My Name Is Khan is a 2010 action drama film directed by Karan Johar, and co-written by Shibani Bathija and Niranjan Iyengar. It stars Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in the lead roles. The film narrates the fictional story in which Rizvan Khan (Khan), an autistic Muslim, sets out on a journey across the United States to meet the President after Mandira Rathod Khan (Kajol), his Hindu wife, suffers from Islamophobic discrimination following the September 11 attacks.
Johar began developing the film in 2007, seeking a departure from his previous romantic films; it is Johar's first directorial effort for which he did not contribute to the screenplay. Johar and Bathija extensively researched autism in preparation for the film, especially Asperger syndrome, as well as Islam. The film was co-produced by Johar's mother, Hiroo Yash Johar, and Khan's wife, Gauri Khan, under their respective production companies, Dharma Productions and Red Chillies Entertainment. Khan and Kajol's involvement was confirmed by May 2008, with the remainder of the cast rounded out by January 2009. Principal photography began in December 2008 and lasted until October 2009, with filming locations including Los Angeles, Mumbai, and San Francisco. The film's soundtrack was composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy.
My Name Is Khan first premiered in the United Arab Emirates on 10 February 2010 and was theatrically released worldwide two days later by 20th Century Fox. The first Indian original motion picture to be produced under Fox Searchlight Pictures and presented and distributed by Fox Star Studios in its maiden venture on a global platform, it received widespread acclaim for its subject matter, direction, music, screenplay, cinematography, performances, particularly of Khan, and social message. It grossed worldwide, becoming one of the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2010 and the second-highest-grossing Indian film of 2010. It received numerous awards and nominations, including three wins at the 56th Filmfare Awards. It is used as a scholarly case study for its cinematic portrayal of autism and Islamophobia.
Plot Rizvan Khan, an Indian Muslim with Asperger's syndrome, grows up in Mumbai with his mother, Razia, and his brother, Zakir. Due to his condition, Rizvan receives specialized tutoring from a reclusive local scholar, Mr. Wadia, earning him extra affection from his mother—a dynamic that breeds resentment in Zakir. Following their mother's death, Zakir, who has relocated to San Francisco and is now married to a college professor, Hasina, sponsors Rizvan to join him in the United States. Upon his arrival in California, Hasina formally diagnoses Rizvan's condition, and he begins working as a distributor for Zakir’s beauty product company. While working, he falls in love with Mandira Rathod, a Hindu single mother and hairstylist. Despite Zakir's disapproval of the interfaith match, Rizvan and Mandira marry, and she and her young son, Sameer "Sam" Rathore, take his surname. The family moves to the peaceful suburb of Banville, striking up a warm friendship with their neighbors, the Garricks, comprising reporter Mark, his wife Sarah and their son Reese.
Their idyllic life is shattered in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. As Islamophobia spikes across the nation, Mark travels to cover the war in Afghanistan and is killed in action. Traumatized and angry, Reese begins to turn against Sam. The latter's persistent endeavour to rekindle talking terms with the former culminates in a violent confrontation at a community soccer field, where a group of older students attack Sam. During the assault, he dies from a spleen rupture; Reese is threatened by the older boys with consequences in case he confesses anything.
A grieving and devastated Mandira blames Rizvan, shouting that her son died solely because they carried the surname "Khan." Still seething with anger, she demands that he leave. When a confused Rizvan asks when he may return, Mandira sarcastically tells him he can come back only when he has traveled across the country to tell the American people and the President of the United States that his "name is Khan" and he "is not a terrorist". Taking her words literally, Rizvan sets out on a cross-country journey to track down President George W. Bush on his campaign trail.
During his travels, Rizvan stops in Wilhelmina, a small, impoverished rural town in Georgia, where he befriends a young boy named Joel and his mother, Jenny, earning the gratitude of the tight-knit local community. Later, in Los Angeles, Rizwan visits a mosque where he overhears a radical doctor, Faisal Rehman, inciting his followers to violence. Disturbed by the message, Rizwan publicly confronts Faisal, rejects his extremist views, and reports him to the FBI.
Rizwan’s quest leads him to a presidential rally at the UCLA. Standing in the crowd, he repeatedly shouts, "My name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist!" His behavior is misinterpreted by the tense crowd, sparking a panic that leads to his arrest and detention. He undergoes harsh interrogation until a pair of young Indian student journalists, Raj Burman and Komal Kukreti, uncovers his story with help from renowned Indian-American journalist Bobby Ahuja, broadcasting his innocent motives and his prior attempt to report Faisal to the FBI. The media attention triggers a massive public movement, forcing the authorities to release him.
Shortly after Rizvan's release, a devastating hurricane strikes Wilhelmina, Georgia. He immediately travels back to the ruined town to lead relief efforts, inspiring volunteers and media crews from across the country to join him. Back in California, Reese sees Rizvan on the news. Burdened by guilt, he finally confesses to Mandira that he witnessed the attack on Sam and names the senior boys. Inspector Garcia, the detective who had been working on Sam's case, has the perpetrators, including Reese, arrested, though Mandira pleads for leniency to Reese for Sarah's sake.
A message from Sarah, urging her not to let tragedy destroy her marriage, prompts Mandira to finally travel to Georgia. She reunites with Rizvan in a now recovered Wilhelmina just as he is stabbed by one of Faisal’s radical followers. Rizvan survives the attack and eventually meets the newly elected President Barack Obama. The President publicly acknowledges him, stating, "Your name is Khan and you are not a terrorist". Rizvan softly adds that his stepson, Sameer, was not a terrorist either. United in their shared grief and love, Rizvan and Mandira finally return home together.
Cast
Shah Rukh Khan as Rizvan Khan Adarsh Gourav as teenage Rizvan Tanay Chheda as young Rizvan Kajol as Mandira Rathod Khan Jimmy Sheirgill as Zakir Khan, Rizvan's brother Jaikishen Bhatia as young Zakir Sonya Jehan as Hasina Khan, Zakir's wife Zarina Wahab as Razia Khan, Rizvan and Zakir's mother Arjan Aujla as Sameer Khan, Mandira's son and Rizvan's stepson Kenton Duty as Reese Garrick, Sam's friend Katie A. Keane as Sarah Garrick Dominic Renda as Mark Garrick Christopher B. Duncan as Barack Obama Parvin Dabas as Bobby Ahuja Arjun Mathur as Raj Burman Sugandha Garg as Komal Kukreti Kavin Dave as Inder Patel Arif Zakaria as Dr. Faisal Rahman Vinay Pathak as Jitesh Pandit, a Gujarati motel owner Sumeet Raghavan as Faisal's follower Navneet Nishan as Rita Singh Sheetal Menon as Radha Jennifer Echols as Mama Jenny Adrian Kali Tucker as Funny Hair Joel Chirag Dave as Imran Pallavi Sharda as Sajida Benny Nieves as Detective Garcia
Production Development
Having worked on a number of romantic dramas and consequently become known for these, Karan Johar desired to experiment with a new genre. He wanted it to be one that would attract critical and commercial success, as well as help prove his ability of making non-romantic films to his audience. Eventually, the idea of making a socially relevant film came to his mind, "because that is what those kinds of people like". He chose to depict Islam as a main topic of discussion — an action that he described as a "conscious decision" — since he felt there is an international unawareness and negative generalization towards the religion. While himself belonging not to the religion, he called himself educated and open-minded enough to understand that misconceptions against Islam exist. As a filmmaker, Johar wanted to communicate with his audience of his message, which is "correcting the world's misconceptions about Islam", in an emotional, yet effective, manner.
In November 2007, Bollywood Hungama reported a then-untitled upcoming project by Johar. The filmmaker told the entertainment portal that there would be possibility it would be rather titled My Name Is Khan or simply Khan. In a July 2008 article in his personal blog, Johar confirmed the title as My Name Is Khan, breaking his tradition of initiating his works' titles with the letter "K". He said, "While deciding upon the title, I just went by my gut and decided on something which brings to fore the spirit of the film and the story that I wanted to tell. Everything was decided in true earnest. The right title of the film was and stays on as My Name Is Khan."
Shibani Bathija wrote the story and screenplay while penning the dialogues with Johar's then-regular collaborator Niranjan Iyengar, thus making My Name Is Khan Johar's first film he did not write himself, though he still helped her in the research. According to Johar, it gave him "a level of detachment from the proceedings and yet, a lot of attachment" and released "unexplored emotions". In preparation, Bathija and Johar met a lot of people with autism, including those who have Asperger's syndrome; Bathija also read books about their condition, including An Asperger Marriage and Aspergers in Love, non-fictions about the life of a woman with his husband, who suffers from Asperger. Johar suggested to have a Muslim character in the lead and set the film in the September 11 attacks, which Bathija eventually agreed with.
Geographically, the story is set in the San Francisco Bay Area, which came to Bathija's inspirations because of her familiarity with the place while finishing her communication study at the San Francisco State University between 1998 and 2000. Her motivation to use it as the film's backdrop increased in 2007 after seeing many Bollywood films also being shot there. A fictional town, Banville, which she described as "a stereotypically white, upper-class Bay Area suburb", was also added into the story. In an interview to the East Bay Express, Bathija recounted that while researching for the San Francisco Bay by Google Maps from Mumbai, she spotted Danville, California, which fitted her criteria of a location that resembles a "small, very rich suburban town". Beside that, Bathija also wrote the English-language dialogues, while Niranjan Iyengar wrote the Hindi ones. A number of Arabic phrases, mostly in religious context, were also added.