Ghajini : The genre is Formula
End of the year comes a film that brings so many necessary evils of the medium back to the fore –garishly mounted song sequences, elaborate dramatic confrontations, formulaic storytelling structure, yet Ghajini does all these with an approach that is not wholly commercial in the crude sense of the word. A film that takes off with so many baggages, remake and copy and shit like that, and works its way up to a film that would be well off without these connections in a different film-world, a different story, a different point of view. The film takes no time in establishing its intentions- with a real-looking normal sequence(the hero boards an auto with minimum fuss, drops a cool line(ye mera address hai) and leaves, and an explosive outburst in the very next sequence. This is one scene where the movie screams out loud, fuck you.
What follows is well, very filmy. The heroine drops in, with a very conventionally structured first half, the hero shows us all his goodness aspects – responsible citizen, inspiring coorporate posterboy, and just about the right guy to have his first LAFS(love at first sight) day out. Asin shines in the role of Kalpana, and is a great company to Aamir, who is a performer of such caliber, he demands respect when he walks on screen. Aamir stamps his quintessential rockhard performer pitch in the first ‘realization’ scene, ‘Take your shirt off’ he reads from a piece of paper, takes off shirt he does, looks at all the scribblings on his chiseled body, the expression goes from curiosity to surprise to shock to confusion to insane anger, and Aamir socks it in. Taaliyaan.
But the film doesn’t stay there, it moves on, not to more dramatic things(now that you are all geared up and warmed up for the taaliyaan seetiyaan bit) but regular looking faces, a serious lack of known faces(one fact I loved with the film, I had absolutely no problems taking to the actors, they were all so unassociative of anything bigger or better that could have in simple words, spoiled my trip), a low on saccharine language, and a not so loud background score. In fact, ARR keeps it nicely low-pitched and sparse, except for the supercool pre-interval rap bit with ‘run run’ and stuff.
Here is a hero, who doesn’t have a better revenge to be angry, burn in the badle ki aag, work his body out, smear the body out with unaesthetic tattoos, and here is a hero who doesn’t crib about it. He treats everything around practically, a sound corporate mind at work in the realms of sub-conscious expertise. And that is something that Aamir gets bloody right. The film Ghajini is about the Sanjay Singhania guy alright, but it is also Aamir in Sanjay’s shoes, an overage misfit finding hard to find the threads that would connect him to reality, his immediate reality. At times, I viewed a memory-loss-inflicted protagonist following clues to reach his self-defined goal of kill bill variety, and at times I saw a hindi film hero perpetually looking for cinematic redemption, putting on masks on masks, ‘moulding’ himself in every role and its environs, pushing himself to the limit, hearing one idea after the other and adapting it crazily enough to send off one back to them Hollywood studios shouting screaming his way to his desires and their fulfillment.
And so was Asin, continuously trying to find, find acceptance.
And the villain now, Ghajini Dharmatma, what a fun guy to watch. I imagine let me just utter these names in front of you and leave it to you to predict what happens after that – Paresh Rawal, Sharath Saxena, Ashutosh Rana, Anupam Kher, Yashpal Sharma, Zaakir Hussain, Sayaji Shinde, Ashish Vidyarthi, Govind Namdeo, or even Aditya Pancholi for that matter, if you will, etc etc. His ‘shot tuurrmm maimoree los’ take is just the kind you would need in an Aamir Khan potboiler, and not the ‘great’ actors mentioned above. And a little Haryanvi never hurts. ‘rey dhoondo usko’.
Then the cop guy. Unknown again. Good again. Effective again.
Then the songs. All well shot, and placed to a good effect in the film. Kaise Mujhe reverberates for long, so much so that the director does a cool post climax take on the last stanza that ends the film on a ‘solid film hai boss’ note.
And then the memory loss shit. Not very geekily done, but ya its ok I guess. As much as we got them masses in the tow.
So coming to the main point now, Ghajini brought the crowd back. Last similar response I saw was for Dhoom-2, the same elements of mass hysteria. But I was certainly happier here for the film decides to chart its own course with a toning down of the tried elements. Even a very formulaic treatment of revenge doesn’t hide its qualities of precision, an eye for beauty(the fight sequences play out like a stage musical sequence) and a surprising faith on the lead actor to carry it ahead.
I love how Aamir unsettles for expression and deliver a world of expressions instead. The whole ambiguity lends weight to his revenge pitch. The film, I thought, would get over a little too soon when I saw the hero finding the villain in his den, all vulnerable and shit. But the film doesn’t end it at that, what follows is a brilliant chase and fight and subsequent elimination of all evil moment.
Good film, the genre is formula. Ek baar phir dekhenge. Hall mein.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
I agree with u.
Having watched both the Tamil and Hindi versions, the latter has better and logical (atleast here!) climax.
One BIG minus point being, the title character, Ghajini, the villian. I expected a ‘Kill Bill’ kind of effect the villian could have had where the whole movie concentrated on. Though Bill had a much less screen time, the effect was awesome…
the same was missing in Ghajini.
On your League of Extraordinary Villains, lemme just add a certain Mukesh Rishi….
“Mera naam hai Bulllaaaaa! Main rakhta hoon hamesha khullaaaaaaaaaaa!”
On-screen villainy has never been the same since…
The villain (Pradeep Rawat) & the cop( Riyaz Khan)are the people who did the same roles in the tamil original.While Pradeep Rawat has done small villain roles in hindi earlier, this is his biggest in Hindi- he’s done a lot of movies in the South as villain in telugu & tamil-Ghajini included.Riyaz Khan is a popular actor in the South ( Tamil,Malayalam & Telugu) and is making his hindi debut with this movie.Apparently Pradeep Rawat is a friend of Aamir & is said to be instrumental in convincing Aamir to do it in Hindi.
Haven’t seen it as yet but from your review its obvious that its an upgraded masala/formula film. This could pave the way for a lot of remakes of formula films from the past.
‘Ghajini’ is a faithful remake of the Tamil version.
Infact, Aamir outshines Tamil actor Surya, who was brilliant in his own right!
Asin is here to stay!
An out and out masala film, it manages to entertain whilst both amusing and shocking the viewer.
The violence is excessive, but it gels perfectley with the story.
Length is a problem though, it’s over 3hrs!
Overall, a decent film with a fabulous Aamir Khan!
Violent, but even the ladies will approve :-)
Steve- miyan kahan ho gaye ho aajkal?
I wont say Aamir outshines Surya, felt both were good in their own way.But yes Asin is here to stay- I agree with you.
Arun Prakash- well dunno about this giving way to a trend – but there are two more masala remakes in the pipeline- Pokiri ( telugu & tamil) is coming as Wanted-Dead or Alive ( Salman,Ayesha Takia) & Athadu ( telugu) as Ek-the power of one ( Bobby Deol,Nana Patekar,Shriya).And you also have the remake of Bommarilu/Santosh Subramaniam
( telugu/tamil)- as Its My Life ( Genelia,Harman).
of course there may be more too.But yeh to hota hi rehta hai.on the other hand you have Jab We Met being remade in the South Indian languages & I’m sure a few more similar cases.
Attention to details
They spell Neuro as nuero in Amir’s report which Jia Khan hands over to Ghajini just before Intermission, in fact that’s where they say INTERVAL.
BTW, on to the subject, I liked the movie, not for a second viewing, but for the fact that Amir can pull this (Nonsense) off as well.
Excellent! Full love to Ghajini. Sure I’d still stand by Suriya’s version of Sanjay but Aamir’s had it’s own whaddyasay, kicks on route 66. Liked how they would focus on Aamir ferocious pygmy stature, like in the scene he launches on top of the cop plumelling him with body blows. Digged Rawat man. He made the film for me. Thick Haryanvi chew. ’sort term memory looos’. Yeeeeehaaaw! But probably he was given too much of a back story to become a cool cipher of a villian. That would have been more of an impact but let that not be a complain. Any complaints are absolute beside the point which in first was never there at all. Digged that electric soundtrack that followed him along though. How cool is that! I was surprised by how much flak Ravi Chandran has been receiving. It was mostly cool and efficient and worked up some surprising poetry in the quieter scene like the ones in which Sanjay looses focus of himself and so does the camera gently blurring everything but Sanjay to a ghost/memory.
Everything else- You put it right on the money- the genre is formula
ghajini is the ultimate tribute to a villian… even the greatest villian in bollywood histroy (gabbar singh did not have the movie to be named after him…)
Yea, Ghajini was like total dhamaal…I haven’t watched the Tamil original, and I’m sure Surya being the fantastic actor that he is…he must’ve done a brilliant job. But Aamir was also fantastic. Dont think that this was his career-best and all…he’s done far too many layered characters before for that. But yeah, he was having the time of his life and u could see that on screen. At the beginning of the movie, when he goes to his bathroom and explodes with rage….that was a powerful cinematic moment…cant deny that. Besides luved the BGM as well…totally OTT…reminded me of Shankar’s Nayak where ARR was responsible as well…
Yaar Sethu, I think that came out wrong.
What I meant was, Aamir didn’t remind me of Surya at all.
Surya was excellent in ‘Ghajjini’, he was a killing machine, almost animalistic.
But Aamir humanised that character.
I wasn’t expecting to see vulnerability in the character.
Where have I been?
Was knocked out the last 3weeks by the flu epidemic!
Horrible!
Oye Teri! Missed this. I should have read this before I decided to chuck the film. Kya re?
Gets in and out the auto and then BOOM! Hahaha
Masala!
Are Steve- sometime back it was the zukham that got you & now the flu.Uff!hope the ghajini effect has made you completely fit by now
@antz, I guess the lack of a solid villain worked for me.
@ AMJ, ya man, Mukesh Rishi. Totally. Thanks.
@ Sethu, remember the time when I said Ghajini is the name of the villain in the hindi version and everyone laughed it off! Lol. Anyways, I have seen the Tamil version.
@Arun, I really don’t know if remakes the way, I would rather have them do 1-2 per year.
@Steve, one intention I had was no to compare. As of the length, I thought it was smartly cut for that length.
@shashank, dude you really were looking at the medical report when there was a Jiah Khan to ogle at?!
@Sid, I missed those points, glad you mentioned them.
@ravp, watch all them films man; every film has its day.
Just to clarify as I didn’t mention it in the review, on purpose. I saw Memento again yesterday. It’s a good film, convoluted and all, brainy stuff, but when I wanna have fun at a theater, and not scratch my head too much, I would go for Ghajini any day. And no I will not compare Aamir to Suriya.
Oops, sorry Tushar, I also didn’t mean to compare, lekin ho hi geya.
The more i’m thinking of the film, the more i’m liking it :-)
Sethu, yes ur right, it was zukhaam at 1st, but the WHOLE U.K has been knocked out this time with this horrible flu!
I’m still not 100%.
And yup, ‘Ghajini’ most definitely made me fit enough to fight with the management at my local cinema!
They really screwed the film up for me.
Maybe i’ll go back and see it again :-)
@Tushar – there u go bro.. I totally agree with u about Memento and Ghajini…. Memento is sophisticated and u need to work the puzzle out … while Ghajini is entertainment and pure fun… nothing nerve-wracking… served in a platter
Ghajani….a perfect masala movie with a perfectionist !!
Watch the movie, you guys would like all the taste of this masala !!
I do find “Ghajani” is a perfect so called masala film of world cinema. Why do you guys go to find out so many facts and truths when you guys write something about entertainments!!…then entertainments(masala-not-medicine) wont`t remain as any more entertainment(masala-not-medicine)!!
I am gonna watch this hindi film “Ghajani” again.
Steve Yaara, Kiddaaaan :-) I thought your Dil went Paagal in Christmas time. Welcome back.
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Hmm, I guess seeing all the comments may be Ghajini jaldi dekhni padegi.
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Btw, in India, does Tata sky has channels (without Super South Indian pack) that may show Tamil Ghajini sooner or later or will I have to go to Big Flix?
Sethu, you mentioned that they showed on some channel, na.