‘My Name Is Khan’ - A Compelling Film
It is indeed a gripping, riveting film. An inescapable impression one gains after seeing it is that the talented Director, Karan Johar, has crafted an emotional social drama with a strong message but with a realistic signature to it. Also, it is by any measure a landmark film in the careers of both Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. Their portrayal of the difficult characters assigned to them has been superb leaving little to be desired. Both had already reached the top of the ladder, and their exceptional acting in this film has taken them a notch higher.
It is difficult to judge who excels in the craft. Both appear to be cut out for each other and, in histrionics, Kajol not only matches the most brilliant star of Indian screen but on occasions excels him. Her natural warmth lends total authenticity to her role as the wife of Khan.
Shah Rukh Khan is reported to have undertaken extensive studies of Autism to be able to correctly portray his character. He has been remarkably successful in that.
Another notable feature of the film is that, unlike the usual Indian movies, it has no lip-sync numbers. The songs, being in the background, do not act as speed breakers but carry the story forward and buttress the mood and emotions of the narrative.
‘My Name Is Khan’ epitomizes the turbulent era we live in. Not a day passes without an incident of terror claiming the lives of numerous innocent bystanders. Matter of fact the calamity of 9/11 has caused a revision of the division of history into B.C and A.D. It has been replaced by ‘pre September 11’ and ‘post September 11’.
The world is no longer a safe place to live in, chiefly because of the misguided terrorists who are so mesmerized by the ill-informed, obscurantist religious extremists that they are willing to even lay down even their lives. This message of the film is encapsulated in Khan’s encounter with a misleading rabble-rouser in a Los Angeles mosque.
Another forceful message of the film is that the division of the world into race, color, creed, location or persuasion creates more problems than it solves. The real division is between good people and bad people. No matter how strong the evil forces are, good will eventually trump the evil.
In this context, the 161-minute film also touches on the follies in the perceptions about Islam, the clash of civilizations and the distortions and human indignity resulting from the over-enthusiasm of the Bush era and certain security personnel. The treatment meted out to Muslim passengers at US airports is graphically presented in the film.
If any thing, the US airport scrutiny, already bordering on the ludicrous, has recently been enhanced by fresh equipment to enable the security staff to strip naked on the screen the passengers to ensure that they are carrying no bomb material hidden in their intimate garments!
Which terrorist would be naïve enough to do that now instead of resorting to some novel method? President Bush won a second term stoking the flames of fear and parading as a wartime President. President Obama is facing a formidable task in reversing his country’s relationship with the Muslim world.
According to Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter, the “film delves compellingly into Americans’ anti-Muslim hysteria” as it tackles “a subject American movies have mostly avoided -that of racial profiling and the plight of Muslim Americans.”
The film conveys the message to the US that it is wrong to persecute, even kill, an American citizen just because he bears a Muslim name. It is senseless to assume that every man sporting a beard, or every woman wearing a scarf is a terrorist. Khan’s son is killed on a sports field by his playmates in a fit of rage over his Muslim name. That is the point in the narrative that caused a split between Khan and his beloved wife who blamed him for the murder of her son. Had she not married a Muslim, she felt, her son would still be alive. She shouts at him in a fit of anger and tells him to return to her only after meeting the US President and telling him and through him the entire American society, “My Name Is Khan And I Am Not A Terrorist”.
Khan, a victim of Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism, can’t catch the nuance in the message. He takes it literally and launches the odyssey to meet the President. That reflects the intensity of his love for his wife. He records in a diary his thoughts towards her -an interesting method for conveying his thoughts to the audience too.
Despite his mental disability to comprehend euphemisms and the real intentions of the speaker from the nuances and intonations, he has a sharp mind and an uncanny gift for repairing household appliances that admits of his self-supporting travels and pursuit of his single-minded objective of fulfilling his wife’s bidding. He finds out the schedules of the President from the Internet and reaches the cities where he was to address the people. He shouts his message “My Name Is Khan And I Am Not a Terrorist” at the President’s cavalcade and is arrested by the security agency. He is tortured in the cell to get a confession of being a terrorist. With the help of some Indian media personnel, his innocence is established and he is set free.
The hurricane-hit Georgia attracts him to help an old lady and her son who had befriended him in an earlier visit. His efforts to help the families there attract media attention and numerous Muslim organizations from different parts of the country join hands with him. A fanatic follower of the L.A. mosque agitator stabs Khan but fortunately his wife had just then reached Georgia to meet him. She gets him to a hospital where he is treated and recovers fully. The media coverage of his story attracts the interest of the newly elected President Barack Obama who meets him and tells him “Your name is Khan and you are not a terrorist’. Khan thus fulfils the wish of his wife and is embraced by her. The story thus ends on a happy note.
Although the film is vastly deficit in respect of the traditional entertainment elements of Indian movies -songs, dances, glimpses of local and foreign scenic spots, and fantasies- its thematic contents are so powerful, the portrayal of the characters so authentic and the message in the narrative so appropriate and timely that it is bound to be a great success at the box office.
One may call it a Hollywood film produced by Bombay crafters. Matter of fact, Hollywood did come on board with Fox Searchlight Pictures joining the production team for world-wide distribution.
My recommendation: Don’t miss seeing it. Your time and money will be well spent.
arifhussaini@hotmail.com
