I penned this after having just returned from watching My Name Is Khan. There are some movies that are epics. And then, there are some movies that are events. My Name Is Khan manages to be both.
It's a heart warming story of a Muslim man with autism coping with racial tensions post-9/11 in the USA. It's the story of the Muslim community in USA that suddenly found itself in unwanted focus. It's a story that has a bit of the stories of every one of us.
We watched a matinee show, at 3 pm. Even on reaching the theatre half an hour ahead, it was packed. Families come out to see a Shah Rukh Khan movie, and the marketing and promotion for this movie has been top class. For all the woes of filmmakers about piracy, it's clear that if you make a good movie, people will throng to the big screen.
My Name Is Khan is probably one of the few (possibly the first) Bollywood movie I can recommend to non-Bollywood people. Without getting away from Bollywood trappings (songs, exotic locale) it manages to tell a story sans distractions. Yes, it loses the half point because the second half is a bit long, but you don't care because at that point, you have started to root for the protagonist of the movie. It's one of those films that manages to get you involved in the lives of its characters. You start to care for Rizwan and Mandira.
As for the Islamic aspect of the story, it serves a backdrop to the movie; the underlying context - and it has been portrayed very well. Often, directors, in an effort to avoid cliches, resort to cliches. Here, there is no such filmy-ness. There is one scene set in a mosque that stands out as the best scene in the movie.
After a long time, Shah Rukh Khan has given a performance that should fetch him numerous awards. He has proven he is one of the best actors in the industry and ditto for all others in the movie - though Shah Rukh Khan stands head and shoulders above everyone else.
After all, his name is Khan.
13 comments:
Thanks for the review, Mezba!
Nadia, I hope movies like this become a success because intelligent movies like this needs to be made. It was still filmy in the end, but I will take it over most of the crap that comes out of Bollywood any day!
And this movie will relate mostly to people in North America as they have gone through this metamorphosis 9/11.
Very dumb questions, is the movie in Hindi or English?
I really wanna see it. I've heard a lot of good stuff about it and even though I'm not such a big Bollywood movie fanatic, this one actually seems good.
Organica, the movie is mostly in Hindi (except the interrogation scenes with English actors etc.) but it's subtitled.
You can follow through with subtitles - it's pretty well done and I do so too!
Muslim Girl, you can see this with your family too - all good scenes and all parents I know loved it as well, even the Bollywood haters! :-)
don't watch Bollywood movies at all but I guess I'll watch this and see what this Shahrukh Khan is all about. I have heard so much about him.
Good review done..
but i don't feel Mr. S.R. Khan is such a big actor.... i feel he is an over-actor !!
Anon @12.55, ah, must be an Aamir Khan fan then!
Comment deleted as it has not much to do with the content of the post.
but the content of the message was in response to your earlier reply..i guess !!
seems to be very strict administrator!! (*smile*)
I sent you an email recommending this and then saw this. AWESOME movie..I was terrified that they would ,mis-handle the autism subjetc and overuse the post 9/11 racial stereotyping but MY GOD. to paraphrase a famous person:) For the first time in my adult life I'm proud of my homecountry's film industry LOL. But SUPERB MOVIE. The meeting Obama was the most bollywoodest part but by that time , you are so deeply invested int he characters that even you want Rizwan to meet the Prez.
Jan, yup, I agree completely. I wish they started to make more such intelligent movies in Bollywood.
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