'‘My Name Is Khan’' releases on DVD in U.S. on August 10

On February 12, 2010, fans of the Shahrukh Khan-Kajol onscreen pair got to see together again in the worldwide release of My Name Is Khan. The movie detailed the story of Rizwan Khan (Shahrukh Khan) and his quest to meet the president of the United States with a simple message: “My name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist.” Khan’s intense love for his wife (Kajol) provided the main motivation behind his cross-country journey to meet the president.


While the film released on DVD in India in April, My Name Is Khan will release on DVD and Blu-Ray worldwide on August 10. Fans who loved the film and can’t wait to own it finally get that opportunity, although those who anticipate extra features with DVD releases may be disappointed. The special features on this single-disc release are almost a perfunctory addition to the movie.


Aside from the inclusion of two film promos (with the songs “Tere Naina” and “Sajda” playing in the background), the extras menu features four short documentary-like episodes that each focus on a different topic. Each episode features bits of interviews with director Karan Johar, Shahrukh Khan and Kajol, Niranjan Iyenger (the film’s dialogue writer), and a handful of other members of the film’s crew.


The first episode, called “Changing the Face of Bollywood,” touches on My Name Is Khan as a part of the gradual transformation the Hindi film industry has undergone in the last eight years. The second, entitled “Working Together,” gives Shahrukh and Kajol a platform to discuss what it meant to work together again after nine years. “The Music of My Name Is Khan” features the film’s music directors, Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, and Loy Mendonsa, collectively known as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, and their thoughts on working with Karan Johar and composing for this movie. The final episode is “The Story of My Name Is Khan” and reveals the thought process behind the main story of the movie.


Unfortunately, each episode only runs an average of about five minutes, just long enough for viewers to get into them before they come to an end. The episodes aren’t long enough to give fans that in-depth behind-the-scenes look DVD extras typically provide. This approach to packaging the DVD is a little mystifying considering the positive response My Name Is Khan received worldwide; fans and critics eagerly anticipated the film for several reasons, but none of these reasons are addressed in a medium typically reserved for this exact purpose. There is no blooper reel, no discussion of why Karan Johar and Shahrukh Khan decided to co-produce the film (a first for them), and no revealing interview of Johar and his decision to make a film that is such a drastic departure from his previous ventures.


Of course, movie lovers get their own copy of My Name Is Khan with a crystal clear picture and waiting for the official DVD release helps fight piracy. But those fans waiting for all the extra information that a special features section on a DVD provides won’t be getting those features this time around. Fans will have to settle (mostly) for the film itself and Shahrukh’s repeated assertion: “My name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist.”