My Name Is Khan Movie Review

Friday, February 12, 2010
Rate: 3.5/5


My name is Khan bears all the emotionally manipulative elements that one can expect from a Karan Johar film but some somehow manages even to nosedive into the realm of the absurd. Take the sub plot of a hurricane ravaged African American town that the hero saves and top it up with the appearance of the American president. Make that two president’s. ‘Yes. We Khan!’


Shahrukh Khan has moments where he seems to have stretched himself as an actor bringing to Rizwan a certain vulnerability that is uncharacteristic of Khan in recent roles. Yet this is not enough to hold together a film where the protagonist makes no real journey. Rizwan knows right from the start where his character will end up. Kajol looks beautiful but comes accross as unnnatural and her emotional outburts are sadly shrill and screamy.
Yet, there are some great moments in the film; like when Rizwan is taught by his doting mother (Zareena Wahab) ) that one's religion does not differentiate him from another. The only difference between people is that there are good people and there are bad people.
The supporting cast performs well. Besides Zareena Wahab's awesome screen mother debut there is Sonya Jehan (last seen in Akbar Khans Taj Mahal) who plays the part of Rizwaan's sympathetic sister in law with grace. Jimmy Shergill as Rizwan’s jealous brother pitches in a controlled effort and Navneet Nishan brings some genuine laughs.
While the subject matter seems good intentioned and the story does attempt to push the envelope, the outcome of My Name is Khan is disappointing. Packaged overtly like Forest Gump’s ‘box of chocolates’, the myriad web of characters and sub plots suffocate under too many issues (Autism, Minority, 9/11, Hurricanes). Maybe if the writers had stuck to one or two issues and fleshed them out sincerely, My Name is Khan might have struck a deeper chord.

My name is Khan bears all the emotionally manipulative elements that one can expect from a Karan Johar film but some somehow manages even to nosedive into the realm of the absurd. Take the sub plot of a hurricane ravaged African American town that the hero saves and top it up with the appearance of the American president. Make that two president’s. ‘Yes. We Khan!’


Shahrukh Khan has moments where he seems to have stretched himself as an actor bringing to Rizwan a certain vulnerability that is uncharacteristic of Khan in recent roles. Yet this is not enough to hold together a film where the protagonist makes no real journey. Rizwan knows right from the start where his character will end up. Kajol looks beautiful but comes accross as unnnatural and her emotional outburts are sadly shrill and screamy.
Yet, there are some great moments in the film; like when Rizwan is taught by his doting mother (Zareena Wahab) ) that one's religion does not differentiate him from another. The only difference between people is that there are good people and there are bad people.
The supporting cast performs well. Besides Zareena Wahab's awesome screen mother debut there is Sonya Jehan (last seen in Akbar Khans Taj Mahal) who plays the part of Rizwaan's sympathetic sister in law with grace. Jimmy Shergill as Rizwan’s jealous brother pitches in a controlled effort and Navneet Nishan brings some genuine laughs.
While the subject matter seems good intentioned and the story does attempt to push the envelope, the outcome of My Name is Khan is disappointing. Packaged overtly like Forest Gump’s ‘box of chocolates’, the myriad web of characters and sub plots suffocate under too many issues (Autism, Minority, 9/11, Hurricanes). Maybe if the writers had stuck to one or two issues and fleshed them out sincerely, My Name is Khan might have struck a deeper chord.