Color Correction: My Name is Khan

/*** I felt while watching the teaser of this film, that KJo just missed a unique opportunity to make India's first commercial black-n-white film post the eastman color era. This film deals with not just one, but two aspects of binary nature: terrorism and autism. The following is just my attempt to see if the color correction to black-and-white would add more meaning to the theme. ***/

Original Teaser

Like watching an old spoilt color TV, we see jaded disturbing frames (with weird colors) of Rizvan Khan's childhood trauma. Rizvan is autistic and he doesn't know what it is about. As much as he is confused about his mental disorder, he is even more confused at the treatment he gets from others around him. He cannot understand 'normal' social behavior. His mother consoles him with an easy-to-understand explanation: people are either good or bad. And as he begins to believe that he is good and how important it is to be so, the frames turn into black-and-white.

Thus begins a black-and-white film about the story of Khan, who lives in San Francisco with his brother and sister-in-law. Khan, as a grown-up, still believes in the binary (good and bad) shades about life. The black hues dominate the frame when he is facing some daily hardship and the whites dominate when he is feeling happy. And one day...... the sun shines brighter and the screen becomes pleasantly bright and sensitively white.......

Mandira walks into his life. A single mother, Mandira, strikes good rapport with Khan. As their relationship builds gradually, we see the white hues dominate all the while in Khan's life. Slowly and subtly, colors (all the seven shades in white light) begin to flood across the screen. And Khan begins to enjoy the beauty of each color. He likes being with Mandira as much as he likes the beautiful colors flashing around him. And the most colorful day of his life is the day he marries Mandira.

As if fate couldn't choose a better time, the twin towers are attacked on 9/11 and the film gets back to black and white mode. Mandira and Khan's relationship breaks and Khan takes on a journey across the country to talk to The President, and get his beloved Mandira and the color back into his life.

/*** Does the color change work? ***/