Movie Review of Ghajini (2008). Review on Ghajini (2008)

Director – A R Murugadoos

Screenplay – Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan and A R Murugadoos

History

Amnesia are of two forms, Anterograde and Retrograde. Retrograde Amnesia is a condition where the person will not remember a particular event or a series of event in his life. The sland for this is Selective Amnesia. Anterograde Amnesia is a condition where a person will have a memory span of just 15-20 minutes and will not remember what he/she did before that. Both conditions are mysterious and although people have recovered from them, there is no cure or medicine.

Plot

Sanjay Singhania(Aamir Khan) is a young business tycoon whose ambition is to be the biggest mobile phone service provider in India. While searching for locations to place billboard advertisements, he happens to go to the house of Kalpana(Asin Thottumkal) who is a small time Advertisement Model. In a confusion, Kalpana makes people believe that Sanjay is his boyfriend which earlier evoked anger in Sanjay but he calms down after seeing Kalpana as a person with a golden heart. Sanjay decides to meet and propose to Kalpana as a common man and hides his real identity from her. In an event, Kalpana looses her life while saving a bunch of kids from being abused. In the event of saving her, Sanjay gets hit on the head with an iron rod by Ghajini(Pradeep Rawat) and he suffers from Anterograde Amnesia. Now Sanjay seeks revenge on the killers but the only thing that works against him is that he can remember events for only 15-20 minutes. So he decides to tatoo his body with all the things he needs to do on a daily basis and also carries a camera which would give instant pictures to help him regain what happened 15 minutes back.

Critic’s Comments

This was by far, like all Aamir Khan starrers, the most awaited movie of the year. The expectations are sky high after the highly successful and critically acclaimed, Taare Zameen Par last year. The story is partly inspired by the 2000 hit, Memento which was one of the most innovative films made in history of World Cinema, purely by from a film making point of view. So how have everyone fared? Unfortunately the movie does not live up to expectations. While the lead star cast have acted very well and the editing by Anthony Gonsalvez and Cinematography by Vetran Ravi Chandran are avant grade, the script is lacklustre. Memento is a film which stands out against all films made in the last 110 odd years of Cinema purely because of its filming technique and the presentation. All Ghajini needed was the right sense of direction and good story telling technique to be regarded a classic. Watch it only if you are a true Aamir Khan fan. On a personal note, I felt the movie should have been called "RAJNI" and not Ghajni after seeing the most unbelievable and stunts that defy most rules of science.

Psst -

1) The movie is a remake of 2005 tamil hit film of the same name. The director and the lead actress are the same.

2) To prepare for his role, Aamir had to shave of his head in a paticular style and also do a rigorous work out which lasted over 1 and a half years. The work out costed him nearly 3 hours of time every day and Rs 1.2 million for the trainer. In the final week of the workout, Aamir Khan reduced his liquid intake to just 1 glass of water per day.

*3) The most famous victim who had suffered both forms of Amnesia was Steve Wozniak in 1981 after an Airplane Crash. He did manage to recover. Steve is the co-founder of Apple Computers along with Steve Jobs.

4) The camera used in the movie is a Polaroid 690(instant Film) camera.*

5) The title of Ghajini was inspired by real life 10th century Invader Mahmud of Ghazni.

6) Like in 2007, this was another Aamir Khan movie that had a christmas Release along with an Akshay Kumar Starrer Jumbo. In 2007, Taare Zameen Par and Welcome had a christmas release.

7) As a part of a publicity stunt, Aamir Khan gave free Ghajini style buzz cuts to his fans in promotional events. As a part of the promotion, the producers also decided to have staff members of all major multiplexes get Ghajini style buzz cuts 2 weeks before the actual release. This had a lot of criticism as it was seen as a way to eat business of rival co-star Shahrukh Khan's release Rab Ne Bana di jodi.

8) Movie was made on a budget of Rs 400 million. It grossed nearly Rs 700 million on the opening weekend collections. Rs 20 million was collected in the 1st day(preview Shows) on Christmas Eve. This is the highest opening ever for any Hindi Film.

Quotes

1) "Main Kar Sakta hu, yeh mera vishwaas hai. Sirf Main Kar Sakta hu, yeh ghamand hai."

Oops-

1) Although they show the Sanjay suffering from Anterograde Amnesia and keep calling it short term memory loss, it is not that. What the lead actor suffers is the inability to transfer short term memory to long term memory.

2) There is no medical term called as a short term memory loss. It is just a slang. So in the start when the medical files have that written, it would not be correct.

3) When a foreign tourist asks Sanjay for directions from Mantralaya near the gateway of India in Bombay, he asks them to go straight, take a right and then left. However the directions are wrong, that way the tourists would reach further south towards Cuffe Parade.

4) Kalpana asks Sanjay to come to Chincpokli Bunder Road. In reality, there is no such road, the closest that comes to the name is Chincholi Bunder Road.