My name is Khan..and we do get carried away

In one of the many unbelievable scenes in "My Name is Khan(MNIK)", our very own " Forest Gump, afflicted with 'Asperser's syndrome', dares the hurricane, the violent storm and rains to rescue the people of a small village affected by floods in the state of Georgia. Ok!. Clearly subtleness is not the filmmaker's virtue. Karan johar and the camp, have been associated with cheesy, frothy "Rahul/Raj" characteristic romances. MNIK has cheese. Yes. But Johar, this time, has decided to stick his neck out. Ya, just a little though. Johar retains many of the trademark elements- the great locales, the unabashedly emotional moments and some cheese. But thankfully, he goes beyond.
At two hours and forty five minutes, MNIK is long, far-fetched, loud at places but has its heart at the right place and is Johar's best. He tries hard -replaces his Rahul with Rizwan. There are shots of riots(mumbai 1983..now when did that happen?) and people are seen using swear words. He also goes for a wonderful cast-Zarina Wahab(wow), Soneya Jahan, Jimmy Shergil. For the leads though, he brings back his lucky mascots. Rizwan, played by SRK and Mandira, played by Kajol share great chemistry, reminiscent of the DDLJ days. Kajol is screechy yet endearing while Khan invests sincerity in his character without making it a caricature.
MNIK speaks about some real flaws. Racism, religious prejudices, racial-they are all real issues and am glad that mainstream cinema is not shying away anymore from discussing these. However, what is disappointing to see is that the solutions offered by most of them are too ideal or at least get diluted in the muddle depicting the flaws. Shaking hands with the American Prez is what it takes to prove that you ain't a terrorist..too bad. Nonetheless, I would still recommend 'MNIK' -it isn't great cinema by any means-but watch it for the effort and the performances and maybe because the other release of the week-'Valentine's day' isn't any better. Lol.