Ghajini
A.R. Murugadoss, 2008, India (6*)
Inspired by Christopher Nolan’s Memento, this is one long schizo mindbender of a film. It was India’s highest grossing film in 2008, and is at least entertaining. Actually, it’s two films: one based on Memento, another apparently based on a Sandra Bullock or Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy! Aamir Khan plays the brain-damaged survivor with short-term memory loss, and apparently on steroids as well – think “Schwartzeneggar meets Crank”. Just look at this guy on the dvd cover, he's supposed to be a corporate telecom CEO!
We start with a similar story to Memento, with medical students discussing a man’s mental case. Just about as his story is explained, we go back in time through a diary to see how the romance developed between an aspiring tv ad model (the murder victim) and a corporate CEO, the character played by Khan. Soon into this flashback, we see the first of five, yes five, music videos with pop music by A.R. Rahman, winner of two Oscars® for Slumdog Millionaire’s music. Each character fantasizes music videos when bored, so it all “makes sense”, everyone has these fantasies daily, right? Director Murugadoss was apparently inspired by both Memento and Singin in the Rain and wanted to get it all into one long film, and this one is over three hours. But then, you get two films for one. Eventually after the romantic comedy, we’re back in Memento again. This is Bollywood at its most insane: a crime mystery meets a romantic comedy with MTV style music videos!
Just a word to Murugadoss however, who remade his own 2005 Tamil film. Any self-respecting and successful criminal nowdays has guns or at least knives, I don’t think too many gangs in any country depend strictly on iron bars for defense. Didn’t people even figure out long bows worked pretty well about 1000 years ago? Down a star for just being plain laughable – these are the stupidest criminals in a half century of movies.
Quote: He's coming, get the iron bars!
Inspired by Christopher Nolan’s Memento, this is one long schizo mindbender of a film. It was India’s highest grossing film in 2008, and is at least entertaining. Actually, it’s two films: one based on Memento, another apparently based on a Sandra Bullock or Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy! Aamir Khan plays the brain-damaged survivor with short-term memory loss, and apparently on steroids as well – think “Schwartzeneggar meets Crank”. Just look at this guy on the dvd cover, he's supposed to be a corporate telecom CEO!
We start with a similar story to Memento, with medical students discussing a man’s mental case. Just about as his story is explained, we go back in time through a diary to see how the romance developed between an aspiring tv ad model (the murder victim) and a corporate CEO, the character played by Khan. Soon into this flashback, we see the first of five, yes five, music videos with pop music by A.R. Rahman, winner of two Oscars® for Slumdog Millionaire’s music. Each character fantasizes music videos when bored, so it all “makes sense”, everyone has these fantasies daily, right? Director Murugadoss was apparently inspired by both Memento and Singin in the Rain and wanted to get it all into one long film, and this one is over three hours. But then, you get two films for one. Eventually after the romantic comedy, we’re back in Memento again. This is Bollywood at its most insane: a crime mystery meets a romantic comedy with MTV style music videos!
Just a word to Murugadoss however, who remade his own 2005 Tamil film. Any self-respecting and successful criminal nowdays has guns or at least knives, I don’t think too many gangs in any country depend strictly on iron bars for defense. Didn’t people even figure out long bows worked pretty well about 1000 years ago? Down a star for just being plain laughable – these are the stupidest criminals in a half century of movies.
Quote: He's coming, get the iron bars!
3 comments:
Wow man, you gave this a 7-star rating?!? I agree with your review (esp. the 'iron bar' part - that was really hilarious), but I don't think the movie deserves those many stars. Interestingly, this was way off the kind of movies Amir Khan usually acts in.
I guess 7 of 10 is kind of generous, like 3.5 in a 5* system - probably 6 is more accurate. However, I did enjoy the long romance story and the fantasy music videos; had those been a seperate film, probably an 8. Then just the Memento portions as a seperate film: a 5, and I wouldn't be reviewing it!
Now, tell me this: WHY was this the top-grossing film in India last year? Do people there really prefer 'entertainment' to art? They sure do here - cinema art=box office death over here! They couldn't even find a distributor for "Che", since he was an anti-corporate socialist.
This is how they censor stuff: just don't sell or back the anti-capitalist viewpoint, so everything is slanted one way, and it all becomes propagands, like the terrible pro-capitalist Indian film "Guru", where it was "ok" to violate business laws IF you make money for shareholders!! They should expect their own "ENRON" any day with that gullibility! That film made me angry!
Thanks for the info and comments; I'll continue to watch Indian films, another and better one is coming up next..."A Wednesday"
..Jose..
C'mon man, even in US a pathetic movie like Fast and the Furious becomes a super hit because of its mindless entertainment, so I guess India isn't any exception. It happens everywhere - rarely does a movie manage to bridge the gap between art and entertainment.
As for Guru, a reason for its becoming a big hit was that it was based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani - one of the most popular and spectacularly self-made billionaires. Have a look at his biography at Wikipedia, and you'll know.
I'll have a go through your review of Wednesday soon. It was a nice movie.
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