Skip to main content

Ghajini

Identical twins separated at birth and reunited by happenstance, loss of memory and the cascading (and ballooning) effects of a small misunderstanding have been among the most frequently occurring Bollywood story genres. Ghajini is around a sub-genre - a short-term lapse of memory resulting in a full-length movie. In that, it is quite a remarkable achievement.

The few stills and posters of the movie that I had seen online inevitably showed a shirtless, shaved and tattooed Aamir Khan looking violently angry - just the kind of imagery that makes the decision not to watch a movie a no brainer as far as I am concerned. I can think of at least a dozen ways to spend a couple of hours that are infinitely more fun than watching Aamir Khan flaunt his muscles and grimace in rage.

Then desis of all stripes started to urge me to check the movie out until my resistance wore out and I succumbed. The leading lady is the ultimate desi-male dream come true - cute, unselfish, vivacious, Pollyanna, self-sacrificing, cheerful, supremely "family-oriented" and utterly naive. Even her lies are incredibly charming and are told only for the right reasons. In short, she is as perfect as only Bollywood can make the desi-female. Khan goes ahead and falls in love with her as he must if he has even an iota of desi-male in his system.

All the women who come into contact with the hero, do better than best to put themselves in harm's way and sure enough the bad guys come along causing trouble - indeed the survival of the storyline depends entirely on them doing so. The characters are required to make one harebrained choice after the other so the saga of consequences can follow to fill the hours. Which in turn presents the super-human hero the opportunity to take on several dozen armed goons single-handedly (literally as well I might add) and emerge victorious.But all of that is standard Bollywood fare - you are expected to be used to it and just look the other way in the interests of "entertainment".

This movie hinges around the 15 minute store and recall ability of Khan's memory after his head is seriously injured by the aforementioned goons who for no obvious reason don't kill him when the opportunities present themselves. Khan does a good job romancing the utterly "adorable" leading lady while being the unassuming billionaire (though the rolled up shirt-sleeves to put the biceps on permanent display had me a bit mystified) and then becoming this haunted man tormented by memories he is not fully able to recall or process.

But just one strong performer does not make for a great movie. I am still trying to figure out what the desis of my acquaintance saw that I missed about Ghajini.

Comments

ggop said…
HC you are very charitable to Asin's character (main heroine)
I could not stand the character's naivety/cutesyness in the Tamil original, I'm pretty sure Amir Khan has remade the movie exactly like the original. It requires a leap of faith.

A lot of these young smart and talented women have more potential. Unfortunately they keep getting typecast as innocent women. You are right - the dream girl of Bollywood isn't Meryl Streep :)
Anonymous said…
I was utterly disappointed by Ghajini - especially because (a) of Amir Khan, and (b) I hold Memento - the original - in such high regard.
.
Comparing the Hindi remake with the Tamil "original", Asin was slightly more tolerable (but not as desirable for a desi man, as you described though), and the protagonist's acting was slightly less exaggerated. But all other flaws of the Tamil version were kept, rather carefully, intact. And that's what pissed me off even more - Murugadoss blowing off the second chance.

Popular posts from this blog

Part Liberated Woman

An expat desi friend and I were discussing what it means to return to India when you have cobbled together a life in a foreign country no matter how flawed and imperfect. We have both spent over a decade outside India and have kids who were born abroad and have spent very little time back home. Returning "home" is something a lot of new immigrants like L and myself think about. We want very much for that to be an option because a full assimilation into our country of domicile is likely never going to happen. L has visited India more often than I have and has a much better pulse on what's going on there. For me the strongest drag force working against my desire to return home is my experience of life as a woman in India. I neither want to live that suffocatingly sheltered existence myself nor subject J to it. The freedom, independence and safety I have had in here in suburban America was not even something I knew I could expect to have in India. I never knew what it felt t...

Under Advisement

Recently a desi dude who is more acquaintance less friend called to check in on me. Those who have read this blog before might know that such calls tend to make me anxious. Depending on how far back we go, there are sets of FAQs that I brace myself to answer. The trick is to be sufficiently evasive without being downright offensive - a fine balancing act given the provocative nature of questions involved. I look at these calls as opportunities for building patience and tolerance both of which I seriously lack. Basically, they are very desirous of finding out how I am doing in my personal and professional life to be sure that they have me correctly categorized and filed for future reference. The major buckets appear to be loser, struggling, average, arrived, superstar and uncategorizable. My goal needless to say, is to be in the last bucket - the unknown, unquantifiable and therefore uninteresting entity. Their aim is to pull me into something more tangible. So anyways, the dude in ques...

Changing Pace

This blog has been a big part of my life for the last five years. Besides giving me the opportunity to connect with a number of interesting people and share my thoughts and ideas with them, it has been a form of daily meditation for me. No matter what the day threw my way, I made a very deliberate effort to find a little quiet time to write.The process of thinking about what to write and then the act of writing itself worked as an antidote to aggravations big and small. Five and half years ago, when I started Heartcrossings both my personal and professional lives left a lot to be desired for. The only real happiness I had was in being J's mother. While that was often enough to make me forget what I did not have, I sorely needed a third place to call my own and shape in the likeness of my dreams. This blog has been where there were no limits or constraints and that was absolutely exhilarating - it is the reason I have been able to nurture it for as long and as much as I have. A lot ...