My Name Is Khan Movie Review

We’ve never really been huge fans of Karan Johar films – Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was good, K3G was okay, KANK was terrible. Hence we were slightly cynical about My Name Is Khan.

But the film is special for several reasons; it has one of the biggest stars in the country playing a not-so-perfect character and two, SRK and Kajol return for what could be their last outing together. Do they recreate on-screen magic with MNIK? Read on to find out.

Rizwan Khan (Shahrukh Khan) suffering from Asperger’s syndrome, moves to San Francisco after spending most of his life in Mumbai. Here he comes across Mandira (Kajol), a charming lady who steals his heart away. They get married and start a business together. Everything that’s happy and perfect suddenly turns upside down and turmoil starts creeping into his life after the 9/11 attacks. Muslims, now seen as idols of evil, devastates the life of Rizwan. Confused and upset of loosing his dignity and love, he embarks on a touching journey to win back his love.

What works for My Name Is Khan

  • MNIK is inarguably Karan Johar’s best work to date. Its the simplicity of his narration that works for the film. There are times when certain scenes get over-dramatic, but Karan can be forgiven, simply because he gets it right more often than not.
  • The Asperger’s disorder that Karan’s protagonist suffers from, works big time in favour of the  film as you cheer for Rizwan Khan all through. Its the character’s innocence, charm and niceness that you willingly let your heart go out to him.
  • Aided by the magical chemistry that SRK-Kajol share, the love story works like a dream.
  • The music is good, Tere Naina and Noor-e-Khuda are the best tracks in the album. Karan has sensibly avoided lip synced song and dance routines.
  • The dialogues (Shibani Bathija and Niranjan Iyengar) are effective and funny when its meant to be.
  • Cinematography is excellent. Ravi K Chandran has captured San Fransisco very well.

Scenes to watch out for

  • Almost all scenes involving Rizwan Khan – him selling products, first meets Mandira (Kajol), hospital scene, after the wedding – to name a few, all exceptionally well executed and equally well performed.
  • Scenes following the tragedy.
  • SRK – Kajol romantic portions in the first half are cute.

Some negatives

  • While Karan in MNIK has tried his best to break away from the so-called filmi formula, he does succumb to the temptation on more than one occasion. (More on this later)
  • The climax doesn’t work.
  • The character actors don’t get much scope.

Performances

  • Khan is King and he proves just why with a performance comparable to some of his best – Chak De and Swades. In MNIK, SRK the star is hardly visible, its Rizwan Khan all through. We think, its the greatest compliment you could ever give to an actor.
  • Kajol is fantastic. She effortlessly slips into Mandira, her character and stays there through the film. The chemistry she shares with SRK is electrifying, not that we expected anything less anyway.
  • Child Artistes : Both Tanay Chheda (young Rizwan Khan) and Yuvaan Makaar (Sameer) do well.
  • The rest – Jimmy Shergill, Vinay Pathak, Sonya Jehan, Zarina Wahab – don’t get enough scope.

Overall, My Name Is Khan is an entertaining film that makes you laugh and shed a couple of tears. Its a journey that’s worth the price of your ticket and a bit more.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 3 for the film, 1 for SRK and Kajol, they were brilliant!

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375 Comments

  • @Indicine superb review really man . You should give it 3 stars its enough for this movie .Lot of flaws also present in movie.
    Lets hope 4 the best for movie but i think it will be flopped.:)

  • Just saw the movie. All I can say is no matter what the box office results is, SRK is bound to get a few awards next award season. First of let me clarify, I am no SRK fan. In fact i was practically dragged to watch his movie by my sister. I thought SRK’s last few movies were pretty bad: RNBDJ was just awful and his performace was strictly okay. Chak De I thought was okay even though his performance was his career-best up to that point, OSO i thought was terrible and his performance was good not great.

    However when it comes to MNIK, it just blew me away. SRK gives his career best performance. He’s the hands down favorite for the best actor award. In fact for anyone else to win it this year, they are really going to have to give a performance as powerful as hrithik in Koi mil gaya or AB in Black where they swept all the best actor popular and critics award at all award ceremonies.

    Mad respect for SRK’s performance!!

  • Nice review Indicine.

    Controversy aside, I blieve that this is SRKs best performace, Its a shame that his career has not had this sort of brilliance in acting as frequently as say Aamir and Amitabh. There is no doubt that he is an equal to them in terms of popularity and in some case exceeds. If he did have a few more of these acting roles, he wouldn’t face the problems he has today where people take advantage of his superstar status out of jealosy and for political milage. If he had a few more critically well received roles to his name, that would water down his star status.

  • My Name Is Khan Movie Review (Updated)

    Director
    Karan Johar

    Main cast
    Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Jimmy Shergill, Christopher B. Duncan, Tanay Chheda, Steffany Huckaby

    ” My name is khan and I am not a terrorist” it shows that movie is about terrorism. Oh My God another terrorism movie. In recent last 3, 4 years bollywood made so many movies about terrorism and some movies worked and some movies declared flop. Now a days 9/11 issue is best issue if you are interested to make a terrorism movie instead of Hindu Muslim fight. Last couple of years we watched 3 movies about 9/11 issue. Khuda Ke Liye, New York and Kurbaan.
    Shahrukh is back with his best friend Karan Johar with the same issue which Karan highlighted in Kurbaan. People are thinking that it is similar to Kurbaan and New York. I will say only one thing that there is only one resemblance between Kurbaan and My Name Is Khan which is Karan Johar.

    Now people are really tired of post 9/11 subject. Does it go against MNIK? But we watch every year lots of same type of love stories, comedies and action. And if movie is good it will work, doesn’t matter subject is outdated or fresh.

    Story:

    Shahrukh Khan (Rizwan Khan), a Muslim guy from Mumbai, suffers from Asperger syndrome (a form of high-functioning autism complicating socialization). Shahrukh marries a Hindu single mother Kajol (Mandira), in San Francisco who has one son. After 9/11, due to Muslim identity of Kajol’s husband some school boys kill her son. Then she thinks that Shahrukh is responsible of her son’s death and she left her and said to her when u will clear yourself that you guys are not terrorist then come to me. Shahrukh then begins a journey to meet US President Bush to clear his name.

    Story is well written and execution of the script is mind blowing. 1st half is little funny due to Shahrukh’s behavior. 2nd half is much batter than 1st half and original story starts after death of Kajol’s son and when 2 student reporters come movie suddenly changes its tempo.

    Scenes which have worth to watch MNIK:

    . 1st scene at airport tells the whole story and tells us what is the movie all about.

    . Shahrukh’s sales scenes are very funny and they make you laugh.

    . When Shahrukh Asks Kajol “can we have sex please” he looks so innocent.

    . 1st 15 minutes after the interval are very fast and audience will be in shock.

    . Shahrukh’s help in Georgia shows his positive character and it is very emotional.

    . Mosque scene when Shahrukh clarify the meaning of real sacrifice in Islam

    . Perfect Climax.

    Performances:

    i- There is no need to talk about Shahrukh. He is one man show and his every single movie proves himself. At this time he did another good job after Chukde India and Veer-Zara.

    Whole movie he handled alone with his career best performance. He looks very innocent. People will love his character.

    ii- Kajol is back after 2 years. Her last release U Me Aur Hum was not box office hit but her performance was superb. In MNIK she is batter than her last release. She has less screen appearance she comes after 30 minute and in 2nd half you will again miss her.

    iii- Rest of others like Jimmy, Soniya, Arjun Mathur, Yuvan Makaar and all others are good in their roles.

    Direction:

    Karan Johar is a brand in Bollywood. He started his career with KKHH and from KKHH till Wake Up Sid his success rate was 100 %. Industry was thinking that why he made two movies Kurbaan and MNIk on a same subject. But I will say there is only one similarity between both movies which is Dharma productions. He handles script very well at one side SRK is trying to proof that he is not a terrorist and on same time Kajol is trying to find her son’s murderer. This part is best part of the movie and it shows how talented is he.

    Music:

    Music director is Shankar Ehsan Loy and music of MNIK is just ordinary and very disappointing. Movie has only 3 songs. Tere Naina comes lots of times again and again which is very irritating. We always have great expectations with SRK movie’s music and if it is Dhamra production then there is no need to think just go to the market and get the music album. But this time it couldn’t happened. Music is not great as compare other Karan-SRK movies. Only one song is worth listening to. Which is Noor -e- Khuda.
    Back ground score is good.

    Negative Points:

    i- There is some confusion about time period. They got marry before 2001 and Kajol’s son killed in 2007. Where 6 years were didn’t show and age of Kajol’s son remain same.

    ii- Shahrukh has back ground voice in more than 80 % scenes. It looks like a documentary movie instead of commercial cinema

    iii- In church Shahrukh gives a speech in Hindi. I don’t know how American people understood his hindi and then they started sing a song.

    iv- Muslims can’t give Zakat to any non Muslim person but Shahrukh gave it to 9/11 effected
    people. Even they can’t marry with Hindu girl.

    Overall:

    Overall My Name Is Khan well made, well told with a good story line. And we can consider it Best movie about 9/11 theme. Just some negative things and lack of good music is going against it. Otherwise it is a perfect movie. Due to Shahrukh’s star power this movie will get huge opening and it can sustain for next 2, 3 weeks. May be business will effected in Maharashtra due to Shiv Sena issue.

    Rating:

    4/5 x x x x

    (My name is Khan and i am not a flop)

  • nauman do not post your review in alomst every post , it looks like indicine is flooded with nauman’s review.

    We have read your review , you should not give overdose of your review. good luck with your site…

    Indicine Team , you should have given 5 stars , i think you didn’t give because you gave 3idiots 3 star.

  • Amit:
    u should feel good that it is ur fan SRK’s movie and i gave it 4/5 not 1/5.
    but one thing when indicine put new artical then every one forget abt old one. and now who will open this site he/she will open MNIK Movie Review 1st and other articals later. so it should be here.
    i wont put any more it is enough.
    Amit 3 Idiots was funny, comedy masala movie but it is serious both movies are good and both deserve same rating.
    about box office lets see how lucky is MNIK. but, due to shiv sena may be it will lose 10-15 cr

  • i am dissapointed with these thackreys but even more with SHAHRUKH reason is very simple.

    he is interested to show his support for pakisatani players but when a year ago or two the poor north indians are getting beaten up by these thackreys prople he did not say a single word and i think this is enough to show he is doing this to promote the film only.

    second reports shows that people will go to watch film to show solidarity with srk are totally opposite many persons in my locality are angry with srk that he uses such tactics to promote his film only his diehard fans will go. even my father is dissapointed and only srk fans are showing solidarity and this is proven by TOI poll that more people consider it as a publicity stunt

  • good review regarding according to star perfomances

    indicine team ,

    i jsut want to ask you that , is’it mnik has that much impact to break ghajni or 3 idiots records ?

    b,coz as i say one of the reviewer had express his feel that film is that much good that it will gross 500 crores?

    when asked him about that , is mnik can break ghajni or 3 idiots records?

    he easily said 500crores not also 300 crores ,

    so, indicine reply me for your feel regarding impact of movie mnik

  • Same topic, same movie… kurbaan and NY…. em sick and tired from karan johar’s fav topic 9/11….. this is same drama…. i have watched plenty of movies on 9/11 topic and its all mixture of ….. again disappointment …. i don’t know how rab ne banadi jodi was HIT…. shahrukh simply SUX big time…. no face no voice… no style…. same style of acting… he simply torture you….. kajool look like aunty in this movie……. i don’t know where you pplz living on….. helll…… bye awl… gud luk for you SRK business. huh

  • Afrid Khan, nice to see u back i was waiting u . if ranbe banadi can get 80 cr then MNIK can get 150 net cr easily.

    Nitesh, i am in sydney there were about 15-20 % occupency due to thursday after noon, every one was working and it released in more than 15 screens in sydney and other movies release in 5,6 screens.

    Adiii, could u please let me know what number Akki has in that list and send me link plz.

    Shoaib, i told before in my review that there is only one similarity between Kurbaan and MNIk which is Dharma production, nothing else.

  • indicine pls answer to this question pls. though its off topic.

    in 1994 salman HAHK netts 65crores without adjusting for inflation and some sites shows 250cr after adjusting for inflation. but acc to my calculations its nett collection will be 650cr yeah this is mind boggling but this will be.

    i just asked my mom when we wnt to watch ram jaane in 1995 when i was 3yrs old in mumbai the tickets were priced at a mere RS9. so even if we now consider 100 RUPEES a ticket then nett collections will be mind boggling 650cr and thats nett not gross. and with same procedure sholay neet will be 800cr.
    and if we consider 3idiots with these figures it is nearly 30% of it.

    what a change just think how many pepole will have watch sholay and hahk nearly 3times more than 3idiots

  • those are not sold out those are in black which are either past and if you are looking at 12 or 1 shows it will show black because you have to book ticket before 2hrs. otherwise not a single show is sold out and one more thing book my show shows same seat occupation for most shows which shows that they are not reliable . they show good occupation for veer at fun cinemas laxmi nagar but the hall was nearly 80%empty

  • @Nauman , pplz wtch hollywood movies are 2.5 b and bollywood 3.5. so the rating is based on google search… this is true that salman khan is been mostly searched celebs in da world…

  • indicine:after yours reviews on kurbaan.3 idiots,and latest veer..i dont trust your site…still will watch the movie nd put in the comments….
    talking about the awards,indian awards r bullshit..if they can award best actor to shahrukh for RNBDJ dey can award ny bullshit film….these r all sold and bought…

  • Nauman
    some multiplex r not showing mnik. but hope is that they will starts the show in eve time.
    one the mnik get 10-20 cr loss in this srk-ss fights.
    today is mahashivratri india and so today is holiday in some parts of our country. hope mnik open well at boxoffice.

  • Limited Release For My Name Is Khan In Mumbai

    Friday 12th February 2010 09.00 IST

    Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network

    My Name Is Khan is set for a limited release in Mumbai with single screens not releasing the film at all due to security concerns while multiplexes will give it a limited release.

    Multiplexes in Mumbai are likely to run the film on a few shows and see how things go through the day. Normally My Name Is Khan would be having a 18-20-22 shows at major multiplexes. The situation is being monitored by parties involved and things will change according to what is happening.

    The public is on the side of Shahrukh Khan in the controversy and this could see people who did not intend to watch the film giving it a go just to show support to Shahrukh Khan.

  • adiii this world has 6 billion population and more than 5 billion watch hollywood movies.
    doesnt matter with subtitles, dubbing or original.

  • Nauman
    indai’s populatin 1.4 b alone
    60 cr people speak hindi here also but 0.8 b are dont speak hindi. but they watch movie in dub version here also.
    hollywood is more popular becoz of they never compromise with budget of moviese. and well research is also need for good movise. they work or spend on single movie atleast 2-3 years. thts why they give perfect movie always.
    indian movie makers only research on dialogues, music and dresses. thts indaian movise is looking more colourful but lak of verssality.
    if indians film makers starts research on movise then indian movise will beat atlast hollywood movise.

  • Nauman
    i saw lots of emotional of hollywood but only titanic movise makes me cry.
    but in 9 out of 10 moviese makes you cry in bollywood. but point is that 1 makes you cry becoz this was good movie but rest of makes you cry becoz they were crap moviese.

  • In a jolt to Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan, all theaters and multiplexes in Gujarat have decided not to screen Shahrukh Khan’s film ‘My name is Khan at the behest of the Bajrang Dal and VHP.

    All theaters and multiplexes in Gujarat have decided not to book any ticket of Shahrukh Khan’s film ‘My name is Khan’ in advance.

    According to reports coming out, Shri Ashiwn Patel, Ahmedabad based leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Gujarat, when contacted by the media, pointed out that Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad have stopped screening of films even in past successfully. “Even this time, the film: My name is Khan would not be allowed to be screened in Gujarat.”

    Umesh Engineer, leader of Shiv Sena in Gujarat, on Thursday thanked Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal to join the agitation against Shahrukh Khan’s pro-Pakistan stand and his film. Umesh said the Shiv Sainiks would obey Shri Bala Saheb Thakrey’s order and would stop screening of My name is Khan with whatever strength they have in Gujarat.
    The Shiv Sena activists went on a rampage in Delhi, by vandalising the Satyam Theatre in Janakpuri, Delhi, where SRK’s movie, ‘My Name Is Khan’ was slated for a release today. The Bajrang Dal activists in Ahmedabad tore up the posters of the movie.

    Vandalism was also reported from the Akshardham area of east Delhi, Prashant Vihar and Sarita Vihar where protestors reportedly shouted anti-Shahrukh slogans and burnt movie posters.

    This came as a rude shock to Delhiites as the cash registers were ringing in the capital for the Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol starrer throughout Wednesday. Most cinema halls and multiplex chains had opened their ticket windows for the film on Monday and have been receiving a positive response ever since despite the brouhaha in Mumbai over the film’s release.

    The Delhi Police have decided to tighten the security across all theatres in Delhi in the wake of protest by Shiv Sena.

  • tv channels do suggest that mnik have a limited release in mumbai multiplexes. i think the fault is of theatres owners they pulled out at the last moment and now if they are saying that they are losing money its their fault.

    i feel that srk must immediately call balasaheb or his son and work out for a compromise. but chances are slim thaat movie will release in mumbai this friday.

    have to leave for the 12.30show. my friend watched the 9.30shows reports crowd of 70-75% will check it soon.
    happy mahashivratri

  • @Nauman yaar is bar review me sab suspense khole diye tune.

    you wrote…

    Shahrukh is responsible of her son’s death and she left her

    1st 15 minutes after the interval are very fast and audience will be in shock.

    Kajol’s son killed in 2007

  • @ indicine
    Nice review indicne. I hope mnik will not be much effected by nonsense shive sena. I am trying to get ticket for evening shows. But i am very happy that u gave good rating to mnik. Good luck to mnik.

  • It all started as a publicity stunt by Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan. Why? Because, Johar was reeling under the flop of Kurbaan and so-so showing of Wake up Sid, while SRK despite his self-appropriated bogus title of King Khan has had two successive flops with the disastrous showing of Billu and Dulha Mil Gaya plus was shaken by the fact that Aamir and Salman had started beating SRK at the marketing/publicity game (Aamir and Salman are the asli King Khans anyway, though they are too decent to shout from roof tops about it). So neither Karan Johar nor SRK can afford another flop at this juncture, more so since SRK would have been nowhere without the Yash Raj/Johar big banner. They were obviously not sure of the box office prospects of MNIK in India since it looks more like a multiplex film only. But their whole strategy seems to have backfired with Shiv Sena beating them at the publicity game ( for political ends, of course) and theatre owners not willing to take any risks. Now it is not only Maharashtra, but reports say that Gujarat has followed suit and there are reports of disturbances from Delhi as well!! Shah Rukh has also been indulging in politics by flaunting his so-called proximity with Rahul Gandhi via the Congress MP and former journalist Rajiv Shukla. Serves him right. You cannot fool all the people all the time!!! Meanwhile, the Congress government in Maharashtra and elsewhere in India must understand that the police should be better deployed for protecting ordinary citizens of India who are exposed to all sorts of crimes and hazards every day rather that wasting it on protecting the interests of some filmmakers with vested interests.

  • nice review indicine………

    mnik doesn,t deserve more then 3………………….

    i m sure this shiv sena controversies help movie a lot to get a good start otherwise mnik coudn,t get good start becoz no goos music was there or not appealing trailors………….

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