"My name is Khan" is told from epiglottis.

Most of the story of "My name is Khan (MNIK)" is told from the "epiglottis" with lot of all sugar candy and spicy masala "heart", but with very little "brain".

MNIK: not a huge disappointment

Despite the above comment, "My Name Is Khan" was not a huge disappointment, as I did not expect any masterpiece from Karan Johar (KJo), and definitely not expecting to watch anything realistic from the maker of KKHH. But the theme is far too ambitious, far too realistic, far too adventurous, and far too off beat for a person, who is specialised in delivering fairly tale Hindi-filmy stories in American settings.  KJo, as usual, wants to satisfy NRIs with this movie too, but with this movie, he wants to spread wider and broader.

 
The first half:
From the first scene, we know the end. There is no suspense or mystery element in the climax. Khan is going to meet the president of USA to tell him that his name is Khan and he is not a terrorist. The story is as simple as that. What we are interested is knowing why an autistic Indian man wants to do that, and how his journey to meet the president shows us the different facets of human being who is divided by race and religion. As it is a main stream Hindi movie, we all know from the beginning it will be romantic fairly tale journey in somewhat realistic setting, and the first half keeps that promise intact.

The opening sequence can send chills through the spine. The childhood flashback is quite interesting. The episodes between Khan and Mandira are indeed romantic with a few funny moments (of course, Khan gives one of his finest performances till date). Sept 11 happens, and the lives of Muslims around the world change forever; and so is the life of Khan and his family. At intermission, the tone is set just right and makes us to wait eagerly to watch the second half to see how the director takes the Khan's journey to meet the president of America with same sincerity.

The second half:
Ah, the second half! exaggerated ambitions lose the plot completely. The intimate love story becomes too loud with unrealistic media (TV journalists) drama with overdose of Hindi-filmy-estyle melodramas and emotions.  It is not only extremely unrealistic but also too manipulative.

The careful construction of the first half is recklessly destroyed in the second half literally and cinematically. The autistic khan becomes superman and saves hundreds of black US citizens in flood hit village of Georgia. Khan, his brother and TV crew arrive well before US flood relief team arrives! The way second half wants to make superhero out of Autistic Khan is beyond any reality; it even surpasses "Gaddar"!

The problem with making political movies:
When one is weaving a love story set in the USA about Indians with Islam as a core theme, and making a movie with keeping predominantly NRIs and non-Indians in mind, one has to be extremely careful not to make a movie like MNIK. Although KJo has taken every care not to use racial dialogues in the movie, he fails to come out of Hindi film cliches.

Khan's journey from the Hindu-Muslim riots in 1983 to the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, from the Iraq war to the Afghanistan war, from Borivli to San Francisco, and the journey across the USA in pursuit to meet the president, would have made a wonderful script with all the complexities of politics and religion. But KJo reduces all this to "Duniya mein do tarah ki log hotein hai, ek good people, and the other bad people". It is neither a love story nor a political-religious drama.

KJo wants to preach the USA with this Hindi movie, and wants to educate non-Muslim NRIs and non-Indians about Islam and Muslims, when in India, we have organizations like Shiv Sena (who wants to disrupt MNIK and Shahrukh Khan), and we have terrorist attacks killing thousands of common men every now and then in the name of Islam.

Gulaabi talkies is far more important movie than MNIK:

Last year Girish Kasaravalli made a Kannada film called "Gulaabi talkies (GT)" which also deals with the same subject, the way Muslim common man is treated in today's world, because of the current political affairs in the country and the world. In this movie, the Muslim is an illiterate middle aged woman, whose husband is living with another woman. The movie is all about how her personal life is ruined just because she is a Muslim. Dear KJo and all the writers who praise MNIK, please do watch "Gulaabi talkies" to understand the art of movie making, and the complexity of the issue surrounding it.

The movies like GT, which truly deserve to show the world what kind of movies Indians make, are kept in dark, where as the movies like MNIK get all the attention of Indian reviewers and western media, only because MNIK is a main stream Hindi movies, produced and directed by a big banner, and distributed by an American multinational company.