"My Name is Khan (MNIK)", one of the most media hyped movie in the recent years, which got released under a lot of speculation and hu halla!!! The only reason I was keen on seeing this movie was because in some of the reviews, the movie got compared to "Forrest Gump", one of my all time favorite movie. While the message of the movie is quiet appealing, the methodology used did not appeal to me much, thus making the storyline look very weak. The message "Every Muslim is not a Terrorist" has been shown in multiple movies in different ways and the same is the core of this story as well. The main protagonist of the movie sees the world with a filter of "Good" or "Bad" people, or in other words "Black" and "White". There is no place for "Grey" in there, which is probably the missing angle in MNIK. For me, a key part of being Human is the "Grey" area we all operate in, and react to similar situations in a different way given the current circumstances. The director has tried to show both sides of the story, the sufferings at both ends, be it Muslim or Non-Muslim and still he does not justify the actions of either of them. It is the circumstances which made people react the way they did.
The story of MNIK is about a man who suffers from Asperger syndrome (autism spectrum), and his life's struggle to overcome his inhibitions, from his childhood to his role as a father and husband. The character Rizwan Khan(Shah Rukh Khan (SRK)) grows up in a small mumbai neighborhood with his brother and mother. He then moves on to US to be with his brother, played by Jimmy Shergill (very unconvincing performance by him). There he bumps into Mandira Rathore (Kajol) and after upteen attempts convinces her to marry him. While all this is happening pre-911, their life suddenly changes post-911. Post a very tragic incident in their life, the only mission of Rizwan is to meet the President of United States and tell him that he is not a "Terrorist". On the path, Rizwan touches lives of multiple different kinds of people, some of whom become his fans and some don't.
The first 30 mins of the movie were actually a complete bore for me, but post that the movie is a little more bearable. There are certain incidents in the movie that do touch your heart, though just slightly, the general depth of emotions related to Karan Johar's(KJ) movie is missing here. Most of the scenes seem incomplete and very superficial. It is only in the last 30 mins of the movie that saved it slightly.
On the performance front, both SRK has given a good performance and Kajol has done a tremendous job. Certain scene in the movie Kajol has done so well, that you can call the movie "My Name is Kajol". :-)) Let me be candid here, I am not a big SRK fan, for me he has given only 2 good performances in his entire career, "Swades" and "Chak de India". I would put MNIK as the third good performance by him. The most surprising performance of the movie though was by Sonya Jehan, playing the role of Jimmy Shergill's wife. Her portrayal as a racial victim and the changes she undergoes have been captured by her very well, and she has also done a fabulous work to portray the same.
The music is by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and is OK. Certain songs like "Sajda" and "Tere Naina" are good, but nothing great to rave about. May be good to listen to for a few weeks on your Ipod and surely by then something better will come over.
Now coming back to the comparison with "Forrest Gump", well there is no comparison. It is like comparing BMW with a Maruti 800. I did read somewhere, (i think in TOI), where the review said that MNIK has gone beyond "Forrest Gump" and SRK beyond Tom Hanks. I can just say this to the person who wrote this, "Get your eyes tested" or go and see "Forrest Gump", because either you are blind or you have not seen "Forrest Gump", just heard its story from someone. MNIK is not even 10% of "Forrest Gump".
Overall, it is not a bad effort by SRK and KJ combination. If you do not have anything important to do, please do catch this in the theaters, but frankly, if you were to do that over the DVD, that won't be a big loss either.
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