The film “My Name is Khan,” a 2010 Bollywood production that has garnered the most international box office revenue for a film made in India, will be presented on Thursday, March 3, at Rogers State University.
The film, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7 p.m. in the Will Rogers Auditorium on the RSU campus in Claremore.
The screening is part of the RSU Fine Arts Film Series, sponsored by the RSU School of Liberal Arts. Dr. Hugh Foley, RSU professor, will introduce the film.
The film features Rizwan Khan, a Muslim Indian who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism that complicates socialization. Relocating in the U.S., Rizwan marries a Hindu single mother in San Francisco. After 9/11, Rizwan is detained by authorities at the Los Angeles airport who mistake his autism for suspicious behavior. Other post-9/11 events lead to the separation from his wife, spurring Rizwan to begin a journey to clear his name by meeting the President of the United States, a trip in which Khan encounters a variety of American characters, all of whom have mixed reactions to the autistic Muslim man.
“While elements of the story include themes of life as Muslim in the U.S. before and after 9/11, the film is also a love story full of dramatic, if not skewed, observations about American society from the Hindu and Muslim point of view,” Foley said. “Featuring India’s biggest film star, Shah Rukh Khan, the story is also a bit of a fairy tale, a Bollywood tradition where believability is not as important as the points the film is trying to make. The film is not a traditional Bollywood spectacle with multiple dance numbers, but stays within the framework of a multi-genre film by including humor, drama, action, pathos and individual redemption. Additionally, the film’s cinematography and soundtrack are captivating.”
For more information about the film series, call (918) 343-7594 or visit www.rsu.edu.