Dec 27, 2008 01:55 AM
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Being a fan of full blown masala films myself, I had noticed that Bollywood doesn't really concentrate on them too much these days. This sense of making'cross over' films have suddenly taken over, for the hope that some producer, director or actor too achieve international acclaim. Sad, really because for the people that have grown up watching Hindi film's, this is one such genre which only the Indian's have been great at over the years.
Ghajini happens to be in this genre of fim making, yes, I agree that it's going not to win an Oscar but for anyone who is a fan of enjoying themselves on a nice night out, here's your film.
The best commercial film of the year, comes out at the end of the year and honestly it's down to one man - Aamir Khan, the number one main lead Actor of Bollywood, a point which is not even worth arguing about. The man is so good, that had the film been five hours, I wouldn't have mind at all because what we have here is a remarkable performance from a man, whose probably hated amongst some, since he's too good!
It's story is a little fantasy, a little over the top but even the most sternest critics out there, will say despite the one or two evident flaws, they enjoyed that film - which is it's main purpose. I am a fan of comedy film's, yes I am but the overload of Bollywood churning them out made me think that film's like Ghajini won't be made but I was wrong and this film made me wrong. Sanjay Singhania suffers from short memory loss, who reminds himself of a major incident in his life using photos, maps, graffiti on his walls and tatoo's on his body - a medical student and a police officer are eager to know about him for different reasons, the police officer finds a personal diary of Singhania's, after he has finally caught him. The diary tell's him the story that how a billionaire that fell in love became such an raging animal!
As I've said earlier the film belongs to Aamir Khan, no question about it, after a long time I've seen a full fledged Aamir Khan film and to be honest I'm glad since it was good to see him back on the big screen, where the whole film revovles around him but thats not saying that everyone else was rubbish, they were also very good. Thank God Asin arrives in Bollywood, seriously I thought Bollywood forgot that it would be nice to bring a couple of females into the limelight who can act a little and have a good sense of dialogue delivery, this girl should be Bollywood's next superstar, if she doesn't it would be of great unjust since her performance in this film, opposite Aamir may I add, is superb, each of her scenes are treat for this film. I had heard that Jiah Khan was sent by Aamir into a couple of acting lessons since he wasn't happy with her abilities, well if thats true, then well done Aamir, he got a good-for-nothing girl acting very naturally, which couldn't have been possible if her first film'Nishabd' was anything to go by. The villain who plays'Ghajini' is one of them swing-song villains that we used to watch in the hayday of Mithun and Amitabh and Vinod, the guy is a good actor and does his role in elan.
The comedy is hillarious in the film, the autorickshaw bumping a lady over, Aamir being asked to say a couple of lines about some cooking oil, or him being offered to be part of a elastic underwear for men etc it's hysterically funny and the acting plays a big part here. The action is good too, apart from a head twisting part at the end(which was ridiculous), the action is full on combat, just beat up anything and everything!
The film is shot smooth, usually with South directors they have this tenacity to make Hindi films look like that of those in the 80s where Jeetendra and Sridevi used to sing'Thofaa Thofaa' but thats not the case here, a well treated film. Also its technically brilliant and the cinematography is awesome, especially for the action scenes. Its screenplay is excellent!
The only problem I had with this film is the music and especially the background score. The music was not upto scratch, there's too many songs in short intervals, which make even the good songs sound rubbish but its the background score I was hugely disappointed with, I mean it sounded like a 4 year old kid playing the piano. Only downside
The director has made the same film before so judging it on this film would be wrong, however I think he's here to stay, he doesn't go silly on scenes, a good ability to balance everything a commercial film offers to it's audience and I guess thats the key to his success.
However, all that does not even come close, to what the little genius, Aamir Khan, achieved in this film, a confirmation, 6-pack, 8-pack bodies count for nothing, if your performance is brilliant - which is the right word to use for his performance in Ghajini - you'll forget anything and thats why the film's tagline aptly states, [b]'Remember!'[/b]
4.5 out of 5
