Ghajini (2005)

So the dust is beginning to settle for A. R. Murugadoss' Ghajini starring Aamir Khan, given that it had broken, and is still continuing to rake in stellar box office receipt records for a Bollywood movie around the world. For me, it piqued my interest enough to revisit his 2005 Tamil version starring Surya Sivakumar in the lead role, with Asin who also starred in both versions as Kalpana, and Pradeep Singh Rawat as the villain, curiously not called Ghajini here, but Laxman.

I shall leave comparisons with Christopher Nolan's Memento unmentioned because I've done so with my earlier review of Ghajini (2008).Instead I shall focus more on the similarities and differences in the Murugadoss films, since he crafted both the screenplay and dialogue, and directed both movies with predominantly the same leads, save for the protagonist Sanjay Ramasamy (Surya Sivakumar) inflicted with short term memory loss.

The opening credits stayed similar, and for the first half hour, I thought I would be watching the same 2008 movie all over again. I see the same policeman (Riyaz Khan) going through the same investigations and employing tactics seen before, and even the scene transitions relied on the same time lapse technique already seen. The structure of the story remained for at least two-thirds of the film, and especially the romance between Kalpana and Sanjay, except for distinct differences such as the knowledge of who the chief villain is with the possession of the all important polaroid, and spending some time showing how Sanjay had tattooed himself with the clues.

While it may be easy to work on a remake, given that you're basically rehashing what you've done before, and more so with experienced actors in the same role again, it is easy to free fall into complacency and to go through the motions with your own remake especially. But kudos to Murugadoss for identifying plot loopholes, and to make changes for the better in the Hindi version, rather than to import such flaws wholesale into the new movie. Obviously the production values were ramped up significantly from this version, but that's not the only thing that had improved. as was the editing.

The pace here is pretty much slower, and had plenty of fat which were removed in the latest version. Tweaks were done for the better in the latest, especially so in the editing department to gel scenes together much more effectively. Here, you get abrupt jumps and cuts, so the narrative turned out to be a bit choppy at times, especially so when it's time for the rudimentary song and dance sequence which pops out from almost nowhere. Sorely missed were the daily routine that Sanjay would have to relive everyday, which I thought was an important scene to reinforce his difficulty in trying to hunt down the gangsters.

The final act turned out to be an all out whackfest without too much thought put into making this film more plausible, opting instead for a pseudo-terrorist hostage situation. You could tell from the onset at this point that there were a few scenes Murugadoss would have elected to do differently, such as to avoid having Sanjay as a muscled and skilled fighter from the onset, with exaggerated Kollywood styled prowess to boot too. These were toned down for Bollywood, and having Aamir show off his six-packs from extreme training also helped to make it believable.

Murugadoss also decided to downplay and eliminate the complicated finale battle here, which made use of wire-fu, and his decision to change the that battle to

Fmovies: This is waste of time movie. and copy of memento. love episode is copy of old Hindi movie SAAJAN (not Sanjaydutt movie..movie of Ashok Kumar) the director's movie Ramana is copy of Indian. (Shankar film).his movie Stalin is copy of pay it forward. when this director will direct a original film..Surya acting is very artificial. he has to learn a lot. the budget is too high with bad quality.totally waste of time. this film going for Hindi remake for Amir khan. bad luck Amir khan! Insult for Indian Cinema. Asin performance is only excellent! Camera work is to be appreciated. Director Murugadass job is waste.This is waste of time movie.This is waste of time movie.This is waste of time movie.This is waste of time movie.

Long time back I watched Memento, which was a masterpiece in the thriller generation. It was (and is) one of my all time favourite thrillers. After watching it I became a great fan of Christopher Nolan who also later provided us two Batman movies so far. Now after a long time again I had to see Indian version of Memento. Here Indian in the sense doesn't always mean of Hindi film industry Bollywood. It can be of any industry, and let's take here Tamil film industry Kollywood since Ghajini is originally made in Tamil as well dubbed in Telugu.

I must admit that I caught this Ghajini just by its subtitle since I cannot understand any of Southern Indian languages. Just after learning that it was inspired from Memento I decided of watching it, but neglected again and again. And so now I am commenting on this impressive title Ghajini after finally grabbing it.

In Memento Christopher Nolan used a unique storytelling technique which was not used before by any other director, and made me to watch it thrice to understand the whole story. But although Ghajini is not exactly a carbon copy of Memento, it has the similarities of the lead role suffering from 'anterograde amnesia' and following the incidents of written notes & tattoos corner by corner in his body as reminders. Still then the main theme was on taking revenge of his lover's murderers. The rest of the story is from itself.

Murugadoss did a memorable job by making an Indian version of Memento in his own way by using his own talent and not fully depending on Hollywood. Nevertheless, Surya Sivakumar is really impressive in both roles – as a rich, cool and romantic businessman lover as well as a serious amnesiac running after murderers for revenge. And most important to mention is the name of Asin who performed a tragic but marvelous role as Kalpana. Pradeep Rawat's double role was so boring, and I guess it was created just to spark in the running story, nothing else than this. I watched him first and last time in super hit Sarfarosh as illegal weapon supplier Sultan, and now again.

I equally noticed some unnecessary issues like police officer's role performed by Riyaz Khan. His role was not that important for the story but he appeared in the movie as if he is born simply to die from an amnesiac patient. After his first appearance I expected as if he has a strong significance in making the story sharper. Besides, many songs were also not important for showing the tragic romance between Sanjay and Kalpana, and could easily be avoided.

After all I wish to give only 7 out of 10 for lacking of originality in the action scenes. During running of the movie only the fact that made me bored were the action scenes by which I felt as if I am watching some cartoons in Cartoon Network or Pogo. I know most of the Indian action scenes are made in this sense just to turn a superhero for some time. That's why Ghajini could have been a superb heart-touching and entertaining if important action scenes are presented more realistically than they are.

Ghajini fmovies. After watching "Memento", the Hollywood original, i was expecting a good remake of the same with an added Indian masala pinch from Ghajini.

The film started off well but lost its touch after fifteen minutes as itloses its way gradually and one can expect only the worse as the movie progresses. The love story plot in the movie Drags a lot. I did not understand the need for such an exaggerated and a gruesome monotonous plot of romance. The director did not even care about the lag as his art of storuy telling sucks. The climax scene was the worst i have seen i my entire life. It had nothing to do with the story. I had gone to see this movie with ten friends and all of them hated the movie to the core. The Performances: 1. Asin did acommendable job and so did the other actress. 2. Surya tries too much and too hard only to fall short of even a decent performance. i would recommend kakka Kakka instead of this movie. 3. Only Pratap Rawat was the saving grace of what can be duly called a FLOP SHOW To conclude i must say -> that this film would be loved only by ardent Surya fans and those who really don't care to bother much about the Movie as Mr. Murgadoss had deviated from the path completely. SO the movie in my opinion is a big NO. Lets see what AAmir Khan would do when he does the remake. so, Mr. Murgadoss, i would suggest that you take up manual for directing movies as your last two ones -Ghajini and Stalin were juz AWFUL.

Sanjay ramasamy(surya)is an short term memory loss patient and in the flash back he is an business tycoon ,but falls in love with a advertisement model(asin),who is interested in helping others.because of this nature she lands up into trouble and it goes up to the extent of she being killed.Surya who develops short term memory loss after an assault,plans to take revenge on those people responsible for his lovers murder.nyanthara plays the role of a medical student who is interested in case history of Surya. initially without knowing the story of Surya,she creates problem for him indirectly,but at last help him to reach the people whom he wanted to kill.this season being an one with

releases of lots of psycho thrillers,ghajini could do well.except certain scenes where there logic is overruled ,its a good movie

I got to tell you that this movie elevated my respect to Tamil film industry. Very rare you find such a beautiful and skillful storytelling! Most of the time the director's direction matters in the movie. He can mould the acting the way he asks for. And that's what you see from this one. Movie storyline seems to be inspired from Hollywood all time favorite "Momento". The beauty of the movie is the pace in which it goes. Each scene is worth watching. Special effects and background score is the best I have seen! Surya was perfect fit for the role and he carried it with passion and dedication. This is the first movie of Asin I have seen and Man! she rocks. None in her genre can act so real! Finally have to say, this is the way the indianized version of Hollywood flicks should be made ;-)