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"My Name is Khan" (movie trailer)

In the name of God, compassionate & merciful بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ | Peace be with you السلام عليكم

So I came across this Hollywood/Bollywood mishmash movie concept by no other than the Muslim's Brad Pitt = Shah Rukh Khan. The trailer is self explanatory. But the plot is something like Muslim guy marries Indian woman (typical Bollywood drama), living in NY the September 11 2001 plane jihacking etc destroys 'Muslim' family's life, they split, kids get beaten (Hollywood enters here), Muslim man is arrested, questioned, interrogated, tortured, exploited and detained (finally, some realism). And the rest is history. It looks informative. Might even have a strong message for the world.

I look forward to the day a Muslim film production creates a movie or short film that explains what Islam is without the backup of some iconic face or big time hot shot to speak on their behalf. One can dream, eh.


The YouTube link is {here}

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Zaufishan's Muslimness

3 comments:

  1. Assalamu alaikum
    beautiful movie!
    thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Salaam Zaufishan - These are my thoughts on the movie - *SPOILER ALERT* that I left on Sr. Jannah's site as she had a review on it and apparently, it was tweeted (yuck!, lol!) by the movie's screenwriter, so pretty cool.

    Anyways, about the movie - as I mentioned, I watched it with my khala in London - on Feb. 15th to be exact. I think the overall message was great - be compassionate to all, regardless of faith, I think we need to show more of that in our lives, yes, be good and protect your fellow Muslims as long as they are in the right and are just, but we also need to show the true Spirit of Islam by helping others - so naturally I loved the Mama Jenny story, though the idea of going out there to risk your life and then many others' lives when the rest of the community came in was a quite unrealistic it seemed to me, but again, good message.

    Yes, I too, loved the inclusion of the Hz. Ishmail story and yes, while the scene did include Muslims preaching violence and such, I think that was the appropriate setting with which the story of Ismail could be countered against, but I do understand Sis J, that it wasn't a favorable seen, but I'm sure that is going on in some mosques.

    I also liked the scene post-attack where SRK was saying Surah al-Fatihah, though I can understand how it scared the non-Muslims that he was around - maybe he could have said it in English, but I think it was a realistic scene on the whole.

    Aside from Kajol's and SRK's character, I loved the bhabi (Jimmy Shergil's wife) character played by Sonya Jehan - it was a small but important role, showing a kind heart when SRK came to their house and also of course, how she dealt with wearing the hijab after the attacks occurred. That was a lovely scene when Jimmy Shergil said that Allah would understand if she took off the hijab.

    Of course, how can one not love the acting by both SRK and Kajol? I'm not a fan of SRK really, both acting or otherwise, but this was one of his exceptional performances and I think if one is going to portray someone with a certain illness such as Asperger's, its important that they are up to the task.

    As for the negatives - I think, as my khala pointed out - the whole business of the Bush and Obama indirect references (though I understand the need given the premise of SRK's journey), it seems a little over-dramatic and childish when the headlines were flashing that an African-American was elected etc. It took away from the elegance that the film had.

    ReplyDelete
  3. As Sis J said - the fact that SRK's character was married to a Hindu - while its no surprise, did they have to even take that away from us, that the main two characters couldn't be Muslim? Also another reason I don't like SRK - that is his life story - marrying a Hindu (Gauri Khan) against his parents wishes - on the BBC Asian Network, there was a video from the weekend Bollywood show that had all three main people (SRK, Kajol and K. Johar) in front of a live studio audience, Q&A etc, and KJ was saying how SRK's real life love story was similar to that shown in the movie - though here its the brother who is objecting. So while SRK has done a good job portraying a Muslim as far as can be expected - his real life kinda takes the "coolness" away a bit - I guess that sounds harsh and/or judgmental - sorry, its one of my weaknesses and I guess I shouldn't waste even that on a Bollywood movie of all things.

    Lastly, my khala thought that the movie was total rubbish as we watched and afterwards, but as news from our family back in the States came (they all liked it and sadly, the only person who hadnt seen it, including my family in Pakistan, where my other khala accompanied her daughter (my Baji) and friends to see the movie in Pakistan in cinema - one of the rare times when the govt. allowed a Bollywood movie to be shown without secret, only my Nani hasn't seen it), she started to change her tune. Even she and my mom thought that the movie would mostly appeal to American Muslims, but in fact, its doing well in India too and with the news that Jannah has shared with us, it should be interesting to see if that success continues in the US release.

    One more thing - the music was lovely, but I didn't buy it, though I had the chance. Will just listen to it on the internet if anything.

    That's what I have to say so far.

    ReplyDelete

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