Film My Name - Is Khan

The film follows Rizwan Khan (Shah Rukh Khan), a Muslim man with Asperger’s syndrome, who moves to San Francisco to live with his brother after his mother’s death. He falls in love with a Hindu single mother, Mandira (Kajol), and they build a happy life together. Their world is shattered by the 9/11 attacks, which trigger widespread Islamophobia. After a tragic misunderstanding leads to the death of Mandira’s son, she blames Rizwan and tells him to leave. Rizwan embarks on a cross-country journey to meet the President of the United States to declare, “My name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist,” seeking to clear his name and win back Mandira’s love.

A Critical Analysis of My Name Is Khan (2010): Disability, Islamophobia, and the Pursuit of Justice film my name is khan

My Name Is Khan is a flawed but courageous film. It uses the framework of a Bollywood melodrama to pose a deeply human question: What does it mean to be a Muslim in post-9/11 America? While its solutions are idealistic, its diagnosis of fear, grief, and scapegoating remains sharp. The film endures not as a political treatise but as a character study of a man who, despite his disability, sees the world more clearly than those around him. Its central declaration—“My name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist”—is a simple, powerful plea for the separation of an individual from a stereotype. For that alone, the film remains relevant. The film follows Rizwan Khan (Shah Rukh Khan),