GRUDGE NAHI,BUT MEMORABLE BHI NAHI

MOVIE: Ghajini
CAST: Aamir Khan, Asin, Jiah Khan
DIRECTOR: AR Murugadoss



Shah Rukh Khan recently told in a press conference that he felt special every time someone used him as a brand to get publicity. He also added that it was unfortunate that he could not use anyone else for this as there was no brand bigger than him. Well we all know that someone is Aamir Khan. In one of the scenes in Ghajini he makes fun of Shah Rukh by making fun of the Ruk Ruk Khan of Kya Aap Panchvi Fail Champu Hain fame. Truly, Aamir knows to use the biggest brand in India greatly to his favour. The business his adaptation of Memento has made in few days is much more overwhelming than what Aditya Chopra's return has!

After the Oscar nomination of Lagaan. Aamir Khan has neglected mainstream Bollywood cinema. He has rather brought good, art film type scripts into mainstream cinema and has been away from the typical dance hero villain drama. The pathetic YRF Fanaa was an exception though. Ghajini is more than three hours of pure masala. Aamir Khan returns to the mainstream with this flick.

The title Singhania is somehow synonymous to very rich and powerful as far as Bollywood is concerned. Countless flicks name the rich guy as some Singhania. Ghajini carries this trend and names Aamir as a Sanjay Singhania. He has lost his wife Kalpana, played by Asin. Asin is no doubt awesome. Her screen presence was of unmatched charm and she has overplayed the others pretty easily in this movie. No wonder why Murugaddos cut short Jiah Khan's only song Lattoo.

Circumstances lead to a condition when Sanjay is hit by an iron rod when he comes to save Kalpana from a goon called Ghajini played by the Ashwatthama of the Mahabharata(Pradeep Rawat). He goes into a mental state when he cannot make new memories. Forgets things in say fifteen minutes. This movie is not Memento though. It has got a much wider canvas and story line. Only the mechanism of remembering things is like Memento(infact better). Aamir Khan has done a moderate job as an actor while depicting the patient. He has overacted at times(reminded me of Himesh in Aapka Suroor) and at times has been very comic with his serious look. His lip sync was not correct most of the times too, so important to get it right in Bollywood musicals.

The unwanted close ups, the fast forward action and the very poor background score made the action scenes of this action based movie truly pathetic. It was highly highly tamilised . I am an ardent fan of Tamil movies but I do not aproove to the Rajnikanth ways of action. This movie was not like Rajni's style, it was relatively real, but not really believable and not really nouvelle.

Jiah Khan is not a good actress. She was the low point of the movie. Though she did not have a great role but she did not give a great performance either. So thumbs down to her. Asin on the other hand as I mentioned had a great charming quotient. She was fabulous with her acting too. Truly speaking I enjoyed only those parts in which she was there, that is to say the love story part. Neither did I like the action sequences nor did I enjoy Aamir Khan's eight pack and his animalistic behaviour supported by his moderate acting. The love story was very sweet. That is something for which Ghajini is watchable to be frank.

The movie can be best described as a good Tamil movie made in Hindi. The directional approach is very much south Indian. That is difficult to digest for a Bollywood buff like me. Though I enjoy watching Tamil and Telegu movies, but I would not like my Bolly masala movies to lose their style of narration. Unwanted song sequences, over dramatic acting and direction and not really catchy dialogues(unlike Memento where the dialogues are the reason of its greatness). The movie has a runtime of more than three hours and for the look of Asin you can skip some evening agenda and have a taste of this masala and shout aloud in the theatre, "What a scene, Asin!"