MY NAME IS KHAN
A movie for the world, of the world, by an Indian
by Vishal Verma

A Fox Star Studio release (2,000 prints of the film worldwide) of a Dharma Productions production in association with Red Chillies Entertainment and Fox Search Light Pictures.

Producers: Hiroo Johar and Gauri Khan
Writer: Karan Johar and Shibani Bathija
Director: Karan Johar
Genre: Social – Drama
Target Audience: Overseas, Indian and World

Starring

Shahrukh Khan...... Rizwan Khan
Kajol...... Mandira Khan
Jimmy Shergill...... Rizwan's Brother
Soniya Jehan...... Rizwan's Sister –in Law
Zarina Wahab...... Rizwan's Mother
Parvin Dabbas………News Reporter
Yuvaan Makaar...... Rizwan and Mandira’s son
Tanay Hemant Chheda...... Rizwan Khan (as a child)
Arif Zakaria...... Faisal Rahman
Navneet Nishan………Beauty parlour owner
Sheetal Menon...... Radha
Arjun Mathur...... Raj
Vinay Pathak...... Special Appearance
Sumeet Raghavan...... Special Appearance
Christopher B. Duncan...... Barack Obama

 

Technical Analysis

The emperor strikes back. King Khan rules, the ‘Raj’ continues and how, in the name of ‘Rizwan’. If somebody believed ‘Chak De’ was the introduction of SRK into serious acting then take a breadth, ‘MNIK’ establishes Shahrukh as one of the two or three best Bollywood actors irrespective of age working today. You may recall his towering achievements in those bubble gum, family oriented cool NRI love stories like ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ before that ‘DDLG, and others.

The reunion of arguably the best on screen pair Kajol and SRK in Karan Johar’s ‘MNIK’ is at once a testament and a tribute to star power, a reminder of the good old chemistry these two actors displayed in their charismatic screen persona. While not exactly the same age and attitude, still there is a familiar quality about SRK and Kajol in ‘MNIK’, its innocent, touchy, moving, mature and very lovable.

SRK enters a new phase in his illustrated career with ‘MNIK’ the middle-aged Badshah of Bollywood seems to be in a giving mood: he wants to please his audiences. Displaying bravura technical skills, of a person suffering from Asperger (a syndrome where a person is preoccupied with a narrow subject, one-sided verbosity, restricted prosody, and physical clumsiness which doesn,t require any diagnosis).

SRK shows the whole gamut of emotions in his interpretation of ‘Rizwan’ a truly original, good human type personality. In the past, we saw those commercially demanding SRK, the loving, cool, excessively obsess, jealous, SRK. But now we get to see more romantic and human side. SRK gives his most memorable performance of his career; the actor uses asperger syndrome the way a stage actor uses a prop.

Kajol once gain proves why people wait patiently to see her come on screen. The actress gives a mature, flamboyant performance, maintaining her trade mark spontaneity with such an ease that will make any nari (women) cry for her in the scene when she losses her child, flawless.

SRK and Kajol is without doubt, the best thing in the movie which stands for basic human values: decency, honesty, integrity. The narrative of the movie is centered on the general atmosphere of hate post 9/11 in which the world is living. Explains the repeated lines of all Muslims are not terrorist in a no preachy, humanistic, moving way with hardly any bloodshed.

Karan style of story telling is bang on target right from the first frame and keeps you engaged throughout, the pace might be leisurey for some and those who are looking for full on masala stuff might be disappointed as its time for some reality check. The story is predictable but the scripting by Shibani Bathija where she makes the protagonist suffering from asperger new angle to the proceedings as we watch the character ‘Rizwan’ and not the superstar struggling to win back his love. A rare achievement.

The movie has some memorable moments like when Mandira agrees to marry Rizwan and the reaction of Rizwan and before that the lovely shot of that early morning is picture perfect. The first meeting of Rizwan and Mandira, the innocence in their love is finely done. The movie also has strong women angles and post interval, the Kajol outburst on Sharukh after her sons accident is highly touchy and moving.

Dialogues by Niranjan Iyengar and Shibani Bathija are taken from the hard realities of life like ‘Musalman kahe jane par apna kayda badal diya, magar ab ek musalman ko insaan nahin samjha jar aha toh apna schedule nahin badal sakte’. Such writing makes the movie identifiable to thinking Muslims all over the world and widens its audience worldwide.

The placing s of the songs is prefect in this film where Shanker Eshann Loy makes us take ‘Noor – e Khiuda’ and ‘Sajda’ to our homes. As usual production values are topnotch with polish technicalities where Ravi K. Chandran’s camerawork is amazing. Deepa Bhatia’s scissors are sharp and the sound by
Dileep Subramaniam is apt.

Apart from the awesome work from the three ‘Ks’, King Khan, Kajol and Karan there are other remarkable performance in the film. Jimmy Shergill, Soniya Jehan, Zarina Wahab, Parvin Dabbas, Yuvaan Makaar as Rizwan and Mandira’s son, Tanay Hemant Chheda as junior Rizwan Khan, all in one word are brilliant. But there are some problems, like the pace and its too serious where it does a blunder like that flood episode which makes the film look lengthier.

Other wise the movie scores 4 out of 5

One for the Performance

One for the helmer and the producer who breaks his own norm and reaches wider audience

One for the writing

One for the music and technicalities

The movie losses giving us more entertaining moments and being a bit lengthy



The Story

A moving story of love and hope where Rizvan Khan (SRK), a Muslim man from India, moves to San Francisco and lives with his brother and sister-in-law. Rizvan, who has Aspergers, falls in love with Mandira (Kajol). Despite protests from his family they get married and start a small business together. They are happy until September 11, 2001 when attitudes towards Muslims undergo a sea-change. When tragedy strikes, Mandira is devastated and they split. Rizvan is confused and very upset that the love of his life has left him. To win her back, he embarks on a touching and inspiring journey across America.



Promotions

SRK wants to thank the Sena if sense prevails and the movie sees light in the commercial capital of India. Ironically, he should as the netas has helped in the promotion of this abhineta and his movie. Anyways, the promotion has been adequate with the indoor/outdoor publicity doing the click trick. Media promotions by Nilufer Qureshi has been apt.



Business Analysis

Global subject shot in keeping the global audience in mind, the reunion of the most loved on screen jodi of SRK and Kajol in a Kran Johar film, powerful performance, message, women angle, identifiable emotions regarding Muslim identities, solo release, wanted un wanted publicity, everything works in favour of the 55 crore ‘MNIK’ which in all probability should be Bollywood biggest overseas success.



Other Credits

Executive Producer: Apoorva Mehta. Cassettes and CD's on Sony Music. Singers: Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shankar Mahadevan, Richa Sharma, Adnan Sami, Shreya Ghoshal, Shafqat Amanat Ali, Ustad Rashid Khan and Suraj Jagan. Lyricist: Niranjan Iyengar Music Director: Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonca. Background Music: Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonca and Shankar Mahadevan. Cinematography: Ravi K. Chandran. Choreography: Farah Khan. Action: Shyam Kaushal and Spiro Razatos. Art: Sharmishta Roy. Editor: Deepa Bhatia. Screenplay: Shibani Bathija. Sound: Dileep Subramaniam. Dialogue: Niranjan Iyengar and Shibani Bathija. Costume: Shiraz Siddiqui and Manish Malhotra. Media Relations: Nilufer Qureshi. Publicity Designs: Rahul Nanda
and Himanshu Nanda. Running time: 2 hrs 40 minutes. Reviewed at Adlabs Preview theatre, Film City Mumbai on February 11, 2010.

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