26 February,2010 09:10 AM IST | | Prahlad Nanjappa
I am probably the only person in this country of one billion-odd people who isn't crazy over cricket. And now, don't sue me, but I simply hated My Name Is Khan.
I'm probably courting blasphemy, against the five-star rave reviews and the flocking crowds, but sorry, there it is. The Thackerays inadvertently helped this movie along with the brouhaha they created.
Karan Johar, in my humble opinion, should stick to what he knows best: pure fluff that has the microscopic depth of his flaky little heart and a laugh time, as long as the pop corn lasts. Look at Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and that other one with Saif in New York (dang, I forgot the title.) Perfect little moments of beautiful cinematography, a couple of tearjerker scenes, some nice songs, a handful of jokes thrown in. And there you have the recipe of a hit, K J-style that people keep going back for.
My Name Is Khan, on the other hand, takes the best hamster (hamster as in "guy who hams," not the rodent variety) and puts him in a serious role, where he has to tackle a mental disability, a serious religious issue, and just to make things even more complicated, a hurricane. He is so out of his normal league, which perhaps would have been magic with someone like Aamir, that he looks like a cardboard cutout.
He swings from behaving like a serious retard in some of the scenes to being an agile superhero as he heaves wood and hay upto the shattered church roof, without being overawed by new people and places as his condition prescribes.
Kajol, the one who we hadn't heard a squeak from in years except for the odd commercial or two, arrives on the screen like a breath of fresh air. Dressed impeccably, her uni-brow a little thinned in the middle, she looks divine in the parlour. Until she eschews a squeaky, screechy version of her struggling hairdresser role (who just happens to live in a million dollar home.)
There are simply too, too many issues that are being tackled in the movie. There's racial bigotry, a medical condition, marital relationshipsu00a0-- and the issue of regurgitating parts obviously taken from various English movies, into something trying-to-be-original.
The music, though, is simply great. Except for those ear-grating renditions of Hum Honge Kaamyaab, that is.
Even as a disinterested kid in school assembly, I sang it betteru00a0-- and without such repetitious monotony.u00a0
All indications point to SRK winning the Filmfare Actor of The Year. At which point of time, I'll just shrug in a magnanimous way - and hope that the few of us who didn't like this magnum opus, will "one day overcome."
