fool out of indian people
posted 5 months, 1 week ago@Kunal I don't delete comments as long as they are not super-abusive or are a personal attack to anyone involved in the film.
After all, an opinion is an opinion is an opinion.
Thank you so much for your support!
posted 5 months, 1 week ago@meetu
posted 5 months, 1 week agoI always trust your review but after watching this movie in theater im not agree with you. SRK has done great performance much better than Aamir Khan in 3 idiots. (IM NOT A SRK FAN).
For me its "Must see - on the big screen"
the movie was much much better than the reviews....
posted 5 months agoSRK did his best and the movies was really good.....
all my family and friends loved it....
@shruti
You must think like a normal person and not like srk fan. I am sure a normal person will ignore this movie as it has nothing to see in it except crying and bagging of srk as usual as he is doing in all movies till now.
anyhow its an individuals choice.
posted 5 months agofantastic performance by SRK & Kajol,best Couple ever.
posted 5 months agoPost OSO and rab ne bana di jodi... SRK has become more n more arrogant and less interested in the roles tht he plays.. I was a huge fan of SRK... bt now im embarrased to even admit it... why waste time watching a typical SRK-K-Jo film ..same crying ... same emotions... these guys need to look beyond SRK....
posted 5 months agoI was hesitant to go for this movie, some how I felt this was about some preaching that all muslims are not terrorist.
However, that negative thought, helped me immensely while watching the actual movie. It is much better than I thought it to be.
Having said that, this is just another version of DDLJ. Instead of trying to conquer the mind of Amrish Puri, now SRK is trying to conquer the minds of those "non believers" or "wrong believers". Just as in DDLJ, he takes the route of sow goodness to reap goodness. Because the actors grew up, the romance part of it is taken off and a terrorist/racial angle is given to the whole episode.
The movie is watchable, but not a must watch.
My 5 paise.!!
posted 5 months agoexcellant movie by karan johar and excellant acting by my favourat srk........
posted 4 months, 3 weeks agolv u srk..................
Even though i dont know Hindi I realy like to watch SRK films
posted 3 months agoi love this movie also..SRK and Kajol is the best :)
posted 2 months, 1 week agothat's an inspiring movie
posted 2 weeks agoi like this film. it's so inspiring me and give me spirit
posted 1 week, 5 days agoi love SRK n kajol... they are the best actor and actreez
posted 1 week, 5 days agoi don't really like Bollywood thing especially their dance
posted 1 week, 4 days agoI don't really like Bollywood,
but not for this film..
I love it..
posted 1 week, 3 days agoyeah... that's great movie ever watch...
posted 1 week, 3 days agoi think it is the best bollywood film. i like very much
posted 1 week, 2 days agofantastic film!!
posted 5 days, 22 hours agoThis is a super hit movie Sharuk Khan proved again how successful he is.
posted 5 days, 19 hours agoLeave a new comment