On the Movie: My Name is Khan

Yeap, you heard me right. It's a Bollywood film.

But but but, it has got a very good plot, very different from the typical Hindi films in the 90s, as far as I recalled. But of course, the theme would be revolving around love and all, but the director did a very good job in slitting in terrorism which caused an uproar in the US involving the Islam religion, as it was filmed in 2000.

See, Rizwan Khan (starred by Shah Rukh Khan), a Muslim Indian, was the lead in this movie, and he's got Asperger's Disease, a childhood mental disorder, but he's smart, as in his IQ is very high. So when his mother passed away, he moved to US. He started to work for his younger brother, who migrated there earlier. Along the line, he fell in love with an Indian woman and after much romantic touches here and there, they got married.

The conflict came in when the World Trade Center collapsed, and the whole of US had a phobia of Muslims. Somehow, Rizwan's stepson was killed because because he was the son of a Muslim. Rizwan's wife, Mandira (starred by Kajol), lost her temper and chased him out of her life, saying he could only come back to see her when he met the president and told the president, "My name is Khan, and I'm not a terrorist."

So the rest of the movie revolved around how Rizwan moved the entire nation with his determination, helping the troubled along the way and everything else. And finally, the lovebirds reunited.

What led me into watching this movie is because it was mentioned in one of our seminars when we were discussing about childhood mental disorder. Asperger's Disease is not common, but it's an interesting one, difficult to diagnose as well. It's similar to autism in some ways, having behavioral problem and social dysfunction but not speech problem. See, Rizwan was diagnosed to have this disease and had been living with it since young in the rural of India. But his mother nurtured him well, sending him to a very wise old man in the village instead of the school as he was bullied in the school.

But Rizwan was very intelligent. He was able to memorize stuff he was told. Somewhere in between, the incorporation of his behavioral problem led to his social dysfunction when he was younger. He memorize stuff blindly, which was somewhat blunt. But he was also blunt in some ways, which was why he was bullied. He was afraid of yellow colour and afraid of loud noises. But his speech function was not impaired, which makes him easier to be taken care as compared to a child with autism.

Having said that, I'd see his disease as an advantage to him. Although he had some social dysfunction, he was very good in repairing broken stuff; which is also seen in children with autism if they're treated. And his bluntness made him determined in looking for the President. Plus, he remembered well what his mother taught him, about being the good people and good people do not hurt other people; which was why he braved the typhoon to help the people of a little village.

I really enjoyed the movie. And upon looking it up the net, I thought it's got really good critics too. Apparently, it was screened in the 60th Berlin Film Fest, generating positive reviews from the top Indian critics as well as a user consensus of A+ on Yahoo!Movie.

According to Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter, My Name Is Khan is, "a film that delves compellingly into Americans' anti-Muslim hysteria" as it tackles "a subject American movies have mostly avoided -- that of racial profiling and the plight of Muslim-Americans. It also allows Shah Rukh Khan to display his talent to an even wider audience. It's well worth the 162-minute journey." - wikipedia

Highly recommended. IF you're interested in knowing what Asperger's Disease is all about. LOL.