my name is khan

i tried to see this movie on the first show on the first day at inox,nariman point.it was house full for all the shows. the whole area looked like a battlefield with the police in every nook and corner to prevent any untoward incidents courtesy shiv sen/mns. the security arrangements had to be good. after all 'congress sarkar ka izzat ka savaal tha'.

then, after a long wait we went to see it to last saturday. i liked the film. a great tear-jerker; but then it also helps to unwind like that once in a while. shar rukh khan as rizvan and kajol as mandira make an awesome pair.having met kajol recently in a function,i was pretty excited to see her in her latest movie. she did not let the audience down. her acting was superb particularly in the highly emotional scene when she cries over the dead body of her son who was killed in his school's soccer ground after the 9/11 tragedy. shah rukh does a great job as an autist affected person. actually rizvan suffers from asperger's syndrome which is a mild form of autism. albert einstein suffered from this and even bill gates is supposed to be a victim of this form of autism.

the story is pretty simple and straightforward. rizvan and his brother are brought up by their mother(zareena wahab) after the premature death of their father.rizvan's mom is particularly fond of her autist son much to the envy of his younger brother who is good in academics and goes to the usa for further studies.she teaches him that there are only two types of people in this world. good persons and bad persons.their mother dies suddenly leaving rizvan all alone in the world.the brother sponsors rizvan's visit to usa and gets him a job to sell cosmetic products in san fransisco.the asperger affected rizwan walks and talks in a different manner.he gets nervous on hearing loud noises and is terribly scared of the yellow colour.all these things bring him one day close to death. he is saved by mandira (kajol) who works in a beauty parlour. she is a single mother and has a son to whom she is very attached.

mandira is struck by rizwan's simplicity and honesty.and his intelligence.rizwan tells mandira again and again "marry me".they fall in love and get married.the son likes the new father and it is one happy family till tragedy strikes.in the 9/11 aftermath,while playing soccer the son has an altercation with some american boys.there is a fight and the killer shoots the football right in the middle of the son's stomach. his spleen is badly damaged and the boy dies.mandira feels strongly that had he not taken the name khan,the boy would have survived.she is shattered and asks rizwan to get out of her life.

he leaves and wanders from place to place.during these movements he meets an afro-american family in willamina,georgia and becomes friendly with them.later when he hears that willamina is devastated by a cyclone with many people killed,he rushes to find out whether they are alive. he does a fantastic job of helping the victims.after all his claim while travelling in the american countryside is that "i can repair anything".he has a strong mechanical aptitude and can fix any mechanical contrivance.

"my name is khan and i am not a terrorist" arouses suspicion among the fbi authorities. his passion to meet george bush,the president of usa costs him dear.he is arrested,tortured and thrown into prison.he informs the fbi about the whereabouts of the fanatic muslim rabblerouser and as a reward he gets freed.his acts of heroism in willamina gets wide tv coverage and when the newly elected president of usa obama comes to georgia,rizvan gets the opportunity of directly meeting him. later the friend of the extremist stabs him in a public gathering and rizvan fights for his life. he survives and mandira and he are back together.

produced and directed by karan johar,the movie's message is that let us all love each other.let there be no artificial walls between us.there should be no mutual hatred but only love. the music is outstanding.shankar mahadevan,ihsaan and loy mendonca have done a wonderful job.with heavy sufi flavor,the songs sung by rashid,adnan sani,shankar,shreya ghosal,ruchi sharma and others are soul-stirring. sajda,noor-e-khuda,tere naina,allah hi raham,rang de and my name is khan sung by a paksitani troupe are all melodious.cinematography is of a high order.

it is a movie worth watching.