Acclaimed Bollywood choreographer Farah Khan (Dilwale Dulhania le Jayenge, Monsoon Wedding) makes her directorial debut with Main Hoon Na, a mix of action, comedy, and romance. Shah Rukh Khan (Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham...) stars as Ram, a straight-laced action hero and major in the Indian army. When General Bakshi (Kabir Bedi) proposes a plan to release 50 harmless Pakistani POWs as a gesture of goodwill, he draws the ire of terrorist Raghavan (Sunil Shetty), a former army officer with a deep-seated hatred of the Pakistanis. Raghavan and his well-trained crew invade a television studio where the general is being interviewed, despite the efforts of Ram's father, Shekhar (Naseeruddin Shah of Monsoon Wedding), who is Bakshi's head of security. Ram intercedes and nearly captures the masked terrorist, but Shekhar is killed trying to protect Bakshi. With his dying words, he tells Ram his shameful secret. Shekhar was never married to Ram's late mother. Shekhar's wife and son left him when Ram, his illegitimate son, came to live in their home. Shekhar's dying wish is to have their forgiveness. Ram gets an opportunity to look for his long-lost stepbrother when General Bakshi assigns him to guard his estranged daughter, Sanjana (Amrita Rao), who goes to the same college as Ram's stepbrother. In order to stay close to Sanjana, Ram has to pose as a student. Being much older and far more conservative than most of the students, Ram immediately stands out, and is mercilessly mocked by the coolest guy on campus, Lucky (Zayed Khan). Sanjana wants nothing to do with him, making his job difficult. Things become more complicated when Ram learns the identity of his stepbrother, and finds himself falling for his sexy chemistry teacher, Chandni (Sushmita Sen). ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
Review
Writer/director Farah Khan has described her ambitions with Main Hoon Na as "a full-on commercial masala formula Hindi picture." To her credit, she's achieved that in high style. For all the film's appropriations (everything from a John Woo-style shoot-out, complete with slow-motion airborne gunplay amid doves, to the opening number from Grease), it's uniquely Bollywood in asking the audience to focus on efforts to teach the main character some steps in time for the big dance while he's simultaneously trying to thwart an assassination/kidnapping plot with geopolitical implications. The simplistically black-and-white politics of the film might be a problem in a Hollywood thriller. Here, it just makes it easier to forget about the serious stuff occasionally and enjoy the broad comedy, the touching family drama, and of course, the romance. Shah Rukh Khan's detractors will be happy to see that, despite not one, but two of the most bombastically aggrandizing entrances in cinema history, Khan is playing the straight man in this one, and Farah Khan gets an appropriately subdued performance from him. One would expect this director/choreographer to deliver top-notch musical numbers, and she does, with lyrics by Javed Akhtar and music by Anu Malik. And despite some amusingly unconvincing wirework, she also directs action sequences with surprising flair. The movie's ecstatic sense of fun is exemplified by its treatment of the hero's romantic interest, played by Sushmita Sen, who is always shot with a fan blowing on her hair from offscreen, in supermodel fashion. The jubilant closing-credit sequence, in which the entire crew takes a musical curtain call, ends the film on just the right note. Main Hoon Na exudes an infectious joy and a far-reaching love of cinema that puts the typical Hollywood summer blockbuster to shame. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
Main Hoon Na tells the story of Ram Prasad Sharma (Shahrukh Khan) and his efforts to foil the terrorist Raghavan Datta (Sunil Shetty). Ram is simultaneously attempting to mend relations with his father's estranged first wife and his half-brother Lakshman.
Raghavan is a former army officer court-martialed for executing eleven illiterate Pakistani civilians who accidentally crossed the border in search of water. He wants to sabotage Project Milaap (Unity), a first step towards friendship between India and Pakistan.
First he tries to kill General Amar Singh Bakshi (Kabir Bedi), the commander of the Indian Army, during a television interview. This fails due to Major Ram's intervention, although Raghavan does succeed in killing Brigadier Shekhar Sharma (Naseeruddin Shah), Major Sharma's father, who had ordered his decommission. He also threatens Bakshi's daughter Sanjana (Amrita Rao). As the elder Sharma dies, he tells Ram about his step mother Madhu (Kirron Kher) and half-brother Lakshman (Zayed Khan) and begs Ram to re-establish relations with them; Madhu had left Brigadier Sharma after discovering that he had a mistress who bore Major Ram.
The general later asks Major Sharma, who is clearly older than most students, to go undercover as a student at the college to protect Sanjana. He can also look for Lakshman at the same time, since he lives in the same town. Ram goes undercover as an older returning student. He finds Sanjana, nicknamed Sanju, and her friend Lucky, who is somewhat of a legend and idol at the school, because of his brash, wild and disrespectful manner, and his failure of the final year exams three times in a row. At first they do not like him and harass him regularly. One day when Lucky’s life is in danger, Ram comes to the rescue. He finds out that Lucky is Lakshman, and befriend them both. Ram quickly becomes a sensation among the whole school community, and falls in love with the chemistry teacher Chandni (Sushmita Sen).
Meanwhile Raghvan gives an order to shoot a friend of Sanjana named Percy in order to show the general that if he can kill one of her friends, he can definitely kill her as well. Ram is able to break this up and capture Raghvan's right-hand man and former army colleague Khan.
Raghvan is frustrated with Major Ram's actions and decides to go undercover as a teacher at the college. He later takes the entire school hostage and asks for Khan to be released, for Major Ram brought to him by a helicopter, and for Project Milaap to be stopped, or everyone will be executed. Ram and Khan arrive in a hall where all the frightened and worried students and teachers are being held. Khan has been convinced by Ram that Raghvan is wrong and helps him to free the students. Khan pretends to have ultra-hawkish opinions and shoots Ram dead in front of the school community, ostensibly against Raghvan's orders. However, Ram is wearing a bullet-proof vest and Khan takes his "body" away and releases him to start the fight against Raghvan. Khan is found out to be helping Ram, and murdered by Raghvan.
Meanwhile Pakistan has decided to release prisoners as well. In the climax, Raghvan battles Ram in a deserted part of the school, while Lucky gets onto an army helicopter to help rescue Ram. After the fight, Ram blows up Raghvan and jumps onto the helicopter just as the entire building goes up in flames.
On the border, the Pakistani and Indian prisoners are released and returned to their families. Ram and Lucky later empty their father's ashes into the Ganges River with their mother watching sadly. The movie ends with Lucky finally graduating from college (along with Ram), and then the credits appear as a music video.
Main Hoon Na was the second highest grossing Indian movie of 2004.[3] It made Rs.48,00,00,000 in India and an additional Rs.19,82,00,000 in the overseas market. Box Office India declared it a hit.[2]
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