starring Shahrukh Khan & Kajol: your purchase in part benefits Levantine Cultural Center
The August 2010 brouhaha over a proposed Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero has definitively demonstrated that 9/11 is not the past, but remains a painful reminder for many Americans. One film that tries to capture 9/11's emotional fallout and its effect on Arabs and Muslims is the Bollywood drama by Karan Johar, My Name Is Khan. Released in the U.S. in February and just out on DVD, this international production has Forrest Gump ambitions it doesn't quite reach, yet nonetheless goes deep into the pain of American Muslims who continue to suffer the consequences of what happened in Manhattan on that warm September morning almost a decade ago.

Rizwan Khan (played by the exceptionally gifted Shahrukh Khan) is the elder of two Muslim brothers who grew up in Mumbai and come to America in pursuit of the American dream. While thoughtful and intelligent, Rizwan suffers from anti-social behavior that will later be diagnosed as a mild form of Asperger's syndrome. He abhors loud noises, freaks at the color yellow and avoids human touch. Emotions are difficult for him. As a child, Rizwan was a savant on whom his mother doted (his brother's jealousy is a minor subplot). Following the Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai of 1983, Rizwan overhears local merchants cursing Hindus and calling for their murder. When he repeats their chants in his peculiar way, Mama Khan teaches him that there is no difference between one people or another; there are only good people and bad people. Viewers are primed early for the many lessons in tolerance that will follow.

After his mother dies, Rizwan joins his younger brother Zakir in San Francisco, where he's built up a successful skin care products line, and despite an autistic response to most people and social situations, he manages to make some headway as a salesman. The plot thickens when Mandira, a beautiful Hindu hairdresser and single mother, appears to save him from a confusing crowd situation in front of the salon where she works. Although he doesn't yet know what he's feeling, we do, for Mandira as played by the Bollywood star Kajol is so stunningly beautiful and vivaciously intelligent, it's hard not to fall in love with her at first sight.

Asperger's syndrome includes discomfort with a kissAn amusing, and sometimes hilarious, love story follows—but not to worry, there are not many scenes that recall Rain Man or Sling Blade. Rizwan's handicap rarely gets in the way, and Shahrukh Khan's performance is always perceptive, never heavy-handed. Brother Zakir, of course, will object vehemently when he learns Rizwan intends to marry a Hindu girl; but naturally, why would someone with Asperger's syndrome listen? Loves wins the day; Mandira moves to Banville with her son Sameer, marries Khan, and opens her own hair salon.

This seems little more than a happy story—much of it in Hindi with English subtitles-until 9/11 hits, and then everyone's lives change. Zakir's wife Hasina (Sonja Jehan), a university professor, gets attacked on campus for wearing her head covering, and will have to decide whether it's worth the risk to remain a hijabi. Mandira Khan's business falters, as everyone assumes she's Muslim, and she ends up closing shop to go back to work for someone else. And then the unimaginable happens-there is a violent death in the family that is most certainly a racist attack.

At this point the relationship between Mandira and Rizwan becomes untenable for her; she blames her misfortunes on the fact that she married a Muslim and banishes Rizwan until he can meet the American president and tell him, "My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist."

Khan travels across AmericaThat short testimony becomes the film's mantra as this unusual anti-hero goes on his Forrest Gump-like quest to meet up with George W. Bush—a journey across America that has epic proportions.

While on occasion the production suffers from a sappy Bollywood soundtrack and some over-the-top direction, the intelligent script by Shibani Bathija brings us back time and again to an engaging story that has a point: Muslims cannot all be terrorists, nor should they be treated that way. When they are, as we observe here, everyone's civil rights are infringed upon.

I had no expectations when I sat down to watch this film, but found I was constantly compelled by the strong characters director Karan Johar brought to life. My Name Is Khan is the kind of story you can't stop thinking about, perhaps because you remember people you have known who have been stopped and questioned at airports, or arrested and taken downtown for interrogation; or because Muslims are always the stranger, the other, in America-and who has not felt like a stranger in his own land at one time or another?

Benjamin Kanafani is an occasional contributor to the Levantine Review.