Film Impressions

REVIEW: My Name Is Khan

SAINT KHAN

The character of Rizwan Khan, played by Shah Rukh Khan in this now-controversial Karan Johar film, keeps repeating, “My Name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist.” That is the film’s single point agenda, to show that post 9/11 Muslims are discriminated against, and that US authorities paint them all with the same brush of hatred and suspicion. It’s short-sighted and simplistic, and not even willing to look seriously at the dangers of fundamentalism.

Rizwan has Asperger’s Syndrome, a kind of autism—he has trouble relating to people, and is scared of noise. He goes to America to join his brother Zakir (Jimmy Shergill) and his wife Hasina— Zakir has always resented the attention their mother (Zarina Wahab) showered on Rizwan. But that area is not explored.

REVIEW: My Name is Khan

AND I AM A COMPLETE SHAM

Why are Hindi film directors obsessed with the plight of Muslims in America? Don’t we have enough discrimination, not just against Muslims, but various other castes and communities in India to launch a thousand films? Or is it for the joy of shooting in sunny California and at other gorgeous locations all over the US that makes the plight of American Muslims a popular hunting ground for Bollywood? If Rizvan Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) had to be canonised as the messiah who integrates people, saves lives, spreads the message of love and liberates the world from all suffering with a stroke of simple-minded genius, couldn’t he just as well have taken his momentous journey across the length and breadth of India and won over hearts in his own backyard?