I will go into more detail in an upcoming review, but I am rather surprised--pleasantly so--to report that the "international director's cut" (read: Americanized re-edit) of Karan Johar's Fox-distributed Shahrukh Khan-Kajol starrer My Name Is Khan works markedly better than the original cut that was released worldwide and on the Stateside Bollywood theatrical circuit on February 12. The major alteration is the removal of virtually the entire subplot revolving around an African-American church in Georgia, a story point I admit I admired more in theory than in actual execution; after all, I saw it as Johar's confirmation (if perhaps by happy accident) of a thought I have been arguing for years: that the genre of the gospel play is the clear American analogue to Bollywood. But more than playing easier to Western audiences, it plays easier to all moviegoers, period, curbing Johar's more overblown tendencies and more firmly grounding the story and, hence, entire film in the vivid characters of and relationship between leads Shahrukh Khan and Kajol.
Read my review of the original cut of My Name Is Khan here.
Buy the My Name Is Khan soundtrack here.
