Insult to your intelligence. Review on Ghajini - Tamil Movie

Every time you begin to feel that the Indian film industry is coming of age, you have a Murugadoss come along and throw cold water on the feeling. For years we have been exposed to (shoddy) copies of Hollywood movies and as Roark would say ''copies of copies''.

What is worse in this particular case is that this movie was on the top ten of almost all the charts and the trailers (how is it that these guys are so good at learning Hollywood style marketing but so pathetically bad at learning Hollywood style production?) promised the earth.

Of course the very basic premise of the movie - a person who forgets everything that is 15 mins old does not fit in logically with the stupid alarm system of his camera. I could have understood if HE switched on the alarm at a certain point of time so as to be reminded to grab a photo before he forgot why he was there. But this camera gives him a buzz after every (a certain) 15 mins. Which means that he forgets everything within a particular 15 minute interval and no explanation is given as to what is so very special about THAT 15 minutes and WHEN did that cycle start. Illogical yes - but still not a crime. Just mentioned it since it put me off right in the begining.

What IS however wholly insulting is the kind of contrived, manipulative S__T that the director feeds us with the only objective of creating situations that can help his movie run its full course.

The incidences in the beginning of the movie are themselves slightly (compared to what happens in the second half) stretched - the whole episode of Asin (and what an Asin she was) not knowing who her lover was when half the world knows him. But then you can forgive these small discrepancies - after all Asin is so beautiful !!!!!!! It (the stretching) extends to the end of the first half with Asin (a model) taking the ''empty except for her, the bad guys and our wonderful army'' Chennai Gumidipoondi slow passenger to guess where?? - MUMBAI. And pray what led the villains and the jawans to do the same thing. Maybe they followed her into the train?? I don't blame them then - Asin is absolutely gorgeous !!!!! And what happens when her cell phone starts ringing just when the ''bad guys out to kill her'' are leaving her flat. Does she switch it off ??? No she hugs her bag close to her chest so that the sound does not escape. But you can still forgive her - Asin is cho chweet !!!!!

The real problems start when an equally dumb BUT not so beautiful Nayantara does similar and even dumber things. The scene that takes the proverbial cake is when she warns the villain about Surya's intentions to kill him. On his (the villain's) right is a man with dark curly hair reaching his shoulders and ''villain's right hand'' written all over his face. I guess she thought he was a rock star. On his left is a man who looks like he is just recovering from a gang war (which he very likely IS) and ''villains left hand'' written all over his face. I guess she thought he was a victim of police brutality. Of course villain is NOT written over our ''would be victim's'' face. It is written all over his body. From the Kashmir of his balding head to the Kanyakumari of his big shoes - and every inch of the six and a half feet in between. I guess she thought that he was the Selfish Giant (reformed of course). Whatever be, it does not stop Miss ''I will poke my nose into every thing I am able to - do gooder'' from handing over to our until now ignorant ''would be victim of the hero'', the hero's complete biodata. Wow !!!!!

I could go on and it would not serve any purpose. But why then, the two stars and the recommendation?

Ahhhh - for the beautiful, charming, lovable, happy, singing, dancing, laughing, chirpy, cho chweet - Asin. I guess the women would find Surya equally interesting (am talking about the the one that does not look, talk and walk like a gorilla).

But what about the second half with no Asin and only the ''look, talk etc'' Surya. Well, there is a very neat way of enjoying that half too. Its a method I have personally not had the pleasure of trying out but definitely seen work. Its called the ''dindiz approach to enjoying BS'' - a simple two step process - get high on grass (am not talking about the kind the cows eat) and laugh your head off.

PS - Incidentally, Murugadoss is the same character who tried to pass off a windows media player movie as a unix type terminal window. A relic from the licence raj (in whose radar customers don't appear.)