Geo's Talkies - Ghajini

It's nice to see the menacing villian return to the screen in a hindi potboiler. Ghajini for one could be the first movie that's named after the antagonist which is not only what's not seen normally but also unique when you have a superstar playing the role of the protagonist. Ghajini should have been called Sanjay or Sanju (Bah, I'm kidding !!!!).

Sanjay Singhaniya (Aamir Khan) is a foreign educated industrialist who is at the helm of affairs of AirVoice a mobile service provider. Kalpana (Asin Mary Thottumkal) is a small time model doing ad shoots for Tinnu Anand. Kalpana is bubbly, ready to help and full of joy. In a classic case of mistaken identity during the course of an interview with a journalist from a yellow magazine Kalpana blurts out that she's Sanjay Singhaniya's love interest. Sanjay is furious at all the press he's been getting and sets out to meet Kalpana only to be floored by the lady in red tops and white pants. They become friends with Sanjay choosing not to reveal his true identity to Kalpana not knowing how she'd react to it.

Sanjay proposes to Kalpana who accepts his love after some introspection not knowing that this was the real Sanjay indeed. A chance encounter with some child trafficers on a train get's Kalpana right into the eye of a huge organ harvesting and human trafficing storm which eventually get's her killed right in front of Sanjay's eyes in a gruesome manner. An attack on Sanjay during this episode removes his power to remember leaving him just the capacity to remember anything for 15 minutes at a stretch. This is not the real short term memory loss but it's okay, it's not meant to be a documentary.

Director AR Murugadoss has acknowledged the inspiration from Memento directed by Christoper Nolan. I wouldn't see why he'd have to do that, Memento had a non-linear narrative, Ghajini is pretty linear with flashbacks intercut into the narrative. Memento demanded some serious viewing and worked the brain while Ghajini is a movie that demands your logic to be left at home and good it's so. Ghajini has everything packed into an almost 3 hr theater experience, there's action, romance, thrills. Weren't these what were part of a good hindi fare? As an entertainer Ghajini does entertain, it's not a serious movie, it's a sandwich which is pepperred with everything for everyone.

Aamir the 'superstar' shines in Ghajini especially in the scenes where he shows rage and animalistic behaviour when he recollects his past. This is the Aamir Khan that set's the cash registers ringing. Asin is okay as Kalpana, she does go over the top and in atleast two instances sounded like a (cliched) Madrasi (despite hailing from Ernakulam). I'm sure everyone would love the bubbly person she's portrayed on screen. How far can she go in an industry that is never in short of bikini clad cleavage exposed hip gyrating actresses remains to be seen. I did not see an iota of romantic chemistry between Aamir and Asin on screen which didn't augur well for the experience as I'm supposed to weep with the hero. Jiah Khan is adequate in the role of Sunita, a medical student who get's interested in Sanjay's case. Pradeep Rawat plays Ghajini is menacing and outright scary, you don't ever want to see him in real life.

Ravi K Chandran's superlative camera work takes Ghajini to another level. The songs are exquisitely shot and the color palette always fits the mood of a scene. The very last frame of the movie is a DOP showing off what he can do with nature and photoshop (not really !!!). Anthony (from the South) has edited the movie, I thought some of the cuts were annoying, especially the fast one's. Anthony probably saw only the action part of this movie and forgot that at it's core was a sweet romance, decent job though. Sound design has been credited to Resul Pookutty and H Sridhar was also working on this movie till he passed away in Dec 2008. The sound at times was too loud which is typically how our theaters set up the volumes but the sound design part of it sounded spot on, given the fact that this movie was shot in sync-sound. Peter Hein's (and Stun Siva who took over when Peter left) action is well choreographed.

Ghajini is surely worth a watch with it's heady mix of romance, thrills, suspense, music and action.

Trivia

# AirVoice headquarters shown in the movie appears to be Ascendas Tech Park, ITPL, Bangalore. Since AOL, Bangalore was credited in the beginning of the movie the office shown in the movie is probably AOL's support floor.

# Aamir uses Samsung cell phones throughout the movie.

# The closing action scenes have been shot in Hyderabad.

# In Asin's introductory scene where she's shown helping physically challenged school children leaves keep falling which look like 'maple', has anyone seen maple leaves in India?