My name is Khan

Dir. Karan Johar. Shahrukh Khan.

Okay, first up, apologies for the trailer, they clearly do these differently in India. However, I once spent three hours with my new wife in a cinema in Ernakulam one afternoon watching Shere Khan (no wait, that's the tiger from The Jungle Book, I mean Shahrukh Khan) in Om Shanti Om, the film with the most genres ever in it (we counted twenty-three) and count that as one of the great days of my life. So I'm leaving it there.

In this one a young... okay, young-ish Mumbai muslim with Asperger's moves to America to marry a Hindi single mother. Arrested at LAX after 9/11 when his strange behaviour is misconstrued as suspicious, he receives help from a therapist and then sets out on a quest to meet President Obama and clear his name.

Let's assume that Khan starring in a film called "My Name is Khan", a move as apparently ego-centric as the scene in Om Shanti Om where his movie-star character appears in front of a real billboard with his own picture on it, is just the way they do things over there.

There's an interesting question to be asked here: If someone pitched this story to a western prodco, would it get made? Without major, major, major changes? I doubt it. And probably that decision would be right. However, because this is Bollywood, this is totally going to work. And it may the the role that allows Khan to show what he's really capable of as an actor.

See it. And see it with lots of Indian people if you can. That's what I'll try to do when I eventually get round to seeing it. Because no, I haven't seen it.

A footnote: Director Karan Johar was the costume designer on Om Shanti Om (costumes were amazing). I love that about Bollywood - it's a lot easier to change departments there. Particularly if you're mates with Shahrukh Khan.