My Name Is Khan Turns 13

Karan Johar feels My Name Is Khan is  the most uncorrupted uncompromised and honest film he has made.

And he is right. It is  an epic film in every sense  of the  word. On  release, Karan  was afraid that audiences would not  appreciate  Shah Rukh Khan with  a neuro-disorder and without songs.

My Name Is Khan had no lip-sync songs It wasn’t easy to make . It  was the  socio-political  journey  of   Shah Rukh’s character Rizwan  from the age of  4 to  40.In this journey  Shah Rukh encounters  major  political upheavals  from   a communal riot in India to  9/11 in the US. But  the epic film was not about  any specific  political event. Nor  was it about  the Asperger’s Syndrome.

Karan Johar feels My Name Is Khan  couldn’t have worked without  Shah  Rukh and Kajol. “I was blessed to have  them in my film. I don’t know  what  it’s about them. It’s just magic. They build  an inexplicable  energy  on  screen. They instinctively  understand each other’s  acting. When I direct  a scene with Shah Rukh and Kajol I know I’m  doing  my best  work. Rizwan and Mandira   in My Name Is Khan  HAD to be SRK and Kajol.”

   Kajol had just become a  mother.She first said  no to the  film. Then she read  the script and  immediately  said yes,

Recalls Karan, “I’ve worked with Kajol  in  various stages  of her life. I  was working her again  eight  years  later.  When we worked together the last time she didn’t have a  daughter. So of course she  was  a different person. She was calmer more focused  on  her work than  ever before.”

Karan  finds  Shah  Rukh and Kajol alike in their attitude to  work and family “They’re both so much  into their  spouses and kids. When the shot is over  they rush  to their respective  family.  

Time and   again I’m blown  away  by Shah Rukh.  How  can he think of so many things  about his character when he has so much on his  plate? He did monumental  research  on his autistic  character.  I was zapped by how much he  knew on the subject.  And he brought all the knowledge on  the sets without any strain. He had written reams  of notes  on  how  he  wanted to  interpret his character.Rizwan And   to him  it  was  no big deal.”