Ghajini - The movie review - "Revenge @ any cost"

Ghajini (2008) is a Hindi film directed by A.R Murugadoss which has turned out to be the ultimate blockbuster Hindi cinema has ever produced, starring Aamir Khan and Asin Thottumkal in the lead roles. Well, the basic concept has been inspired from Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” and a remake of the Tamil film by the same name, which had Surya and Asin in the lead roles. The movie explores the life of a rich businessman, his one-man struggle for avenging his lost love narrated in a very thrilling style. Aamir is at his best as always with his portrayal of the delicate life of an anterograde amnesia patient ; which means he can’t remember anything for more than 15 minutes. The 15 minute remembrance logic has been dealt with utmost care, making the viewers themselves feel sometimes of the tough life this amnesia patient faces. The thought of a 15 minute amnesia patient planning to avenge is by itself an innovative & thought provoking storyline, for which the whole credit should go to the Nolan Brothers. But though it as a remake/inspiration, it has enough stuff to stand by itself. But frankly this movie has more than one inspirations. The scene where Asin helps a blind person to reach his destination has been neatly taken from the famous French movie – Amelie. Well, though inspirations are more righteous than copying, I personally think this scene has well suited for Ghajini. Asin is cute in the movie. She has improvised a lot compared to her Tamil version. She has not overacted in a single scene. Though some do think so, forgetting that her character in the movie by itself is very bubbly, making us feel each time we see her on screen that we could’ve had someone like this in our lives. I’m sure she has a great future after making a mark in Indian cinema with this lovely role of a tender, caring & loving young girl. Pradeep Rawat, the villain is deadly. He gives us the feeling of watching a wild bull.

Now coming to the technical department, we have A.R Rahman scoring some enchanting scores topping all other albums of 2008. And I was totally impressed with the background score of the movie. That too in certain scenes like – the Amelie scene, the New Year scene & the scene just before interval are the highlights of Rahman’s excellence. The next strong point of the movie is cinematographer Ravi K. Chandran who is also my favourite cinematographer in India. He has indeed took the movie to the next level with some spell bounding work behind the camera. Each and every scene in this movie can be used as a wallpaper for this movie. The camera work is so good. Watch it to believe it. Next, Prasoon Joshi the lyricist of this movie has penned beautiful, soul touching words as always for Aamir khan in particular. I was totally moved by the song “Kaise Mujhe” which according to me is the best lyric of Ghajini. Overall I don’t care what Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN or Gaurav Malani of Indiatimes or Raja Sen of Rediff have criticized about this movie, it is a stylish thriller well laced with some good comedy in the first half and some racy action in the second half (with a superb climax) making it a total winner.

Hats Off to Aamir for such inspiring top class acting and dedication for whatever he does (8 pack), A.R Murugadoss for such a great screenplay, mixing all the elements of a commercial entertainer, Asin for such a cute performance, A.R Rahman for such a winning score, Prasoon Joshi for such good lyrics, Ravi K.Chandran for such an excellent camera work, Antony for such a slick editing & Peter Hein for the splendid firework stunts in the climax.

If you really want to enjoy this movie to the fullest, become an amnesia affected person yourself for 3 hours, totally forgetting all the moments of Memento & the Tamil version of Ghajini stored even in the smallest portion of your brain.

Rating:
4/5

One obvious error:
Could've included some jurisdiction at the fair end of the plot. Else it looks like Aamir is left scott free for all his felonies.