My Name Is KHAN - Review

MY NAME IS KHAN

Well, I was pleasantly surprised. The trailers, the sneak peeks left me wondering. Was the movie too cliché, too full of song and dance routines. It was a Karan Johar movie after all.

The movie right from the get go was so polished. SRK plays the role of Rizwan Khan with such ease that even though you empathize with his character, who has Autism, you don't feel guilty laughing, when he does the most funny and child like things with total innocence. Of course less than two seconds later you find your heart strings being pulled by some beautiful moment. This movie pulls no punches, SRK with his head held down, walking around the country with so much of heart, that you can't miss it. One line that you hear in the movie over and over is "My Name is Khan - And I am not a Terrorist". It's filled with so much of meaning, but is at times over used.

The way in which the story is presented in a storytellers mode, is beautiful and you don't feel like you are going back and forth in the story. Kajol and SRK's chemistry has always been unmistakable and this movie is no exception. Their love story is so elegantly portrayed without ever taking the attention away from the main theme of the story.With the story opening up slowly and elegantly, literally blooming, I found every minute of the first half so captivating, that when the interval arrives you are in awe and are really worried that the second half is not going to live up to it.

Unfortunately, that is the case. Although the second half of the movie begins really strong and it takes the story forward, Karan Johar seems to drift and get too involved with almost super human feats. The movie would have been much better served as a story which continued only on his life and journey. The final scenes in the movie take away from a beautiful story and might have been avoided. But for these few scenes, this is one of the best hindi movies I have seen recently.For Karan Johan, I'll say one thing, most of his movies have these huge songs with a 100 extras singing and dancing in the background. I wouldn't say this movie does not have that, but all the songs fit perfectly into the story line. The story and concept is sweet and as I read rightly in some other reviews, sincerely executed.

The movie is 3.5 on 5 (but, just for the fact that it tugs at your heart so much I'll give it 4)

Rahul

Oh yeah.. About the other 2 hindi movies I liked as much as this one but didn't get a chance to review. They would be 3 Idiots and Kurbaan. I know 3 Idiots is no comparison as it's in another genre, and undoubtedly the best hindi movie ever. Kurbaan is a very elegant, thrilling story about terror that was really under rated. Saif Ali Khan and Kareena gave brilliant performances in that movie. With all the movies about 9/11.. MNIK and Kurbaan are 1 & 2.