"My Name is Khan" is a highly watchable fairy-tale drama about a Muslim man with Asperger's Syndrome - the Khan of the title, Rizwan Kahn (Shahrukh Khan) - who goes to live in America and makes a career as a cosmetics salesman. He falls in love with a beautiful girl Madira (Kajol) and forms a life with her young son Sam (Yuvaan Makaar). However, tragedy strikes as a result of 9/11, forcing Khan to go on a cross-country journey where he comes to the aid of a hurricane-stricken village, is placed in captivity for being a terrorist and finally meets the President of the United States.
Those of you who are reading this have presumably heeded the spoiler warning above so I hope I haven't given anything away. The movie clocks in at 170 minutes and I was surprised that, despite the many flaws with this film, I did not once feel bored.
This mainly comes down the performances of the three main characters. Shahrukh Khan's performance is brilliant and readily engaging. He is credible as his character and works well with Kajol and Yuvaan Makaar as his surrogate son. The relationships are funny, touching and credibly rendered.
The storyline really needed work, however, and is in many respects dishonest. These kinds of supposedly uplifting fairy tales may be superficially entertaining but in this case obscures the reality of what living with Asperger's is like. I know this myself as someone who has the condition. I know it's only a movie, but I am not being dishonest when I say the character has it easier than many others on the autistic spectrum both here in my country and across the world. In later scenes, the autistic aspects of Khan's character are completely ignored in favour of making him a poster boy for 'good Islam' in response to a hateful or ignorant American public. While it's good to have this distinction between positive and negative Islamic people, this topic deserves a more serious and less pat treatment than it gets here.
The film is slickly produced, with some fantastic cinematography and good use of Bollywood music - it's lovely to hear a Bollywood version of "We Shall Overcome".
I know I've just lambasted it's storyline but I'm giving it 8/10 anyway because I did enjoy it and I hope it kicks open the door for movies that have more serious treatments of the topics of Islam and Asperger's Syndrome.
Those of you who are reading this have presumably heeded the spoiler warning above so I hope I haven't given anything away. The movie clocks in at 170 minutes and I was surprised that, despite the many flaws with this film, I did not once feel bored.
This mainly comes down the performances of the three main characters. Shahrukh Khan's performance is brilliant and readily engaging. He is credible as his character and works well with Kajol and Yuvaan Makaar as his surrogate son. The relationships are funny, touching and credibly rendered.
The storyline really needed work, however, and is in many respects dishonest. These kinds of supposedly uplifting fairy tales may be superficially entertaining but in this case obscures the reality of what living with Asperger's is like. I know this myself as someone who has the condition. I know it's only a movie, but I am not being dishonest when I say the character has it easier than many others on the autistic spectrum both here in my country and across the world. In later scenes, the autistic aspects of Khan's character are completely ignored in favour of making him a poster boy for 'good Islam' in response to a hateful or ignorant American public. While it's good to have this distinction between positive and negative Islamic people, this topic deserves a more serious and less pat treatment than it gets here.
The film is slickly produced, with some fantastic cinematography and good use of Bollywood music - it's lovely to hear a Bollywood version of "We Shall Overcome".
I know I've just lambasted it's storyline but I'm giving it 8/10 anyway because I did enjoy it and I hope it kicks open the door for movies that have more serious treatments of the topics of Islam and Asperger's Syndrome.