My Name Is Khan By Lucy Rochford

Historical background about the films theme


In my name is Khan one of the main themes was the events of the 9/11 and how most Americas considered the Muslims as terrorists. Americans just assumed that just because someone was a Muslim they should just know "why it happened," because they were Muslim just like the hijackers. At the time of the 9/11 Muslims got a lot of unwanted attention.


Muslims and Hindus have been in conflict for hundreds of years.In the early 1980’s there was a lot of tension between Hindus and Muslims in India, before they decided to divide with resulted in the majority of Hindus staying in present-day India and the majority of Muslims going to present-day Pakistan.They have hatred for each other are embedded in all those years and will not leave easily. The most threatening conflict between Hindus and Muslims is the province of Kashmir. This is where the decision to divide India into India and Pakistan seems to have been a terrible mistake. While many Muslims relocated to Pakistan and the Hindus to India, half of the Muslim population was left in India and their relations did not improve after being partially separated. The two groups continued to use direct violence against each other as they had in the past. Due to this tension, Muslims discouraged marrying Hindus even though Khan and Mandira still married. That is why Khan’s brother didn’t what see him anymore, for he had betrayed him and what he believed in.



A description of the plot


My name is Khan is about a Muslim man named Rizwan Khan. The movie starts off as Khan as a young child. He grew up with his mother Razia and his younger brother Zakir in the Borivali section of Mumbai. Rizwan Khan suffers from Asperger's Syndrome but is very talented and high functioning. Rizwan and his mother are very close and she gives him a lot more extra attention which leaves her son Zakir to go to the United States to live with his Wife Haseena.

In the film now Rizwan is an adult. His mother passes away and he goes to live with his brother and Wife, Haseena. Rizwan begins to work with his brother with his business as a herbal salesman and during his work he meets he’s future wife Mandira. Mandira is a hairdresser and also has a son named Sam, from a previous marriage who is best friends with their next door neighbour Reese.

After the 9/11 attacks everybody sees all Muslims as terrorists and even Reese begins to turn on Sam. Sam and Reese were at soccer training one night and a fight started out towards Sam after a racially motivated fight he is bashed and beaten. Sam is rushed to hospital but dies of severe internal bleeding and broken ribs. Mandira is devastated and blames Khan and his last name for the reason Sam was killed and demands him to go away and only come back after all of America and the President knows that his name is Khan and he is not a terrorist.

As Khan suffers from Asperger's Syndrome he takes Mandira literally and heads off to meet the President of the United States. On his way he went to a Mosque in Los Angeles and over hears violent rhetoric from Faisal Rahmen. Using teaching of his mother about good and bad people, he calls this man a liar and notifies the FBI. He is later arrested in a crowd where the president was when police hear him yell ‘…terrorist.’ He is tortured in jail for days before his innocence and he is released. Khan hears of a hurricane that had hit the town of Georgia so he went to help them out. There he meet Mama Jenny and her song Joel. From his help it had attracted the media so others also came to help. Also at this time Sam owns up to Mandira about the murdering of Sam and makes her way to find Rizwan. As he sees Mandira he is stabbed by a follower of Faisal Rahman and taken to hospital. He survives finally meets the President where he tells him that, ‘My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist.’


Characterisation

Mandira:

Mandira is a Hindu lady who has a son, Sam from her previous marriage and marries Rizwan Khan, a Muslim man. She takes his Muslim surname and becomes Mandira Khan. She is a very accepting woman and listens to what people have got to say. She works at a hairdresser and with the help of Khan she opens up her own salon business. She is a very honest person and even after the 9/11 attacks she still kept her last name as Khan and said that her husband is Muslim. She accepts people for who they are or what religion they believe in. After her son passed away she was just like the rest of Americans towards Muslims and blames Khan for the loss of her son she even started to believe that he was a terrorist just like Americans did. During the film she shows redemption towards Khan.



Rizwan Khan:

Rizwan Khan suffers from Asperger's Syndrome that makes it difficult for him to socially interact. But in many other fields he is extra gifted and very high functioning. During the movie he is very repetitive especially when he says “Will you marry me” to Mandira. Khan has an incredible memory and since a child he plays with rocks in his hands and has a fear of new places and new people. He is a very honest person and takes things very literal. Khan struggles to tell people his emotions and pick up others so instead he writes his emotions down in his journal. During the movie Khan fulfils his promise to Mandira and meets the President.



Sameer Khan:

Sam is Mandira son from a previous marriage. Sam and him mum are very close and love each other dearly. At first when Sam meet Rizwan he was very embarrassed to be with him but together they grow fonder together. Sam’s best friend is Reese and they go to school and play soccer together. After the 9/11 attacks Reese had been ignoring Sam but Sam didn’t understand why. After days of Sam asked Reese why he was ignoring him at soccer training Reese yelled at Sam and a fight started



Reese:

Reese and Sam are best friends. After the 9/11 and he finally told Sam why he was yelling at him. At soccer training a fight started between him and Sam. Older boys also got involved and started to beat him up involving bashing and punching. Reese cared for Sam and felt really bad so Reese was Sam. The racial attack got out of hand and at 8.05pm he was rushed to hospital. During the movie redemption is showed by Reese.





Razia Khan:

Razia had two sons the eldest named Rizwan and the younger one named Zakir Khan. She was very helpful especially towards Rizwan and was very accepting and very proud of her sons. She seemed to care more about Rizwan then other son. When she passed away and made sure Rizwan promised himself to make a happy life for himself.



The theme of good and evil in the film




During the theme it explore a mixture of good and evil.



Good in the film:

- Rizwan helped Mama Jenny's son as he had a sore knee. Mama Jenny offered him a place to stay and got him some clothes and food to eat.


-After the 9/11 Rizwan donated3,002 and 5 cents.


- Sam never complained about Rizwan even know Rizwan didn’t know what Sam wanted because he couldn’t examine unexpressed feelings.


- In Church they were singing “we should overcome one day”.


- After Khan was on TV, he had given Muslims courage to not be afraid or hide what religion you believe in and practice. Not long after others had copied Khan and were saying that they were not a terrorist!


- Even know the hurricane in Wilheminea Georgia delayed Khans trip to meet the president he still went to help Mama Jenny. The church was falling and the people in the church were going to die if they did not get help. Rizwan selfishly tried to save their lives. While Khan is there helping the media found out and he was such an inspiration to people that they came to help and they brought lots of essential things.


-Mandira and Khan both show good as they are very accepting of each other and still married even know they believe in different religions and those religions have conflicts between each other but they made the risk anyway.


Evil in the film:

- The 9/11 attacks.

- After the 9/11 attacks Muslims were targeted and attacked, some of them even started to change their names to try to prevent racism.

-Rizwans brother as he is jealous and he said he wouldn't let him in the house if he marries her.

- People who wore head scarfs got told to leave the country.

- When Khan got stabbed for no reason but revenge.

Individuals resonding to evil?

In the film Mandira and Khan both have different ways to which they responded to evil.
After Mandiras son passed away Mandira is so upset and struggles to deal with it that she blames it on Khan. She told Khan to leave as she said it was his fault and that she should have never of married a Muslim man. Another resonse to evil in My Name is Khan is also when sam dies but how Khan responded to it. Khan just listened to Mandira and didn't argue with her. He sent off on a journey by himself to meet the president but didn't want to see Mandira until he had fulfilled his promise.

How individuals resond to evil in the movie Khan has set a good example to this because since he loved Mandira so much he set off to met the president. Khan did this out of love and after he had meet the president Mandira had learnt to deal with the loss and redemtion was shown and it is possible. In this film Mandira shows us after something terrible has happened and that she gets so angry at Khan and blames the killing of her son on him that she can be redeemed. At the end of the film she goes back to loving and caring for Khan. It also shows that Khan forgave Mandira and he let her back into his life aswell.



Does the film say anything about where God and religion fit in the struggle between good and evil?

God and religion can fit in the struggle between good and evil. Through the good and evil in the film Khan and Mandira always held onto their faith. After the 9/11 attacks Khan still remained a good faithful person and countinued to pray 5 times a day. Expically at the time of the 9/11 people did not accept Muslims for who they were and what they wore for the their faith. During this time they removed theire hijabs and shaved their beards as they knew God (Allah) would understand them as they were protecting themselves from harm. During the movie we see lots of evil aspects and actions but with the Christian faith we can be forgiven. We can say sorry for the things we did wrong and God will redeem us from our sins.