My Name is Khan - Obligatory Post-Watching Notes
The last SRK movie I saw was the first half of Om Shanti Om. I watched it in one of those dodgy, bit-torrented prints on a friend's laptop. What I saw was for the most part fun; engaging even. It was just something about the over-the-topness that held my attention. I had to attend to a phone call right about the half way mark (I think) and after that I just forgot about it.
Lately, I've found myself rather reckless with respect to going to the local Cinemark for Hindi movies. I never did this back in India (and College Station had no Indian movie screening halls anyway) Over the past six months, I've watched such classics as Kurbaan, New York, and 3 Idiots. The last one of the lot was the biggest let-down because I actually went in expecting my money's worth. However, I never really expected Kurbaan or New York to be good anyway, but still went to watch them.
As an aside, I also did watch decent movies ( Wake Up, Sid), good movies (Rocket Singh; Ishqiya; Luck By Chance), and not-that-bad ones (Love, Aaj Kal) but the fact remains I've not exercised as much discretion as I might have wanted. If I could, I might have even watched Rann but, for some reason, that didn't work out; by most accounts it now feels like time/money well saved.
Anyway, on to MNIK...
I was supposed to have watched it on Friday. But two hours prior to the 9:45pm show, it was sold out. After all, it was a Shah Rukh-Kajol-Karan Johar flick; such interest is only to be expected. We decided we'd catch the Saturday 6pm show. But even that sold out about four hours prior, and, to our surprise, the 9:45pm show too. I thought it was a bit weird considering past experience with getting tickets to Bollywood movies in Austin. We finally got the Sunday 9:45 show. But the moment we booked tickets, I felt a tinge of regret
India were due to bat and -- more specifically -- Sehwag! Movie starts at 9:45, match at 10:00. Tickets, non-refundable. Damn! We wondered if we should consider cancelling them, but then, what if Sehwag got out cheaply?
Common sense, also known in some circles as 'supersition' (that Sehwag has a better chance of scoring big if we go to the movie) set in and we decided to go ahead with our movie plans.
We watched the movie. Sehwag scored about 70-odd while we were in the hall. And I lost more than my daily share of hair in those three hours.
MNIK, is the story of an autistic male, who overcomes all odds to snag Kajol and -- in what I believe to be the "triumph of the human spirit" message Karan Johar intends to convey -- manages to develop powers of teleportation. I think that's a first for a person with Asperger's Syndrome. Just an example: he manages to reach a town badly hit by hurricane as soon as he sees it on TV. No government-backed or private aid agencies could make it there before him. And, in the end, he meets [SPOILER ALERT] the American president, and gets back to his briefly estranged wife.
In terms of actual cultural message the film intends to convey, it felt like the Indian version of white-guilt on celluloid. One got the feeling that Karan Johar (or whosever idea this was) was on a guilt-trip over the sorry state of Muslims post-9/11 and decided to make not one, but three movies -- essentially telling us that not all Muslims are bad.
In MNIK he repeatedly beats us to a pulp with his life lesson: that there are two types of people, good and bad. Likewise, everything else in the movie was painted in such bold strokes. Grey clearly does not exist in his world. Which is why Karan Johar ought to stick to what he does best: love stories, flamboyant costumes, and stories that don't pretend to aspire to a higher moral.
That way, I could at least go in expecting what I'm used to seeing from him.
Thankfully, I went home to a very good day's play in the Test match. But this can't happen always...
