Disclaimer upfront: I am not a Shah Rukh Khan fan.
Karan Johar has finally proved to the world that his world does extend beyond South Bombay. This is possibly the first KJo movie that does not have women dressed in Banarasi sarees for breakfast, or heros not coming home for Diwali in a chopper. All the notions that have come to be associated with a KJo movie get dispelled with MNIK.
I am of the opinion that its very difficult for any director to get SRK play the actual character as outlined in the script (if such a thing as a bound script exists in Bollywood) . He ends up playing Rahul in just about every movie he does, with almost the same expressions, mannerisms, dance movements (both hands gradually rising skywards, buddy we’ve seen it before, kuch naya karo) et al; notable exceptions to this monotony being Dil se, Swades and Chak de. MNIK is path breaking in that sense, we don’t see the old SRK at all, we infact see him trying to be the character with all gusto.
Even dead people are aware of the central theme of MNIK, so not much sense in getting into that. Even if there were some folks who had been missed out by the marketing pre-release blitz then the antics of Shiv Sena would have woken them up to the fact that a SRK movie is in the offing. I think SS has done the movie a huge favor by increasing the junta’s curiosity value 100 fold. It was apparent in the phenomenal opening that the movie took across the country. Do I see a certain Aamir Khan following the business of this movie with bated breath 🙂 ?
Most of the movie is told in flash-back, which is one of my favorite ways of movie story telling. Kudos to the very talented Shibani Bathija, who triple hats as story/screenplay/dialogues writer, for the honest intent behind the central theme. The script attempts to touch base with all the major themes of this past decade. You see 9/11, you see Muslims being targeted post 9/11, Arif Zakaria’s character talks about Jews and the Palestine rift, SRK’s detention is a clear nod to Guantanamo Bay. When you try and weave some many things together, plus the love story then some ends are bound to come up loose. The movie does falter a bit in screenplay, nowhere more than the reason for which SRK travels across the country to meet the president of the United States. That whole chapter came across as a tad lame, but hey, that’s just me.
Awareness about autism and Asperger’s syndrome, which I am told is a mild form of autism, is fairly low, and hence there is no real way of knowing how good was SRK’s homework on the mannerisms of the character. I did get the feeling that he was overdoing the physicality of the role, and I couldn’t help but think of Rain Man and Forest Gump while watching MNIK. But then, lets not kid ourselves, Dustin Hoffman and Tom Hanks are sublime actors, and our very own SRK is bound by the norms of Bollywood at the end of the day. Having said that, I am all praise for him for making at attempt outside his comfort zone. He couldn’t possibly have sleep walked through this one, as he can (or does) in most of his regular movies. Thanks for trying something different SRK !
Kajol is looking like a million bucks, she is looking much better at 35 than she did at 25. I guess 30’s are much better as a decade than the 20’s. You are more sorted out mentally, and hence are at peace with oneself, which I guess shows, or so I tell myself these days :). Except for the one scene at the soccer field after her son dies, where she hams it to her hearts content in true Bollywood style, she is very good in MNIK. Hope she does more movies in the future.
Overall, a very worthy attempt, with some flaws, courtesy the requirements of Bollywood. Go catch it over the weekend.
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