Genre: Action/ Thriller/ Violence/ Romance
Most of those who watched the movie either compared it with the Hollywood original Memento or its Tamil predecessor with the same name. While I had not seen either of these earlier, I tried my best to stay neutral and keep expectations low. Yet, this offering of stylized violence didn’t impress much. Probably, the movie’s nemesis was its Director Murugadoss bringing in Southern nativity and thus shaking up audience expectations.
Sanjay (Aamir), the owner of a cellular network provider Air-Voice falls in love with a talkative but sweet upcoming model Kalpana (Asin) under the pretence of being a commoner Sachin. Destiny turns against them when Kalpana accidentally exposes an organ racket inviting her own death and injury to Sanjay. Though not dead, our Hero suffers from Anterograte Amnesia and seeks to avenge her death by killing Ghajini.
First things first! Aamir sports an unheard of 8-pack probably bucking to peer pressure especially after King Khan achieved it a year ago. On a serious note, one must appreciate these not too tall forty year olds for this amazing effort. Not just the body, he shines in the romance department, just as he did in his older days! The good things in the movie however end here as Ghajini hits a downward spiral with all weirdness.
Poor screenplay shows itself repeatedly. Among the worst is Asin’s disconnected entry vis-à-vis the previous scene. Making it even worse are her weird clothes that don’t seem to go with her steps. It was just meant to be a civilized item number anyway. But, if only the perfectionist motivated Aasin towards looking slimmer, it could have really helped! Jiah Khan’s act was neat and so was her look, but her item do was quite out of place.
Among its pitfalls are goons that don’t look anywhere from Mumbai, a villain who looks more like a local politico than a pharma company owner, the hero with a motorcade that could rival heads of state, dialog with street play overtones, ridiculous stunts, brutality to the extreme, all stretched for more than two hours for nothing. Songs like Guzarish and Behka would impress you but not enough to cover the damage that these goofs do.
This weekend, a TV channel aired the Telugu-dubbed version of the original Tamil hit; of which I only managed to catch the last half. Barring the end half our, its sad that the Director chooses to repeat most camera angles and even rehash most goons! If at all they had spent a little more time on making the script more Bollywood-ish, Ghajini could have been far more appealing. Mr. Perfectionist, we expect more from you!
A movie having a seemingly invulnerable hero, many goons falling for just one stroke of the arm or people rolling over at the stamp, etc, for me, are simply out of place if it is not a comedy. But if this genre suits you, maybe you might as well enjoy Ghajini. Despite all its intentions to be a thriller, it ends up being nothing more than your average but high budget Masala thriller as was ‘Race’ earlier this year. Still, Aamir fans would root for it!
Rating: 4/10 – Southern Masala overdose with Bollywood Tadka!
Most of those who watched the movie either compared it with the Hollywood original Memento or its Tamil predecessor with the same name. While I had not seen either of these earlier, I tried my best to stay neutral and keep expectations low. Yet, this offering of stylized violence didn’t impress much. Probably, the movie’s nemesis was its Director Murugadoss bringing in Southern nativity and thus shaking up audience expectations.
Sanjay (Aamir), the owner of a cellular network provider Air-Voice falls in love with a talkative but sweet upcoming model Kalpana (Asin) under the pretence of being a commoner Sachin. Destiny turns against them when Kalpana accidentally exposes an organ racket inviting her own death and injury to Sanjay. Though not dead, our Hero suffers from Anterograte Amnesia and seeks to avenge her death by killing Ghajini.
First things first! Aamir sports an unheard of 8-pack probably bucking to peer pressure especially after King Khan achieved it a year ago. On a serious note, one must appreciate these not too tall forty year olds for this amazing effort. Not just the body, he shines in the romance department, just as he did in his older days! The good things in the movie however end here as Ghajini hits a downward spiral with all weirdness.
Poor screenplay shows itself repeatedly. Among the worst is Asin’s disconnected entry vis-à-vis the previous scene. Making it even worse are her weird clothes that don’t seem to go with her steps. It was just meant to be a civilized item number anyway. But, if only the perfectionist motivated Aasin towards looking slimmer, it could have really helped! Jiah Khan’s act was neat and so was her look, but her item do was quite out of place.
Among its pitfalls are goons that don’t look anywhere from Mumbai, a villain who looks more like a local politico than a pharma company owner, the hero with a motorcade that could rival heads of state, dialog with street play overtones, ridiculous stunts, brutality to the extreme, all stretched for more than two hours for nothing. Songs like Guzarish and Behka would impress you but not enough to cover the damage that these goofs do.
This weekend, a TV channel aired the Telugu-dubbed version of the original Tamil hit; of which I only managed to catch the last half. Barring the end half our, its sad that the Director chooses to repeat most camera angles and even rehash most goons! If at all they had spent a little more time on making the script more Bollywood-ish, Ghajini could have been far more appealing. Mr. Perfectionist, we expect more from you!
A movie having a seemingly invulnerable hero, many goons falling for just one stroke of the arm or people rolling over at the stamp, etc, for me, are simply out of place if it is not a comedy. But if this genre suits you, maybe you might as well enjoy Ghajini. Despite all its intentions to be a thriller, it ends up being nothing more than your average but high budget Masala thriller as was ‘Race’ earlier this year. Still, Aamir fans would root for it!
Rating: 4/10 – Southern Masala overdose with Bollywood Tadka!
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