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Mumbai-He repairs almost anything, including irreparably damaged relationships. But this film about damaged lives needs no repairing. My Name Is Khan is a flawless work, as perfect in content, tone and treatment as any film can get. The ‘message’ of humanism doesn’t comes across in long pedantic speeches.

The film’s longest monologue has our damaged but exceptionally coherent hero Rizwan telling a congregation of Black American church-goers about his dead son.

And if that moment moves us to tears it’s because the emotions are neither manipulative nor flamboyant. It isn’t because Rizwan’s son Sameer perished in a racial attack. It isn’t even because Shah Rukh Khan delivers his life’s best performance in that moment of reckoning. Rizwan’s heartfelt rhetorics are not about changing the world with words. Born with a physical disability this is a man on the move. And boy, does he move!

In what is possibly the most touching testament on film to the spirit of world peace and humanism (lofty ideals to achieve in the massy-masala format but see how pitch-perfect Johar gets it), Rizwan takes off on a picaresque journey to meet the US President with a message that initially strikes us as being too naïve for reiteration.

But look closer. Some of life’s basic values have been lost in recent times. Writer Shibani Bathija’s seamless screenplay, arguably the best piece of writing since Rakeysh Mehra’s Rang De Basanti, recovers that long-lost message of loving your fellow human being unconditionally without getting trite around the edges.

Sex and politics have nothing to do with it. It’s okay to hug your neighbour.

First and foremost, My Name Is Khan is a wonderful story told with a flair and flourish that leave a lingering impact on the viewer. Almost every frame is composed with a mix of mind and heart creating an irresistible progression of moments so tender and forcible we’re simply swept away in the tides of the tale about a very special man who undertakes a very special journey.

My Name Is Khan opens with Rizwan boarding an American flight being frisked after a suspicious co-passenger hears him chanting religious passages. Before we begin to suspect this to be one more film on the persecution of the innocent Muslim, Karan Johar, doing a smart and slick spin away from his trademark content and style, takes his hero on a journey that crosses several emotional, political and geographical borders before stopping with breathless integrity to say, life doesn’t go on…it changes colours and textures with the moral values that the individual chooses to confer on the life given to him.

Superbly scripted by Bathija with pithy outstanding dialogues by Niranjan Iyenger, the film is edited by Deepa Bhatia with just that much amount of time allotted to the character’s and their thought processes to make them appear warm humane and tangible without over-punctuating their presence.

To take one example, when Rizwan's brother (Jimmy Shergil, making the best of his brief but comprehensive role) quietly tells his lovely wife (Sonia Jehan) to not wear her veil to work in the US because God would understand, the scene with beautiful economy conveys the couple’s mutual empathy and determination to override the hatred outside their home.

Karan Johar, always a master of overstatement, for once holds back. The silences in My Name Is Khan often speak far more eloquently than the spoken words. The relationships that the inarticulate Rizwan forms during the course of his life from child to husband to father to a political individual are contoured with a luminous lack of laboriousness. Whether it’s young Rizwan (played sensitively by Tanay Cheda) and his mother (Zarina Wahab, memorable in her brief appearance) or much later, Rizwan and his step-son (brilliant young discovery Yuvaan Makar), the traditional relationships are done-up in striking but subtle shades. We look at every moment in the film (even the clumsily-done flood sequences) as special because they are part of vision that goes far beyond the real of hop-in-hop-out entertainment.

The director swerves out of his comfort zone without the sound of screechy wheels. Karan Johar’s unconventional take on modern marital mores in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna faltered due to over-statement. In Khan, he doesn’t try hard. The characters and their predicament, as America gets increasingly suspicious and hostile about the Muslim presence, are portrayed with a lightness of touch that lights up almost every sequence.

Then there is Kajol to provide the kind of natural light to every frame that no amount of artificial light can supplement. As Rizwan’s Hindu wife Mandira, with a smart intelligent son, she has a distinctly secondary role to Shah Rukh Khan. She leaves a lasting impact as a divorcee and later an angry wife and grieving mother, as only Kajol can.

The scenes of courtship between Mandira and Rizwan work so beautifully because of the exceptional chemistry between the two actors. More than a strong political statement and moving message of peace My Name Is A Khan is a love story of a man who can’t express his love through words, only deeds. This is a film that Frank Capra would’ve made if he had lived long enough to see 9/11 happen.

The narration is carpeted with virtues, both invisible and visible. Ravi K Chandran’s cinematography captures the incandescent soul of the pure-hearted protagonist as effectively as the stubbornly unbroken spirit of unknown passersby on the streets of America.

Rizwan, we are told, is petrified of the yellow colour. The offending colour recurs with just a hint of insistence. Rizwan wears shocking pink because he hears Mandira’s buddy (Navneet Nishan) say it suits her. He proposes marriage and sex (in that order) at the most inopportune moments. He suggests Mandira have her dinner when she’s traumatized by grief. He wears his dead son’s shoes as he takes off to meet the President. Rizwan moves by his clock. But his tale is timeless.

Shah Rukh Khan doesn’t PLAY Rizwan. He becomes one with the character’s subconscious, portraying the man and his spirit with strokes of an invisible paintbrush until what we see is what we cannot forget. Undoubtedly this is Shah Rukh’s best performance ever.

This is no ordinary hero. And My Name Is Khan is no ordinary film. Long after the wary-of-physical-touch, Rizwan has finally shaken hands with President Obama, long after the heat and dust of racial and communal hatred has settled down the core of humanism that the film secretes stays with you.

Yes, we finally know what they mean by a feelgood film.

Mumbai-The 1,000-odd people crammed into the foyer of the Emirates Palace auditorium greeted the star cast of “My Name Is Khan” with screams and claps, as the movie had its world premiere in Abu Dhabi last night (Feb 10).

Walking the narrow strip of the red carpet first were sponsors, studio bosses and the crew. The crowd grew restless, chanting ‘Shah Rukh, Shah Rukh’, as the wait lengthened. The chants subsided only when Karan Johar and Kajol walked in.

“We’re thrilled to be here, to be showing our movie in Abu Dhabi for the first time. Hope you like it as much as we enjoyed making it,” Karan Johar told the media lining the rope.

K-Jo was wearing his own collection, while Kajol glowed in a red and black Manish Malhotra sari. “Thank you so much for having us here,” she said, again and again.

The director and the heroine of “My Name Is Khan” shook hands and signed autographs with their fans, before moving into the auditorium.

A few minutes of silence and then a roar from the crowd. We knew Shah Rukh was on the red carpet. Very smart in a Karan Johar creation, he stopped at every media cluster to talk and shake hands. “I feel sorry that my movie may not get the opening it deserves in my own city. But I hope and pray it all works out,” he said.

Shah Rukh bent down to hug a little girl right in front of me and then the frenzy began. The fans flooded into the area reserved for the media and begged him for autographs and pictures. He obliged, for as long as he could, before he was ushered into the imposing auditorium.

Inside the theatre

Once inside, the same fans greeted K-Jo, SRK and Kajol with roars of approval as they went up on stage to say a few words ahead of the screening of “My Name Is Khan”.

“I may sound shaky and scattered because I am really nervous. This is the first official screening of my film,” Karan Johar said. “It is a part of my heart. A part of the heart of every team member… I’m proud to have the film flagged off in Abu Dhabi.”

“This is the finest piece of role, character, that anyone has written for us,” said Shah Rukh Khan, thanking K-Jo for letting him and Kajol be a part of “My Name Is Khan”.

“I hope you like the film. And even if you don’t we’re not returning the money,” he said, triggering laughter and claps among his fans.

The movie

As the reviews have said repeatedly, “My Name Is Khan” is a deeply moving and powerful film. Director Karan Johar has gone on record to say he has stepped out of his comfort zone in this movie. And that is evident.

There are no songs and dances; there is no colour-co-ordinated world and there are no overly-emotive scenes. A taut story of alienation, isolation, deep grief and ultimate triumph, “My Name Is Khan” uses the background of 9/11 brilliantly to tell the very personal story of Rizwan Khan, a Muslim man with autism in America.

SRK, as expected, is brilliant, under emoting instead of over emoting, as he usually does. Kajol actually outshines him in certain scenes. The support cast, particularly Zarina Wahab and Pravin Dabbas, were excellent as well. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music, subtly used, helped convey emotions the way words couldn’t have.

The movie could have been half an hour shorter though, and it is definitely not a watch for children.

The audiences were left asking for more when Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan took off his shirt a la Salman Khan while shooting for a special episode of a music reality show.

Shah Rukh, who went to the reality show with filmmaker Karan Johar to promote their forthcoming movie My Name Is Khan, surprised everyone when he climbed up on a table and danced to the tune of Deewangi deewangi from his hit movie Om Shanti Om.

He then took off his shirt and flaunted his abs, said a source from the sets.

On the show all the songs sung by the contestants were from Shah Rukh's movies and the superstar shook a leg with all of them.

Super star Priyanka Chopra, who is set to cross the 200,000 mark in Twitter followers, visited the headquarter of the micro-blogging website in San Francisco after being especially invited there.

Priyanka tweeted about her visit to the headquarter where she met Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder.

"My day was really interesting because I was invited to Twitter headquarter in San Francisco! Had a great time. Thanks Biz and team for the wonderful hospitality," she posted.

The 27-year-old, who has been shooting in US for Sajid Nadiadwala's Anjaana Anjaani, is going to cross the 200,000 mark as far as her followers on Twitter are concerned. At present, she leads the Bollywood bandwagon on the site with 196,903 followers and has left stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, Shahid Kapoor far behind.

"Priyanka was in the US for her movie shoot. She had to drop by at a studio for the NDTV Indian of the Year programme and there she met theTwitter team. She was invited to the headquarter office in San Francisco since she is so popular among the Bollywood celebs on Twitter," a source close to the actress said.

Mumbai-Salman Khan in a period film?!! I won't deny I was a bit apprehensive about how Veer would turn up to be. Yes, from the look and feel it did look like a period film, but fifteen minutes into the film, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying the plot as we saw cannons roar, swords clash and men on galloping horses slaying one another on the battlefield.

Set in the times when the British were colonising India, Veer is a tale of bravery, treachery and love rolled into one. As the British enslave India with their shrewd 'Divide and Rule' policy, kings and nawabs fall to their guile and entrust their kingdom to them, one of them being Jackie Shroff, the Raja of Madhavgarh. He cheats the Pindaris, a fighter tribe from Rajputana, to please the British and loses his right hand to Prithvi Singh (Mithun Chakraborty).

Prithvi, one of the proud heads of the Pindaris, swears to return and kill every white man and the Raja to avenge the deception that cost his tribe, their land and their reputation. The vile Raja of Madhavpur too harbours a similar intention behind his cool demeanour. But as fate would have it, little did he realise that one day his daughter Jashodhara (Zarine Khan) would fall in love with the bravest of them all, Veer.

Now Veer not only takes on the British rulers, he also has to fight the cunning Raja of Madhavgarh. But then he has fallen head-over-heels in love Jasho and has killed her brother (Puru Raj Kumar) too. Will he succeed or won't he is for you to figure out.

Salman seemed to be back in form. He has lost more weight this time and looked better than in Wanted. It felt good to see him dancing gracefully and emoting right at the same time, maybe because Salman himself has invested a lot in terms of story as well.

The film has good music with a few hummable tracks.

But the discussion would be incomplete if we don't talk about Sallu's action sequences and his dialogues. As in Wanted, here too he has a few punch lines kept aside for his fans. Sample this: Ek bar leta hoon toh paanch ser gosht le ke hi chhodta hoon. If this was not all he goes on to prove it by actually killing a rebel Pindari with his bare hands by scooping out his flesh. And guess what he comes up with? 'Tol lena, paanch ser se zyada hi hoga." Woof!!

Singer Shakira has waded into an ongoing U.K. debate over illegal downloads - insisting the controversial practise brings her "closer to her fans".

Singer and dancer Shakira has revealed how she went undercover so she could attend university without getting recognized.

The She Wolf hitmaker, 32, took a break from music in 2006, after releasing the album Oral Fixation Vol. 2, and enrolled on a history course at the University of California in Los Angeles.

And she was so desperate not to attract any attention, she dressed up as a man; changed her name; and wore a disguise so that people would not discover her true identity.

“I needed a break from me,” Shakira told UK newspaper The Guardian. “The universe is so broad, I cannot be at the center of it.

“So I decided to go to the university and study history for a summer course, just to kind of switch gears, taste the student life.

“I used to wear a cap and a big backpack, I looked like a boy. I didn’t get recognized. Some people looked at me very suspiciously, a few people asked me, but I told them my name was Isabelle. I would go to university over and over again if I could.”

“I should care less,” Shakira said of her career. “It has been 20 years, but I still care about my career. I care about the music. I’m not normal.”

Two-time Emmy winning comedienne Kathy Griffin isn't holding back as she fearlessly bashes A-listers and trash talks Hollywood types in "Balls of Steel," premiering Tuesday, November 3 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo, followed by the second season premiere of "Tabatha's Salon Takeover."

"Kathy Griffin: Balls of Steel," Griffin's seventh comedy showcase for Bravo, will bow Tuesday, Nov 3 at 9 p.m. It will be followed by the return of "Takeover."

Among the topics tackled by the acid-tongued comedienne: Jon and Kate Gosselin, Miley Cyrus, Levi Johnston, Britney Spears and Oprah Winfrey's interview with Whitney Houston.

Griffin, who also stars in Bravo's Emmy-winning "My Life on the D-List," will also explain the status of her relationship with Barbara Walters.

"Barbara Walters does not like me, but like 'Brokeback Mountain,' I cannot quit her," Griffin quipped.
"Kathy Griffin: Balls of Steel" is produced by RickMill Productions for Bravo. Kathy Griffin, Kimber Rickabaugh and Paul Miller serve as executive producers.