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Aamir Khan is back to deliver another blockbuster performance that's sure to break all records at the box office.
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Aamir Khan is back to deliver another blockbuster performance that's sure to break all records at the box office.
Clarification
I am deliberately going to avoid any major comparisons with the movie that "some say" that Ghajini is based on (Memento) To set the record straight, yes the movie has the concept of short term memory loss. Aamir Khan's character suffers from that. Yes he can remember only the last 15 minutes of his life and yes he uses photo's and body tattoos to remember what is happening around him. And finally yes he is out to seek vengeance for the death of his wife. Ok if you are thinking thats like the whole thing is a ripoff its actually nothing like it. For starters the movie isn't actually going backwards. Then a better part of the movie (2 hours worth) are showing life of Aamir and asin and its a real comedy with some great cinematography thrown in between) The storyline of how he traces his killers is not at all like the english movie and the fight sequences are riveting and totally Indian in a way only Indian ones can be. That's all i have to say about the comparison. You can form your own opinions.
Movie Name : Ghajini Year of Release : 2008 Release Date : 25 December 2008
Producer : Allu Arvind, Madhu Varma Director : AR Murugadoss Cast : Pradeep Rawat, Asin Thottumkal, Khalid Siddique, Aamir Khan, Jiah Khan Music Director : A. R. Rahman
Synopsis and short storyline
Aamir Kahn plays the role of a cell phone company tycoon while Asin is a struggling model who to become the lead model in an ad agency floats the story of her association with Aamir as him being the boyfriend. Many comedy scenes later, where aamir is basically totally impressed by this down to earth, caring and bubbly girl, proposes to Asin and they decide to marry. Only Asin gets involved with a gang who is selling organs and is into Child Trafficking. Trying to be her helpful sort, she gets into the hitlist of the gang and they kell her while aamir who watcher her die is left with the "short term memory disorder" after taking a bloody hit by the gang kingpin "Ghajini"
So begins the hunt for the boss and vengeance. Aamir is helped by Jiah Khan, a medical student.(initally she worked against him but later when she comes to know about the cause of Aamir seeking his vengeance, she aids him) The movie ends with a stunning and a violent hand to hand fight sequence that is one of the best portrayed in Indian movies till date.
Main Story
Please do not read the spoiler if you plan to watch the movie. While it might not take away completely the viewing pleasure(as there is not that much suspense in the movie) it might still degrade it.
SPOILER WARNING! - Click Here for the complete story
The movie starts with a scene from medical college where a doc(later we find out he is Aamir Khan's personal Doctor) explaining to new interns about Short Term memory disorder and about Aamir and how he can remember only past events upto a certain time and after that can only remember last few minutes. After that he cannot even recognize his dear friends) He is explaining all this to Jiah Khan(Sunita) who wants to take up aamir's case to observe him at close angles but is denied as the case is too complex for her. She wonders, in one scene, whats the point of living life like this man!
We soon find out what? Cut to scene where Aamir(Playing sanjay Singania, the Chairman and MD of a major mobile company) is mercilessly beating a goon to death. There is a lot of beating up and the guy dies a gory death. Aamir takes a photo of the guy, picks up an invitation to an event where the chief guest is "Ghajini" (we later learn that he is the guy he is hunting down) and marks him "To Kill on some XYZ date" on the photo and moves back to his apartment. There he has a wall with a poster of what he is to do, has done and has to do. (He marks his daily tasks on his body in form of tattoos and has a set schedule and a camera to take snaps of wherever he goes. Menawhile the police come to the spot where the guy was killed and start investigating. Here the pick up a old bus ticket which Aamir had carelessly dropped. The lead police inspector(Riyaz Khan) is a clever guy and he quickly traces down the bus and the conductor who gave that ticket to Aamir. (It should be noted that Aamir is pretty recognizable figure with his haircut and due to his forgetful habits.) The conductor says he knows where he comes from and soon the inspector is near Aamir's apartment and ready to catch him. However, by some chance Aamir manages to escape(in the sense he the inspector loses him in traffic) and he makes it to the event where "Ghajini" (Pradeep Rawat) is the chief guest. Here he meets Jiah Khan again also but fails to recognize her. Aamir tries to call Ghajini to the basement of the building to kill him but instead kills one of his goons. He returns back to his apartment. (I have forgotten a bit of this part now ) but it somehow happens that aamir has taken a hit while trying to escape the above goons and he is resting in his apartment. The police fellow chasing him, manages to trace him and he beats Aamir with a heavy bat and ties him up.
He is dumbfounded to see all the writing on Aamir's body and the wall and in the process of a search he finds out Aamir Khan's diary(He see's 2 diaries, the first he starts reading).
The above is first 30 mins of the movie...
FlashBack starts
Cut to Aamir looking young and dashing and arriving from abroad in a plane and addressing a board meet where he is the chairman of a big mobile phone company. In order to spread the word of his phone, he wants to set up banners in Mumbai. For one such banner, they select the house of Asin (Kalpana in the movie), Asin btw is truly spectacular initially Bubbly, vivacious and very funny.
Asin works as a sidey in an ad company but she wants to be the lead. Her boss however thinks none too highly of her and her pranks(we are shown one hilarious prank of hers in an ad shoot )
Now Asin gets call from Aamir's company about the hoarding and whether she will allow it over her apartment but Asin refuses. By chance, the boss of Asin(In equally hilarious circumstances thinks that aamir Khan, the chairman of voicetel, has fallen for Asin and he wants to marry her. He takes Asin's refusal as her refusing to marry Asin. An immediate change comes over him and he goes all out to please Asin thinking she is the GF of a hotshot tycoon. While initially beleaguered, Asin quickly decides to play along her part realizing she will be treated like god if she carries on as GF of the tycoon. (No one actually had seen Aamir to date) We see some more hilarious spoofs and ads. Then even more funny stuff when a magazine publisher is mistaken for a ad shoot manager by asin and she reveals to him her fake story of how she met Aamir and how she is his gf (the way she talks to him is i can't put it in words. There were loud guffaws in the theater ) (Actually a lot of whistling and cheer for a lot of her scenes by the crowd who had come to watch. She was genuinely very funny and bubbly. Obviously she knows her acting)
Ok so this publisher now publishes this whole story in his magazine and what through that its picked up by the media.
Aamir Khan on hearing that a model is claiming him to be her BF is dumbfounded (Again a superb scene, hilarious, where Aamir first hears about this). Aamir says he wants to meet this girl and so he does arrange a meeting. He goes to the place where Asin is shooting(in between he chances upon Asin helping some physically challenged girls and helping them cross a gate, and is very impressed by her) only to realize that she is now calling all the shots at the studio. She is acting as godmother to many struggling actors and promising them work due to her clout as GF of a tycoon. As soon as Aamir approaches her, she starts with her tale to him about how she met Aamir and how he is her bf(she doesn't realize who the person standing in front of her is, she thinks he is another actor looking for work and has come to her for help) (again a rather funny scene follows) She doesn't allow Aamir to speak anything and Aamir on his part goes away shellshocked and surprized. Ok afer this we see romance brewing between the two(He even gifts her a flat but with a funny contest ). Aamir decides to live as a split personality, for Asin he is a struggler while for the rest of the world, he is the tycoon) We see some more funny stuff(there is just too much now to put in words but basically Asin is in a tight spot once when her boss invites the real Aamir, the tycoon, to a party and Asin asks the Aamir she knows to play the part of the real aamir Its funny as hell the whole scene) and some songs. Asin is magical in all this, more than even Aamir. She looks dazzling on screen for the most part.
After the above event, Aamir proposes to Asin and she says, she will tell her reply after a day.
All the above stuff is a flashback which the inspector is reading in Aamir Khan's diary. As soon as the inspector tries to pick up the new diary, we see an Angry Aamir coming back to life, breaking all the strings he was tied with and beating the daylights out of the Inspector.
So we are back in present now. The movie proceeds fast from now on with Jiya Khan somehow managing to identify Aamir Khan. She comes to his apartment and comes to know about the people Aamir has killed. She also finds the inspector that aamir had kept tied up above. Aamir meanwhile comes back from wherever he was and we see a fast chase where the Inspector is run over by a bus but Jiya manages to escape, She goes to the real "GHajini" and tells him about aman who is trying to kill him. The Ghajini fellow doesn't initially know Aamir and he decides to kill all those people who have some grudge against him in the past 2 years. But he soon realizes that none of the people he has killed is the one that wants to kill him now. Meanwhile Aamir chances upon Jiya and while trying to catch her, is caught by the police(in a ladies hostel with gun) They detain him and while there they see all the markings on his body. They see about his wish to kill Ghajini and immediately contact him. Now the goon does recognize Aamir but calls him a friend.
Meanwhile Aamir's company guys get him released from jail(Point to be remembered, he still is the CMD of his company, although he doesn't go the office now and lives in the apartment that he gifted Asin). Now the Ghajini goon thinks of what to do with aamir. He decides that since the fellow depends on his photos and tattoos for all his future vengeance, he can be turned into a vegetable by removing all that. So he goes about removing all the tattoos from Aamir's body and destroys all his photos and charts. Aamir is left to tied to a table and he wakes up to remember nothing.
Cut to Jiyah Khan, who has taken Aamir Khan's diaries with her and she starts to read the second diary.
FlashBack Again***
We see the song "Guzarish" now.(It is frankly the most beautiful song this whole year, especially when you see it on the big screen. The location and the camera angles are outstanding. Most of the people cheered the settings of the song. The song itself is brilliant )
After the song, ee are shown the bubbly Asin accepting the marriage but Aamir still doesn't get around to telling her about who he really is. We see some more funny romantic stuff(eg Asin says she desires that she should have three ambassador cars before she marries and so Aamir will have to wait). Aamir gets her a flat(indirectly by making her win a illusionary contest) and she is overjoyed. Finally after some more stuff, Aamir has to go to London for some work but he tells Asin that he is going to his village cos his mother is not well. Asin, the helpful sort, sells the only Ambassdor that she had purchased and gives that money to Aamir who is again touched by her large heartedness.
So Our hero goes to London and our Heroine to Goa for some ad shoot. Only she meets some kids being trafficked in the train and rescues them. The whole incident is shown on TV and now the goons want her blood(The goons btw are the men led by Ghajini) So after a few days, the day Aamir was to come back, they attack her house and after some bollywood tamasha of wrong things at wrong timings, Asin is killed in a gory manner by Ghajini who also kills Aamir who had come to help Asin oh getting a call for help from her. Aamir gets a deadly shot on his head and this leads to his new condition
*** Back to Present
(The above part was investigated by Jiya and now she realizes that she has to Help Aamir. So the last 20 mins of the movie, Jiya takes Aamir to Ghajini and we are shown a one man demolition army fight Such good was the fight that there were clappings and loud cheering by most of the people where i was watching And i have to say it was one of the best action sequences shot in Bollywood.
Well thats about it, with a small twist in the end, Aamir does manage to kill Ghajini(after a bit of a melodramatics ) after taking a iron rod in stomach himself. He survives the encounter though.
The movie ends with a song showing Aamir dreaming about him and Asin sitting on a park bench. (Kaise Mujhe)
Perfomances
Aamir Khan is the Best of the Khan's in the industry. There is little doudting that after this movie. This was Aamir at his best. Be it his well toned body(that he has worked very hard for, i hear), or his acting skills, he is outstanding in all. Aamir is probably the only guy around that looks young even now and some of his scenes and songs with Asin were a visual delight. His action sequence and the way he dons the role of the main protagonist is creditable to say the least.
Asin is an outstanding actress and it shows. She has a South Indian Look but she looks gorgeous in most scenes and especially in the humorous ones. I don't see many matching her acting skills and i don't think Aamir could have chosen anyone better(Think of Asin as what Kajol was in DDLJ and KKKG at the start, bubbly, joking and helpful)
The main villain, Ghanjini, is despicable on screen which tells you he sure acted his part well.
I for one didn't like Jiya Khan at all. She just doesn't know how to act. Only bad casting error in the movie. Most of the other performances are good.
Two of the songs are really great(Kaise Mujhe and Guzarish Behka is great too). Cinematography, as i mentioned before is outstanding. The background score is average..
A.R. Murugadoss as director has delivered along with Aamir, i am sure, the biggest hit of 2008. The direction is brilliant, the story is fast and even though its 3 hours long, you will never ever feel it that long. There is no dull moment here. Even more, two hours of the movie have Aamir and Asin romance sequences and the great comedy thrown. A winner all the way when it comes to total entertainment.
Overall, its the best bollywood movie of 2008. Its Aamir at his best and already with a fully packed advance bookings(4 times better than any other bollywood movie ever in history of Bollywood, the movie is all set to be a blockbuster.
Ghajini 
its actually nothing like it. For starters the movie isn't actually going backwards. Then a better part of the movie (2 hours worth) are showing life of Aamir and asin and its a real comedy with some great cinematography thrown in between) The storyline of how he traces his killers is not at all like the english movie and the fight sequences are riveting and totally Indian in a way only Indian ones can be. That's all i have to say about the comparison. You can form your own opinions.
) but it somehow happens that aamir has taken a hit while trying to escape the above goons and he is resting in his apartment. The police fellow chasing him, manages to trace him and he beats Aamir with a heavy bat and ties him up. 
i can't put it in words. There were loud guffaws in the theater 
(Again a superb scene, hilarious, where Aamir first hears about this). Aamir says he wants to meet this girl and so he does arrange a meeting. He goes to the place where Asin is shooting(in between he chances upon Asin helping some physically challenged girls and helping them cross a gate, and is very impressed by her) only to realize that she is now calling all the shots at the studio. She is acting as godmother to many struggling actors and promising them work due to her clout as GF of a tycoon. As soon as Aamir approaches her, she starts with her 
for the most part.
)
Such good was the fight that there were clappings and loud cheering by most of the people where i was watching 
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds;
Re: Ghajini 
Repped 
and Awesome quality PDVD Out today so I guess I might watch it today @ home
