MY NAME IS KHAN

India, 2010, 167 minutes, Colour.
Shahrukh Khan Kajol, Jennifer Echols.
Directed by Karan Johar.

This is not a typical or traditional Bollywood movie. While it has some scenes in India, where two brothers grow up with their mother but who go to live in the US, the main part of this long film takes place in the United States.

The film stars one of India's most popular heartthrobs, Khan. However, he takes on a quite different role from the usual singing and dancing hero. He is Khan, a Muslim, an earnest and good man who has Aspergers' Syndrome. This means that he has characteristics of the idiot savant (remembering Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man and Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump), an encyclopedic amount of information on topics that create interest and a direct way of reciting facts and figures. More recently, Hugh Dancy portrayed a man with Aspergers' Syndrome in Adam. The other principal characteristic, which Khan explains to mystified people, is that the Aspergers man or woman does not pick up emotions and feelings if they are not expressed verbally. And metaphorical language and colloquialisms are taken literally.

As a child, Khan is bullied by other children and despised by his brother. When his mother sends him to San Francisco, his brother gives him a job selling beauty products which he does in his encyclopedic way but ingratiates himself with many customers. He also falls for a beautician, a divorced woman with a little boy who relates wonderfully with Khan.

It would be pleasant to say that all goes well in the land of opportunity. While Khan and others experience some prejudice against Muslims, it is the experience of 9/11 that transforms their lives. They become innocent targets of the war against terror and there are some tragic repercussions for Khan and his wife. He interprets some words of his wife that he should meet the president of the US and assure him, 'My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist'. Like Forrest Gump, he croses and re-crosses America, meeting a group of Christian black people in a small town in Georgia, eventually helping them when a hurricane strikes. In the meantimes, Khan has experienced arrest and some inhuman interrogation and, by accident, becomes a national figure.

The overt emotion in Indian film-making is akin to the heart on sleeve sylte of American storytelling. More reticent tastes might find the strong and unabashed feelings too much. A pity, because the film invites western audiences to empathise with this different culture and approach to life, with its emotional message and appeal – and a challenge, especially to American audiences, but not exclusively, to look beyond narrow national and culturial confines.

1. The expectations of this Bollywood film? For an international audience? For an American audience? The pattern of Bollywood films, the differences?

2. The scope of the film, the sequences in India, family life, school, poverty? The contrast with the American world, the world of the migrants, American citizens? The background of religious issues? The culmination in the war against terrorism, 9/11 and its consequences?

3. The introduction, Khan as an adult, his statement that he was not a terrorist, people’s reactions? The police and security? The flashbacks?

4. India, Rizwan and his brother, their mother? The brother and his ability, Rizwan and his being slow? The experience of death? Sending the brother to the United States?

5. Asperger’s Syndrome and audience knowledge of it? The characteristics? A form of autism? Knowledge and intellect? Personal manner? Objectivity – inability to deal with feelings in relationships? Rizwan as a boy, the sequences at school, the teachers and children, his being disturbed by noise, the colour yellow, physical contact?

6. Rizwan going as an adult to the United States? His brother and his wife, their home life, family? The company? Rizwan and the job, in sales? The kit, his recitation of the facts and the spiel? His outreach and reactions to him? The staff? His managing, the detail of his work?

7. The beauty parlour, his meeting Mandira? Communicating with her? The difficulties of a Hindu-Muslim? relationship? Their understanding one another, her loving him, his response to her as best he could? Marriage, their life together, the passing of the years, their son? The American way of life? Mandira and her own salon?

8. The impact of September 11, 2001? The visuals? The name of Khan, the customers dropping off, people being suspicious? The effect on Mandira, on Rizwan, on the family?

9. The boy at school, his mixing with the Americans? Reese as a good friend? The group of boys, Reese’s family and the bonds with Mandira and Rizwan? 9/11, the difficulties? Reece’s father and Iraq, the death? The blaming of Sameer? The attack on him, Reese trying to stop it? His death? The boys and their lies?

10. Mandira, her grief, blaming her husband, his reaction? The issue of terrorism? The issue of President Bush, getting the message to him?

11. Rizwan and his odyssey, the parallel with Forrest Gump? The overtones? Crossing the United States? Willing to do any jobs, his mechanical skills? Getting some money, surviving?

12. His following the president’s schedule, sometimes getting close, always missing out?

13. The visit to Georgia, the family, Mama Jenny? The hurricane, his seeing it on the television, their plight? His going to help? Being part of the family? The media, his becoming a hero?

14. His life in Los Angeles, the sniper and his suspicious behaviour, hostility? Rizwan and his shouting to help? His arrest, interrogations, treated suspiciously?

15. His brother seeing the television, Mandira seeing it? The support of the group in Georgia? Reese and his talking with his mother, admitting the truth?

16. The reality of terrorism, the man in the shop, the situation?

17. Rizwan and his achievement, despite his disability? The story of a humane man? The possibility of marriage and family and happiness? The reality of terrorism and its consequences?