My Name is Mandira

The title of this post must give you the inkling what’s gonna follow. Yes you guessed it right. I am writing the review of MNIK. But shouldn’t the title have been different then? Well No. That is because the film is watchable because of this one lady whose character is called Mandira in the film.

Kajol steals the show from SRK although she has a minuscule role in the film compared to Khan. The chemistry of the mother and the son is much more enduring than the chemistry that has hit the screens after 8 long years. Yes, people I am also a big fan of the ‘Shajol’ jodi but still I am afraid I can’t sing praises of their sizzling chemistry in this film. There wasn’t much to start with. In fact Mandira agreed to marry Khan because her son Sameer bonded so well with him.

Rizwan Khan, the protagonist, suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, which is a form of autism. He moves in with his brother after his mother’s death. Although mentally “retarted” he is super intelligent, and follows his mother’s advice to the T. He works for his brother as a beauty product salesman and that is how he meets Mandira (at a salon) and falls in love with her.

After their marriage they live happily until the ill-fated 9/11. Post that day, Sameer becomes a victim of racial abuse at school and eventually dies after a racial attack. Mandira for whom her son was her world, loses her calm and asks Rizwan to leave her and come back only after he has told the whole damn world (or at least the POTUS) that His name is Khan and he is not a terrorist.

How Khan does it is infact the film. And it is here that Karan Johar loses it! We all know Karan as a sensible romantic filmmaker. This is his first “serious” venture. And dear me, he has failed. The treatment is cliched. Whole of second half is full of unwanted sub-plots which could have been done away with (like Mama Jenny or the Jignesh segments). The film stretches itself a bit too far and could have been at least 15-20 minutes shorter.

But everything isn’t bad about the movie. For a change, Karan’s movie doesn’t have a song after every 5 minutes. The songs are all used as background score and not lip-synced by the actors. The cinematography is good,s o are the performances. Specially SRK, who has convinced the audience again that he is an actor to reckon with.

The film gives us a message loud and clear. Stereotyping anyone because of his ethnicity or religion is wrong. We should judge a person by his actions. The world is made up of two kinds of people. Good and Bad.

My Rating : 3/5