This film was not screened in advance for North American critics. Here are excerpts of a review from Reuters in India:
‘My Name Is Khan” is a very average, ordinary film that goes haywire. Racial biases, the aftermath of 9/11 and the war on terror are dicey topics to handle in real life, let alone on celluloid, and director Karan Johar oversimplifies the issues.
The film tells the story of Khan (Shahrukh Khan), a man afflicted with a type of autism. He moves to the US, where he marries an single mother (Kajol).
When the country is attacked on Sept. 11 and hit by racial crime in its aftermath, their family is shattered. Khan sets off in search of President Obama believing that, if he meets him, all will be OK.
The film is on a large scale and beautifully shot, but the story doesn’t live up to even half of that. The director cannot seem to decide whether he is making a love story, telling the story of a man’s journey or making a statement on the biases that pervaded the US after 9/11.
Words like jihad, 9/11 and al Qaeda are thrown around without context. Khan’s actions seem contrived and out of line with the story. A lot of the supposed emotional moments seem gimmicky. The acting suffers as a result.
Any film that underestimates its audiences and dumbs down its content is letting itself in for a failure. “My Name Is Khan” is a huge disappointment.