Ghajini – A Win for Southern Film Making

with kids and wife out of town for the weekend, and partially sick from sinus, i thought i’d sit still for a change and do nothing. ghajini was playing to full houses, but a single ticket was easy to get at INOX in the garuda mall on magrath road at 10pm.

first a shout out to old fellers from the telugu movie industry (‘tollywood’). the chirangeevi clan led by allu aravind of geeta arts have been making good clean movies for years, and they took the jump in going all out with a sure-shot ghajini script. glad to see them score a big on in the hindi films.

ghajini is a fresh contrast to the old punju-marwari-thumka-style movies that have been coming out from bollywood for a while. why take any srk movie. but this film is a typical modern south indian production – camera work that asks viewers to keep pace with the story; music that uses more instruments than a tabla; characters that have multiple shades; an item number with the heroine fully clothed; and experimentation with scripts and story-telling. including abrupt cuts to hero-heroine songs in exotic locales!

aamir khan’s steroid-body is on fully display – but you can tell the face wilted because of it – his face looks weathered in the romantic scenes, and it’s hard to watch. but he does an earnest job of not screwing up what surya has setup for him. and clearly has done a masterful job of promoting the film. four auditoriums in forum mall were showing the film at 10pm simultaneously, and all of them were full!

this morning, i checked out the original tamil ghajini scenes on youtube, and as suspected, they re-made this film almost shot-to-shot. very subtly different, but pretty much a clone. aamir khans’s mannerisms during the violent scenes are exact replica of what surya put together in the tamil version. the animal-like violence, the large scar on the head.. the innovations on characterizations have all been carried to hindi version.

go watch the film in a theater. it’s definitely worth it.

but don’t expect a memento. though it was an inspiration for the storyline, dismissing gajini as a copy-cat version totally discounts the emerging craftsmanship of indian movie making. slowly but surely, a new breed of indian film makers are providing top-notch entertainment. starting with ashutosh gowarikar, likes of sanjay leela bansali, karan johar, farhan akhtar et al. and southern directors are finally getting their due, starting from rgv and mani ratnam.