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My Name Is Khan - Notepad
My Name Is Khan
Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Katie Keane, Kenton Duty, Benny Nieves, Christopher B Duncan, Jimmy Sheirgill, Sonya Jehan, Parvin Dabas, Arjun Mathur, Sugandha Garg, Zarina Wahab
Dir:
Karan Johar
quick review:
The constraint is really appreciated both in terms of Karan Johar's direction and Shah Rukh Khan's performance. But unfortunately, in the last hour the movie leaves the US and enters K-Jo-land. And in both worlds Kajol intolerably shrieks her way through.
This page has additional observations, other than the ones noted in the main review.
Plot Summary
Rizwan Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) suffers from a kind of autism. He eventually reaches the US where he falls in love with Mandira (Kajol). But not everything is smooth-going after that.
What Worked
- The performance by the little Rizwan Khan.
- Depicting Kajol as a young mother rather than some college-going kid. I know it's one of the things they didn't do and got it right, but yet, it was refreshing.
- Mamma Jolie and Funny hair kiddo! Brought such a warm and yet sad smile.
- The consistency of Rizwan Khan's dancing style.
What did not
Note: This section simply lists the things that I did not like in this movie. This is not the overall impression about this movie. Please read the full review here
- Sibling relationship wasn't explored or rather just left hanging after a good opening.
- Throughout the film Rizwan dresses like anyone else without ever hinting at him being a Muslim and suddenly at the 7/11 memorial thing he gets Muslim outfit out. Why?
- Ok, how does one identify the cause of death as "racial discrimination" by looking at the victim's bruises, etc?!
- The beauty of a hard-hitting, punch line "My name is Khan. And I'm not a terrorist." is completely nullified by the repetitive use and over-exposure pre-release, just like "Don ko pakdna mushkil hi nahi, na-mumkin hai" from Don.
My Name Is Khan - Movie Details
- Official Sites: Website
- Banner: Dharma Productions
- Producer: Hiroo Yash Johar, Gauri Khan
- Director: Karan Johar
![[Has twitter account]](/site_media/images/icons/twitter_small.png)
- Lead Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Katie Keane, Kenton Duty, Benny Nieves, Christopher B Duncan, Jimmy Sheirgill, Sonya Jehan, Parvin Dabas, Arjun Mathur, Sugandha Garg, Zarina Wahab
- Supporting Cast: Tanay Cheda, Navneet Nishan, Sheetal Menon, Arjan Aujla, Yuvaan Makar, Jennifer Echols, Adrian Kali Turner, Michael Arnold, Dominic Renda
- Story: Shibani Bhatija
- Screenplay: Shibani Bhatija
- Dialogues: Shibani Bhatija, Niranjan Iyengar
- Cinematography: Ravi K Chandran
- Editor: Deepa Bhatia
- Background Score: Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonca
- 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: Religion, Social, Terrorism
My Name Is Khan - Trailer
My Name Is Khan - All reviews summary
External Reviews
64 reviewers have given My Name Is Khan an average rating of 3.7/5.0. 41 yays, 11 nays, 12 so-so. See all external reviews »
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Comments (61)
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!
Meetu,
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"!!
U seem to be extra strict these days
Why 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!!
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.........
"MNIK" is a awesome movie...n the performance by SRK is mind blowing..My rating to this film is 5 out of 5..
I 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.
I'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.
@Sesh thanks for pointing those mistakes out. Will take better care. Much appreciated.
@ROBERTSON:
why 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
I 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 ...
SRK 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
From 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??
In 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
@Robertson:
Why 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...
But thanks a ton for standing by the theme of the blog though. much appreciated.
wow , I like the idea of short review ..
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?
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.
@Prashant oh, the president bit made it less absurd, really? anyway, my line was supposed to be a joke...
This 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.....
I don't i think i should trust a stupid biased bitch's review.
@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.
You 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.
idlebrain.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.
2. 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!
Is 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.
@Manu :) I thought I was cynical. Boy, you beat me hands down!
The 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.
@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
@Ashfak Dedicated you are!
@Prashant good one about "aam-aadmi". And which joke did you like?
sirasiri 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!!!
I'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.
peace 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.
@ 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".
[Comment edited due to abusive language and personal attacks]
lowlife ******* trying to make fool out of indian people
@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!
@meetu
I 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....
SRK 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.
fantastic performance by SRK & Kajol,best Couple ever.
Post 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....
I 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.!!
excellant movie by karan johar and excellant acting by my favourat srk........
lv u srk..................
Even though i dont know Hindi I realy like to watch SRK films
i love this movie also..SRK and Kajol is the best :)
i like this film. it's so inspiring me and give me spirit
i love SRK n kajol... they are the best actor and actreez
i don't really like Bollywood thing especially their dance
I don't really like Bollywood,
but not for this film..
I love it..
yeah... that's great movie ever watch...
i think it is the best bollywood film. i like very much
fantastic film!!
This is a super hit movie Sharuk Khan proved again how successful he is.
writer of this post has got great command over english, title and words like not a waste of courage really brilliant
Typically I don't go for the whole Bollywood thing. And this movie is no exception. I give it a thumbs down. Now having said that, I do have a few positives to add. While the story/plot was lacking, I thought that the character development was good. I also enjoyed the score a lot more than I initially thought I would. Would I watch it again . . .No. Do I regret having seen it . . .No. Nelson - I.T. Professional with Goldenrule.com
Lyricswale is a Comprehensive website for all Hindi/Tamil/Telugu Songs lyrics
For all Hindi songs lyrics
Great I saw the movie the first time in Germany and kinda liked the story. Nice that india is getting better with movies.
Great movie. Just wanted to mention that aspergers in adults is a big issue and concern, since about 70-75% of adults on the autism spectrum are aspergers.
Thanks.
I usually find Shahrukh Khan's movies all in the same mould but My Name is Khan is a refreshing change.
I enjoyed the movie.. Kajol is terrific...
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