Day 2 - Khan

 

Whatever you do, don't look!

Just saw another competition stinker - that's two onions from two. Although this one was one of those "out of competition" competition films, which I think means that they have a famous person in them, but are rubbish.

It was called My Name Is Khan, featuring Indian superstar Shahrukh Khan, whose star power was enough to bring squealing crowds as far as the Berlinale two years ago. In fact, in 2008, Newsweek magazine named Khan the 41st most powerful person in the world.

But this movie, sadly, is not an autobiography, which would, I suppose, have been interesting. It is a soft-centred 9/11 melodrama set in San Francisco. It turns out that Khan is also the 1st most unconvincing portrayer of mental illness in the world. His character has Asperger's Syndrome, the main symptoms of which are apparently a concentrated pout, looking in the opposite direction when anyone talks to you, and stumbling instead of walking. For the first hour I thought he was pretending to be blind.

A steady stream of people left the press screening, from around the 4th minute. My moment came when the movie decided to bring African American culture into its sentimental mix, leapt back 150 years, to around the era of Gone With The Wind. It was all barefooted children running around and hearty, big-busted women eating chicken and going to gospel churches. I suppose this is the Indian film industry getting its own back for Slumdog Millionaire.