REVIEW: Ghajini

The film seldom gives you a moment to stop and think how stupid it might actually be

Watching him in Ghajini, I don't think I've seen Aamir Khan having this much fun as an actor in a long time.

It's an old-fashioned entertainer with a half-convincing plot, packed with enough gratuitous violence to qualify as a B-movie really; and like the most popular B-movies ever, the biggest strength of Ghajini lies in the fact that it's a fast-moving roller-coaster ride that seldom gives you a moment to stop and think how stupid it might actually be.

In a premise clearly inspired by Christopher Nolan's Memento, Aamir Khan plays Sanjay Singhania, a hot-shot industrialist who turns into an obsessed killing machine dedicated to tracking down his girlfriend's killer. Having been hit on the head with an iron rod, he suffers from short-term memory loss and can't remember anything for longer than 15 minutes; as a result he must tattoo his body with instructions that will lead him to his prey.

Abandoning Memento's fantastic non-linear narrative and opting for the more conventional flashback device, writer-director AR Murgadoss throws in an engaging back-story in the form of leading lady Asin (playing smalltime model Kalpana) and a love story brimming with originality and the kind of gentleness that you don't see at the movies anymore. It's a romance that takes you by surprise, and to an extent puts the film's intense action into perspective too.

Faithful remake of the director's Tamil blockbuster, Ghajini is over-the-top and exaggerated in its comedy, its action and its drama, but what irks you most are the half-dozen or so creative liberties and coincidences that the makers resort to, in order to bail themselves out of tricky screenplay situations. Here's a little sample - you're expected to believe that Sanjay Singhania is a well-known millionaire industrialist, and yet no one has seen him in pictures or in person.

A violent movie to end a violent year. We didnt need more
violence in our lives. Not a movie for kids definitely. They
might get influenced by the motto of the movie which is
revenge. In the land of gandhi, we need to spread non
violence and love. I sincerely hope aamir comes up with a
light hearted comedy next year. Humour, laughter is the need
of the hour. I hope he keeps aside his perfectionsitc
illusions and comes up with a light hearted comedy. May be
andaz apna apna 2 is what the people need. I hope salman and
aamir team up!! Hail humour and not revenge!

hemanth Dec 31, 2008 at 01:33 AM

Mr gaurav......I think that you do not know wat movies
are......U do not understand dem

Raunaq Dec 31, 2008 at 12:24 AM

This is a movie from the studio18 stable.........Buzz18
belongs to tv18 ......Same group........Hence the review is
biased.........Infact on moral grounds, rajeev masand should
not review the movie.



i dont think the movie deserves 3 stars. Its below average
and 2 stars is what it deserves and that is what it has got
from so many different reviewers.



dont think that we cannot see through all this.