At the outset let me make it clear that I saw the Tamil version much before the Hindi version was even planned so this one was not an entirely new experience for me. Except the last 30 minutes the entire film is a frame to frame, scene to scene, dialogue to dialogue remake of the Tamil film.
Ghajini is the name of the villain who Aamir is hunting for to seek revenge. This in one line is the plot of the film. The screenplay stretches this plot to a 3 hour 4 min epic screen time to include a love story in flashback.
So what could have been a compact thriller of 1 hour 30 mins is stretched to the current length to include songs, dances and romance. The screenplay does not create any benchmark but is in fact very regressive in its structure. It will remind you of the 80’s when Dharmendra was on a revenge spree. “ Meri zindagi ka sirf ek maqsad hai, badla,badla,badla.” Said Dharmedra in Yaadon Ki Baarat. Though Aamir doesn’t say such lines, the emotional pitch of his performance pretty much says that line time and again. The biggest flaw of the screenplay is that the villain doesn’t compliment the title. If the title of a film is named after a villain then you expect that character to set a benchmark in negative roles like Gabbar Singh, Mogambo or Dr. Dang but Ghajini comes across as a caricature of sorts and Pradeep Rawat doesn’t add any personality to the character. In fact he has got the most clichéd lines for dialogues, which are sometimes unintentionally funny. So it is left to Mr. Aamir Khan to hold the film on his newly built physique of 8 packs and he does it with panache. His performance takes this film to a different level.
Ghajini without Aamir would have been just another B grade revenge drama that nobody would have been interested in during this festive week. Asin joins the league as one of the best debut this year though this role would have been an easy ride for her since it is so identical to the ‘original’ film. Jiah Khan sticks out like a sore thumb. She is so ill at ease with her role that it really makes me wonder what the makers were thinking when they selected her for the role? Director A.R.Murgadoss does nothing new to adapt this film to a Hindi audience. He appears to have sleep walked through the film by just reacting to the “suggestions” of Aamir & Ravi K. Chandran. Why would a director want to remake his own film by just changing two actors & the climax? Wouldn’t it have been better to dub the film and release it than to waste so much energy making it again? The industry really works in strange ways. The other star of the film is A. R. Rahman. It is because of his 5 songs that the film is a little easy on your mind & ears but he fails as a background composer.
Final few words: This film should be titled Aamir. It is because of this man that this average film gets a three star rating from me. If there is any best marketing award it should go to the marketing team (or is it Aamir?) of Ghajini.
***(Good)
Please email ronydn@gmail.com for your feedback on the review above
