Wait! It's 2009 already? Where did 2008 go? I seriously have no idea... I still remember New Years Eve of 2008 like it was yesterday! But anyway - Happy New Year folks.. and I hope we all stick to our resolutions. And No - I am not making any resolution about updating this blog regularly :)
1st Jan also happens to be our anniversary so my in-laws babysat while N and I went for a movie after about 10 months, I think the last one we saw was Jodha Akbar. We went for Ghajini - partly because it was the only Hindi movie playing close by and I really wanted to see a Hindi movie in the theatre.
Review in a nutshell -
Awful. One star.
Review in detail -
If you had to make a copy of Memento, why didn't you just copy the whole thing? Why take the basic "short term memory loss" concept but then lose it in a hopelessly long romantic track, a typical Bollywood over-the-top villain, filmi fights of one hero fending off 20 baddies without a scratch etc etc... the list can go on and on. And the overacting - oh my God! What was wrong with that heroine Asin? Was that her trying to be bubbly, full-of-life, happy-go-lucky? She seemed more like a lunatic if you ask me. I had felt the exact same thing about Genelia in Bomarillu - but the rest of that movie had compensated for her. Not the case here - the director has made everyone overact including Aamir Khan in the "revenge" mode. The only saving grace was Aamir Khan in the "normal" mode - where he was like the Aamir Khan of the past - you could believe the love he felt for this weird girl, you could believe in his character. Although I really don't like Aamir Khan that much - I think he is too full of himself and it shows in his acting - I think his portrayal of Sanjay Singhania prior to the memory loss was the best thing in this awful movie.
So the story is basically: rich boy meets weird girl, falls in love, weird girl rescues some kidnapped village girls, angry villain kills weird girl and hits rich boy causing his memory loss, rich boy tracks down villain and gets his revenge. Done. No suspense, no twist and turns, no parallel tracks like Memento. And the mistakes in the movie! Don't even get me started.. the biggest and the most basic one - why does the hero have to search for this villain? He already knows the villain's name - Ghajini Dharmatma - who is also a public figure, so why doesn't he just ask around - "Hey, who is this Ghajini?" Why go on a killing spree of Ghajini's men, and of course there is no mention of how he gets to them in the first place. If the villain's name had been Ram or Khan or something common, one can understand. But Ghajini? And a popular public figure? Give me a break! I am not going to list all the other logical errors but there are tons - especially with the memory loss, now he remembers and now he doesn't. Towards the end, I was thinking - the only thing missing from this movie is if the villain hits him again on the head and he gets his memory back, and trust me - something like that does happen in the climax scene where the villain in a typical Bollywood fashion plays back the details of how he killed weird girl, bringing back enough of rich boy's memory and wrath to get up and kill villain.
Enough said. When we were leaving the theatre, someone behind me said, "Oh what a wonderful movie. I am going to watch it again." I thought in my mind - No wonder such hopeless movies become hits. And suddenly that man's wife burst out laughing and chided him, "Stop being sarcastic!" and then she was telling me how she had dragged her poor husband after years to watch a Hindi movie and now he is not going to let it go. So that about sums it up :))
7 comments:
Haha. I might be the only person here who agrees with about about genalia - I thought she was acting a little too cute in Bommarillu too.
Will avoid Ghajini. Did not know it was a Memento ripoff.
My god, this is your most passionate post so far. I like aamir khan, and I don't like anyone else in bollywood. He was good in Jo Jeeta and Dil hai ke. I think anyone who has not seen memento will like it because the concept is too innovative for bollywood. Also his steroids-fuelled body will drive hindi-film watching women to it.
Also, why do you post spoilers? What if someone wanted to watch the movie? Just give out the star rating, not the plot. If I know I there is a movie I am going to see, I even avoid watching its trailer in the cinema hall - I look down.
Oh cmon. That plot is not even close to a spoiler. Even a 5 year old could have predicted that. If I gave out the plot of Memento in it's review (not that I could even if I wanted to), that would qualify as a spoiler.
You are the only person I know who tries to make sense of a hindi movie. You are just supposed to watch it and listen to the songs. Anyway, how can he ask around who is this Ghajjini, if every 15 minutes he forgets he is a public figure?
Also if you have to ask where did 2008 go, I suggest you start taking pictures and writing on them and on yourself how things progress in 2009
Not really. I love senseless movies if they are made to be senseless e.g. Andaz Apna Apna. I enjoy the typical romantic or gharelu movies from Rajashri in spite of the obvious filmi touch. But I dislike movies that assume the audiences to be dumb.
Anyway so about this Ghajini fellow, check this out - in spite of Aamir's so called memory loss, he actually remembers his girlfriend telling him the name 'Ghajini' before dropping dead! Plus he has that name tatooed on his body or written in his notes as the killer. And he is shown to be a really rich fellow. So the first obvious thing would be to order his manager - find out who this Ghajini is, wudn't it?
Funny last comment tho :P :)
Honestly - I don't know what came over Aamir Khan - to agree to a senseless plot like this. Its like no one in 2008 has ever seen a gun - which is why they must beat each other up with blunt instruments. And of course this being a Hindi film the hero must be dazzling white - while in Memento the central character was darker than the villains. But then when you sign on with someone like Murugadoss, that's what you get.
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