Movie Review: My Name is Khan

Yesterday night I watched Sharukh Khan and Kajol starer My Name is Khan (MNIK).Just before I started watching my friend told that it is a slow movie and if I prepare my mind that way, I will not feel bad. After watching the promos of MNIK I thought to watch it at home rather than at the theaters. The basic undercurrent of the story is how liberal America became divided on the caste lines and how Muslims were treated post 9/11. Shahrukh Khan play Rizwan Khan. He was a challenged person suffering from Asperger’s syndrome ( a disease which make it difficult to interact socially, problem with particular colours and sound). He had a special quality to repair things. So his mother took him to a good reclusive teacher. Rizwan’s younger brother Zakir (Jimmy Shergill) was angry as he used to get more attention from their mother. Zakir got a scholarship from a US university and went there to study and settled there. He married a psychologist called Haseena. Zakir wanted his mother to come and stay with him in the US. But she was not ready to leave Rizwan alone in India and Zakir told he will sponsor him too. Following their mother’s death, Rizwan came to US to keep his mother’s word.

In US Zakir run his own Herbal beauty product company. Rizwan stars to work for his brother as a salesman. During his sell endeavors he met Mandira (Kajol) at one beauty parlor owned by her. Mandira is a divorce and lives with her son Sameer or Sam. Following a few meetings they became closer and Rizwan asked to marry him. Despite resistance from his younger brother Zakir as Manidra is a Hindu girl, Rizwan married Mandira. After marriage Manidra and Sam embraced Rizwan’s last name Khan. Following 9/11 their neighbor Resse’s father died fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Misgivings against Muslims were increasing in the US and Resse and Sam’s friendship started to fall apart as Sam was a Muslim then. One day Sam caught hold of Resse and forced him to tell why he was avoiding him. Seeing this few rouge boys came and had an altercation with sam. Following this they beaten Sam and at last with a football shot killed him.

Official Trailer

When Mandira came to know that death of Sam has a racial angle, she thought marrying a Muslim was wrong. She thought Sam would have remained Hindu, he would not have died. She asked Rizwan to leave. She told him if he can go to the president of US and tell “My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist”.

Rizwan leaved Mandira’s house and went to meet US president. In his pursuit to meet the US president he met Mamma Jenny whose son he helped on the way. After sometime with no money, he started using his repairing skills to make money. Once when he was trying to meet the president at a collage campus, he started shouting “My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist”. The guards heard only terrorist and he was arrested and jailed. But as he helped the FBI to catch some extremist Muslims he was set free. Sometime later Georgia was hit by cyclone and Rizwan went there to help mama Jenny. This has been flashed to the media and Rizwan Khan became a celebrity overnight. Seeing Rizwan on TV his brother and others came to see him at the devastated place with rations. Mandira also came. When Rizwan saw Mandira and was about to go and speak to her, one of those extremist whom he helped caught came and stabbed him. However, he recovered.

US got a new African American president. He went to one of his public meetings and he was told the president wants to meet you. He shared the dais with him. He told the president, “My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist”.

My Name is Khan has done very good business both in India and overseas. The controversy following Shiva Sena’s protest of Shahrukh Khan also helped. To know in which theaters in Bangalore “My Name is Khan” running, click here.

Official website: http://www.mynameiskhanthefilm.com/

A site completely dedicated to My Name is Khan: http://www.mynameiskhan.co.in/