Main hoon na (2004)

मैं हूँ ना

I have to admit that when I first began watching this Shah Rukh Khan superstar vehicle, I didn't know anything about it, and for the first 45 minutes or so I thought it was intolerably stupid.  At some point, though, I realized that the whole thing was a spoof - it wasn't meant to be taken seriously at all - and after that epiphany I was able to sit back and quite enjoy this silly entertainer. 

Shah Rukh plays Ram, a 35-or-so-year-old military commando sent back to college with a dual undercover mission: protect a general's daughter (Amrita Rao) from terrorists, and find his own long-lost half-brother (Zayed Khan) to carry out his father's dying wish to reunite them.  In the process he falls in love with the school's chemistry teacher Chandni (Sushmita Sen), offs a bunch of bad guys, and saves the world to boot. 

Main hoon na ("I'm here, aren't I?") is rich with spoofing references to both classic Bollywood tropes and Hollywood films.  One memorable bit is a Matrix-style slow-mo sequence in which Shah Rukh dodges spittle instead of bullets.  Other recurring gags poke fun at the Bollywood musical romance tradition; each time Ram sees Chandni, a troupe of violin players suddenly surrounds him and he finds himself unable to resist bursting into song.

The fight scenes are tedious, and the portrayal of college life is inane, but Main hoon na makes up for these weaknesses with the sweet earnestness of the characters and a couple of very creative and fantastic song picturizations, like "Tumhe jo maine dekha", Ram's fantasy about romancing Chandni, and "Tumse milka dil ka hai," an exuberant ode to love in which all the main cast members participate. 

I am not really a fan of Shah Rukh Khan.  But Main hoon na is one of the few films I have seen in which Shah Rukh's studied, blow-dried performance style really worked for me.  His typically forced delivery suited Ram's awkwardness as a soldier undercover among students half his age.  And in his songs, since he was fancying himself a romantic hero, the over-the-top affect with which he usually plays came across, for once, as self-effacing and charming. 

I used to think this film would not be a great introduction to Hindi films because of its parody nature.  Also, the opening song ("Chale jaise hawaien") was, to my eye, a fairly nondescript college number that I thought (despite some impressive technical work - nearly all of it was shot in two very long takes) would leave Bollywood neophytes at best nonplussed.  But my friends at the BollyWHAT? discussion forums report wonderful reactions to this film even among the uninitiated, and so I include it in Filmi Geek's "good introductions" category. 

Comments

[Bollywood Blogs]

In fact this is the Shahrukh Khan movie that I like most. I enjoyed the drama and humour.

[Tine]

I have never seen a better film. Absolutly fantastic and since that day my favourite.

[--------]

its a great movie
in fact its the best movie of sharukh

[joss]

This is one of my two favourite Hindi films so far. I absolutely love it. It was the film that really turned me on to Bollywood (only last year) but now I have seen nearly 60 movies. I love the humour and the way SRK pokes fun at the romantic hero role he normally plays. I have to say that I was a disappointed when I actually saw him playing a romantic hero in one of his older films. It seemed clunky, embarrassing and did not set my heart alight nearly as much as a MHN, which was almost a self parody. I am going to watch MHN for the tenth time soon, with a load of British friends who are yet to be converted to Bollywood. They soon will be, I'm sure.

[maxqnz]

This is a fun movie. Like you, carla, I'm not the world's biggest SRK fan, but this was enjoyable and undemanding. I guess one sign of its success with me is that I think of this film every time I'm listening to "chand mera dil", and flash back to that delightful scene where the badshaah of Bollywood actually sings for real, and we discover why he's an actor and not a playback star.

[carla]

I agree completely with both of you, joss and max - I find when SRK romances in earnest he utterly fails. It only works when it's intentional parody. I love that Farah Khan, supposedly his best friend, apparently agrees with us. :D