My Name Is Khan From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search My Name Is Khan Theatrical Poster Directed by Karan Johar Produced by Hiroo Yash Johar Gauri Khan Written by Story and Screenplay: Shibani Bathija Dialogues: Shibani Bathija Niranjan Iyengar Starring Shahrukh Khan Kajol Music by ShankarEhsaanLoy Cinematography Ravi K. Chandran Editing by Deepa Bhatia Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures Release date(s) 12 February 2010 (global)[1] Running time 161 minutes [1] Country India Language Hindi/Urdu English Budget Rs. 380 million[2] US$ 8.18 million Buyover: Rs. 1 billion US$ 21.53 million My Name Is Khan (Hindi: ??? ??? ??? ????) is a 2010 Bollywood film directed by K aran Johar, with a screenplay by Shibani Bathija, produced by Hiroo Yash Johar a nd Gauri Khan, and starring Shahrukh Khan and Kajol.[3][4] It is overseen by bot h Dharma Productions and Red Chillies Entertainment and will be distributed by F OX Star Entertainment, which bought the rights for the film for the sum of Rs. 1 00 crores, thus becoming the second most expensive Bollywood film, behind Blue.[ 5] Cinematography is by Ravi K. Chandran, ShankarEhsaanLoy composed the film's score, choreography is by Farah Khan, and lyrics were written by Niranjan Iyeng ar.[6] Visual Effects are by Red Chillies VFX. My Name is Khan debuted in Abu Dhabi, UAE on 10 February 2010.[7] It released gl obally in theaters on 12 February 2010.[1] It will also be screened as part of t he 60th Berlin International Film Festival's Official Selection that same month. [8] In the months leading up to its release, the film has also been involved in some controversy related to international airport security and Indian politics. Upon release, the film broke box office records for an Indian film all over the world. It grossed the highest opening weekend and opening day overseas for a Bol lywood film. It also grossed the secondhighest worldwide opening weekend, behin d 3 Idiots and the thirdhighest net collections in the first week for a Bollywo od film. Contents [hide] * 1 Plot * 2 Cast * 3 Themes * 4 Production and publicity o 4.1 Preproduction and casting o 4.2 Filming and postproduction o 4.3 Prerelease publicity and distribution * 5 Box office o 5.1 India o 5.2 Overseas + 5.2.1 UK + 5.2.2 Oceania + 5.2.3 Middle East + 5.2.4 USA + 5.2.5 Other nontraditional Areas o 5.3 Critical reception + 5.3.1 India + 5.3.2 USA o 5.4 High profile screenings * 6 Soundtrack o 6.1 Reception * 7 Controversies o 7.1 Airport security o 7.2 Shiv Sena controversy * 8 See also * 9 Notes * 10 External links Plot Rizwan Khan (Tanay Chheda) is a Muslim child who grew up with his brother Zakir and his mother (Zarina Wahab) in a middle class family in the Borivali section o f Mumbai. Rizwan is different from the other children and no one, including his mother, can understand why. However, he has certain gifts, particularly a specia l ability to repair any machine that is broken. His difference leads to special tutoring from a reclusive scholar and extra attention from his mother. This atte ntion, however, leads to a heightened level of jealousy from his brother Zakir, who eventually leaves his family for a life in the United States. Despite this resentment, as an adult Zakir (Jimmy Shergill) sponsors Rizwan (Sha hrukh Khan) to come and live with him in San Francisco. It is at this time that Zakir's psychologist wife, Haseena diagnoses Rizwan as having Asperger's syndrom e, a disorder which makes it difficult for people to interact socially. Rizwan a lso begins to work for Zakir as an herbal salesman and in the process he meets a Hindu woman, Mandira and her young son, Sameer or Sam (Yuvaan Makaar), from a p revious marriage. Despite Zakir's hostility to the match, they marry and settle down in the fictional town of Banville, where both Mandira and Samir take Rizwan 's last name as their own. They also live next door to the Garrick family. Sam i s close with their young son, Reese (Kenton Duty and Michael Arnold) while Mark (Dominic Renda) is a journalist and Sarah (Katie A. Keane) is a friend of Mandir a. The Khans' perfect existence gets disrupted, however, after the September 11 att acks on the twin towers in New York City. Mark goes to cover the war in Afghanis tan and dies there. At the same time, the Khan family begins to experience post 911 prejudice in their community and Reese begins to turn against Sam as well. One afternoon, an argument between them turns into a racially motivated schoolya rd fight between Sam and a number of older students. Reese tries to stop the fig ht but is held back and Sam is injured so badly that he dies. A shattered Mandir a blames Rizvan for his death stating that Sam "died only because his name was K han." She then tells Rizwan that she no longer wants him in her life. When he as ks her what he has to do to be a part of her life, she tells him that he has to tell the people of the United States, and the President that his name is Khan an d that he is not a terrorist. Rizvan thus sets out on a journey that takes him from one US state to another (i ncluding Georgia, where he is befriended by Mama Jenny) in order to first meet P resident George W. Bush and later Barack Obama. During this quest, he is detaine d and later freed from the San Francisco Airport. Later, in Los Angeles, he pray s in a Mosque and overhears violent rhetoric from Faisal Rahman (Arif Zakaria). He reports this to the FBI but there is no response at that moment. Later, while waiting in a crowd to meet President Bush and repeating again and again, "my na me is Khan and I am not a terrorist," Rizwan is arrested and placed in a prison by police who misinterpret his statement. While in the prison he is tortured as a terrorist suspect and meets the psychiat rist Radha (Sheetal Menon) who believes he is innocent. He is later released aft er a media campaign by two Indian student reporters Raj (Arjun Mathur) and Komal (Sugandha Garg) and Bobby Ahuja (Parvin Dabas) prove his innocence by unearthin g his attempts to inform the FBI about Faisal Rahman. After his release, he retu rns to hurricanehit Georgia to help Mama Jenny and her son. His efforts attract media attention and numerous Muslims come to help as well. At the same time, Re ese confesses to Mandira and reveals the identity of the boys who beat up Sam. S he informs Detective Garcia (Benny Nieves) who has been assisting her on the cas e. After they are brought to justice, she joins Rizwan in Georgia. At the moment sh e arrives, Rizwan is stabbed by a follower of Faisal Rahman and is rushed to the hospital. With Mandira's help, he survives and meets Presidentelect Barack Oba ma (Christopher B. Duncan) who tells him: "Your name is Khan and you are not a t errorist." Cast Actor/Actress Role Shahrukh Khan Rizwan Khan Kajol Mandira Yuvaan Makaar Sameer (Sam) Zarina Wahab Rizwan's mother Tanay Chheda Rizwan Khan (as a young child) Jimmy Shergill Zakir Khan Sonya Jehan Haseena Khan Parvin Dabas Bobby Ahuja Arjun Mathur Raj Sugandha Garg Komal Sheetal Menon Radha Christopher B. Duncan Barack Obama Kenton Duty Reese Garick Michael Arnold Reese Garick (as a child) Dominic Renda Mark Garrick Katie A. Keane Sarah Garrick Arif Zakaria Faisal Rahman Vinay Pathak Jitesh Jennifer Echols Mama Jenny Benny Nieves Detective Garcia Kavin Dave Hacker Themes In an August 2009 interview, Shahrukh Khan stated that My Name Is Khan is "not a bout terrorism, or 9/11. Its about a relationship between two people, between an individual and the State, and between an individual and the country. In short, t here the three important components: love story, Islam and a mild form of autism ."[9] In an earlier July 2009 interview, Khan also noted that the film focuses on them es concerning "the relationship between the Western world and Islam and how that has changed over the past few years." He describes the film as about "the journ ey of one family and how it changes because of 9/11" and suggests "we touch upon that in a very unbiased and educated way."[10] In another early interview, he a lso stated that, "its not about a disabled mans fight against disability. Its a dis abled mans fight against the disability that exists in the world terrorism, hatre d, fighting ... My Name is Khan is also about Islam and the way the world looks at Islam but we are not taking any sides. We are only trying to say that there a re only good people and bad people. There are no good Hindus, bad Hindus, good C hristians, bad Christians. Either you are a good person or a bad person. Religio n is not the criterion, humanity is."[11] In late 2008, journalist Madhureeta Mukherjee (referring to the post 2008 Mumb ai attacks atmosphere in India) suggested in an interview with Karan Johar that, "My Name Is Khan starts at a time when Hindus and Muslims in India have united like never before." In response, Johar stated: "I think its an exceptionally rele vant time, as the unity of our nation is of paramount importance, and I am very happy to witness such a movement in front of my eyes.