“Mr. President, My name is Srinivas and I have no clue as to why Mr. Johar made a movie about Mr. Khan who wants to meet you to say that he is Mr.Khan and that he is not a terrorist”. “My Name is Khan” is a bad gift in nice wrapping paper with the entire marketing hullabaloo to go with it.
For the first 20 minutes, I could not figure out what this film was all about. Such shallowness in writing should have been picked up earlier by the dream weavers before they decided to be a part of this project. The ‘plot’ revolves around Rizwan Khan, an autistic man who is on a journey to meet the President of the United States to tell him that he is a Muslim and not necessarily a terrorist because he is one. He is inspired by his Hindu wife, who blames his religion as the cause of the attack on their son, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. He has to win her back and hence has to accomplish this.
What was Karan Johar thinking I wonder? His films have always had tight screenplays and have given the impression that some thought has gone into writing the story well. With MNIK, we are exposed to ‘Hum Honge Kaamyaab’ being rendered (out of tune if I may add) as a romantic bind, ribs of ‘yellow yellow dirty fellow’ when the protagonist wants to convey to his girl that he does not like the color, an offer of marriage if a spot is shown in San Francisco, that was hitherto unknown to the girl and a town in the United States where the residents of far away cities can reach even before the National Guard can? Enough said!
If Karan Johar made this movie to prove that Shah Rukh Khan could do a well researched role, he could have just pointed us to ‘Chak De’ or ‘Swades’. Why go through the pain of making MNIK? Khan’s natural mannerisms help him considerably in playing Rizwan Khan. All he needs to do is shake a little less and look a little more lost. He does create a character that is endearing, but it is hard to separate the actor from the role. Kajol can officially be given the tag of ‘the shriek’ with all the high decibels poking your ear drums. Nothing or nobody holds your interest in this film.
There have been movies like ‘New York’ that have been portrayed similar sentiments in a realistic and gripping manner. Even if Johar’s take on this was more lovey-dovey dramatic, he could have come up with a better effort than MNIK. Eminently avoidable!