Neither a fan of ShahRukh
Khan nor of typical Bollywood movies, My Name is Khan ended up being the second
hindi I've watched in the US and this years after Khosla ka Ghosla!
Before the credits even began
rolling in, we got a taste of the true Indian spirit. You eye those perfectly
placed seats which look like they are available and head out there all quietly
happy that you decided to walk in 15 mins early only to be stopped by the
person at the end of the row with something like 'I'm holding these seats for
my saas aur bhabi aur uski behen aur uski behen ki friend'! It happens on every
row until you decide to cover your losses and head down!
Why would you be
researching on the erstwhile US President George Bush's itinerary and scribbling
notes if you weren't a terrorist, right? Wrong, you might want to meet him in
person to tell him just that and in the movie's timeline he's not yet erstwhile!
Coming right on the heels
of watching Khuda ke liye, the racial profiling theme seemed repetitive. It's
certainly not your typical Karan Johar movie until about the last half an hour.
It skips the melodrama, the constant breaking into song, the lavish parties in
locales that either resemble the Mysore palace in all its grandeur or some
swiss mountains, soaked handkerchiefs full of tears of the heroine or her
mother or her future/current/ex mil, her sister, her best friend ... you get the
picture.
I get that this movie wants to convey
a message - there's only good or bad people in this world, there's no middle
ground, there's no varying degrees of good either or bad for that matter. I don't
agree, but I'll probably not dwell on that now! And guys if
you say Marry Me long enough and show her the San Francisco skyline on a foggy
morning she will start singing the same tune back to you! How cornily Win-Win!
Kajol is as resplendent as
ever but I feel like there wasn't anything in her role, her portrayal as a
mother and as a lover and a wife were really lacking. It's probably going with
her character's theme of resilience. Some little attempted humor with the intercourse
for dummies scene is blatanly ignored but again probably going with the movie theme this time.
There definitely are some
truly moving moments, like when Kajol's character keeps repeating time of death,
the we shall overcome/ham honge kamiyab singing but the last half an hour ruins
it all. Crisscrossing from west to east while the military and FEMA is cooling
their heels seems possible only for bollywood, and that too in a bus!
And then we got conveniently stuck in traffic, so that made a total
driving time of 6 hours for a 2.5 hour movie. Well, I shouldn't really be complaining
although I'd have written a better review if they decided to cut that last half
an hour!
5 comments:
And guys if you say Marry Me long enough and show her the San Francisco skyline on a foggy morning she will start singing the same tune back to you!
*Runs off to try it out right away!*
heh! sure, let me know how it goes and make sure you read the disclaimer too.
If you need something to recover after watching MNIK , go watch Up in the Air:)
Tried it. Like in the movie, there was law enforcement involved. I tried telling them my name isn't Khan, but they wouldn't listen.
They did say something about misdemeanors, restraining orders, arrest and posting bail. Not sure why they brought all that up. :-/
@Bini, George Clooney to counter SRK, that would work any day ;')
@VK SF skyline, not Seattle ... no wonder, I hope you didn't pick up the mannequin from Nordstrom!
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