MNIK Movie Review

Rizwan Khan, afflicted with Asperger’s Syndrome, sets out on a historic journey to meet the US President, when his world takes a somersault after 9/11. His wife, Mandira, meanwhile tries to cope with her grief and come to terms with the new racially-divided reality. It has some scenes that will bruise you. Yet despite all this, My Name is Khan never becomes the empowering, inspiring Forest Gump-like epic. Mainly because the connective tissue tying it together is deeply flawed and in places, embarrassingly naive.

Khan is the story of Rizwan Khan, played by Shah Rukh, who has Asperger’s syndrome. This milder form of autism impairs Rizwan’s social communication skills and gives him some decidedly odd behavior patterns – he can’t stand loud sounds or the colour yellow.

He rotates stones obsessively and can barely bring himself to hug someone. Rizwan is far from crazy but he definitely moves to the beat of a different drummer. Despite this he finds love and a family with Mandira, played by Kajol.

But post 9/11, their happy home falls apart and Rizwan embarks on a grand odyssey across America so that he can tell the American president that his name is Khan but he is not a terrorist.

My Name is Khan is on firm footing as long as director Karan Johar stays with emotional drama. He opens the film skillfully with airport security searching Rizwan and then moves into flashback.

The scenes of Rizwan’s childhood are some of the strongest in the film. Zarina Wahab returns after years to give a lovely, nuanced performance as Rizwan’s mother. But the film’s delicate rhythm wobbles when we shift to San Francisco and into love story mode.

The first shaky sign is the entry of Navneet Nishan who seems like she has stepped in from some other, louder film.

The romance between Rizwan and Mandira is too designed and mawkish.

Kajol, struggling with a thin character, mostly veers between being hyper and cute.

Still, Karan, working with an ace technical team including cinematographer Ravi K Chandran and editor Deepa Bhatia, crafts some beautiful images and poignant sequences but the film loses balance irreparably as it moves into political mode.