What a waste of talent! One of my favourite actors, Surya stars as Sanjay Ramasamy, the rich businessman who, after an incident, suffers from an incurable short-term memory loss. He has done an excellent job right from the beginning till the end, as handsome, romantic Sanjay and the guy suffering from memory loss (is his name Ghajini? it was nowhere mentioned!). He is the spinal cord of the movie. Asin is graceful as his lively love and cute when she narrates the Bombay airport story. She has also shown maturity in the scenes when the inevitable occurs. Nayanthara. Sorry. Wrong number. The villain, Pradeep Rawat (he is better with his turban-clad look as in Lagaan) looks repulsive as well as acts immaturely and forcefully tries to prove us that he is the villain and we should fear him. Grrrr! Total Misfit. The worst is when you have to see too much of him (I don't want to spoil that horrible suspense). "Oru Maalai Ilaveyyil Neram" is composed, sung, picturised and acted out beautifully. Nevertheless, I squirmed during Asin's introductory song. It was indigestibly disgusting. Background music was alright and repetitive. The stunts were only noisy, dull and with no innovation at all. But one must watch Surya in it. And his "run" while chasing the car! Wow! He as always is superb.
Now I come to the most important person involved in this movie. The director A. R. Murugadoss. Many of us well know that apart from the romantic scenes, the long boring water fight in the climax, new form of titles (have you seen Brad Pitt's "Fight Club" titles? ringing a bell somewhere?) and a few other scenes, the rest of the movie right from trailer till story is a blind confused copy of Memento (2000 - IMDb RANK - 22). I sincerely appreciate the director for wanting to remake it with some adaptations and let our people have a feel of it. Its a noble desire. Agreed. But I really don't understand why he had to mutilate it, in the process of doing so!!! If any of you have a chance to watch Memento, please don't miss it. When such a brilliant tale exists, why one has to make a movie by cutting bits and pieces of it and making another with some masala and action tailor-made for the Tamil screen? Memento portrays a handsome looking smart and brilliant guy (even during memory loss) who meticulously plans his everyday with pictures and tattoos on his body after having incorporated the illness. He remembers "everything" before the brutal incident but is only unable to remember the "new incidents" for a long time. In Ghajini, the hero is a psychologically affected person who lives in a shabby manner and even forgets people whom he met before the tragedy.
Short-term memory loss doesn't have time limit. It has to do with senses and situations. But here, in exactly 15 minutes he forgets. God! Please save the Tamil movie-watchers! How many brilliant scenes are there in Memento to exhibit the loop holes and subtleties of his illness! All were wasted in this. And the main plot of the movie... The truth about what really happened! Where did that go???? Lost cos it wont be accepted by Tamil audience? Com'on guys! Stop making movies for heroes and their images! We Tamils can watch a great movie told in a great way. Please don't make such silly adaptations and blame us always with "They only like to watch this" dialogues. We are an excellent audience. Mind it.
Except for the beautifully made romantic scenes and a dedicated performance by Surya and Asin, Ghajini is an attempt to completely disgrace one of the best movies of the world. Either the director has considered all of us incapable of understanding the story in Memento or he himself couldn't understand the movie. Therefore, I recommend him to exercise the use of English subtitles or better hire an English-Tamil translator before going on to adapt another Hollywood masterpiece.
Please don't take this comment as an ill-mannered one. As a genuine fan of good movies, I put forth it with utmost honesty. None can appreciate my words unless and until one has watched Memento. Imagine remaking "Titanic" with fight scenes on the ship deck, duet songs with many dancers and some mother-sister sentiment and a long dialogue by Jack before he drowns in the sea. Its disgrace to the original. You'll know what I mean, when you watch Memento. I sincerely request you to watch it, just once.
Vaasan
Now I come to the most important person involved in this movie. The director A. R. Murugadoss. Many of us well know that apart from the romantic scenes, the long boring water fight in the climax, new form of titles (have you seen Brad Pitt's "Fight Club" titles? ringing a bell somewhere?) and a few other scenes, the rest of the movie right from trailer till story is a blind confused copy of Memento (2000 - IMDb RANK - 22). I sincerely appreciate the director for wanting to remake it with some adaptations and let our people have a feel of it. Its a noble desire. Agreed. But I really don't understand why he had to mutilate it, in the process of doing so!!! If any of you have a chance to watch Memento, please don't miss it. When such a brilliant tale exists, why one has to make a movie by cutting bits and pieces of it and making another with some masala and action tailor-made for the Tamil screen? Memento portrays a handsome looking smart and brilliant guy (even during memory loss) who meticulously plans his everyday with pictures and tattoos on his body after having incorporated the illness. He remembers "everything" before the brutal incident but is only unable to remember the "new incidents" for a long time. In Ghajini, the hero is a psychologically affected person who lives in a shabby manner and even forgets people whom he met before the tragedy.
Short-term memory loss doesn't have time limit. It has to do with senses and situations. But here, in exactly 15 minutes he forgets. God! Please save the Tamil movie-watchers! How many brilliant scenes are there in Memento to exhibit the loop holes and subtleties of his illness! All were wasted in this. And the main plot of the movie... The truth about what really happened! Where did that go???? Lost cos it wont be accepted by Tamil audience? Com'on guys! Stop making movies for heroes and their images! We Tamils can watch a great movie told in a great way. Please don't make such silly adaptations and blame us always with "They only like to watch this" dialogues. We are an excellent audience. Mind it.
Except for the beautifully made romantic scenes and a dedicated performance by Surya and Asin, Ghajini is an attempt to completely disgrace one of the best movies of the world. Either the director has considered all of us incapable of understanding the story in Memento or he himself couldn't understand the movie. Therefore, I recommend him to exercise the use of English subtitles or better hire an English-Tamil translator before going on to adapt another Hollywood masterpiece.
Please don't take this comment as an ill-mannered one. As a genuine fan of good movies, I put forth it with utmost honesty. None can appreciate my words unless and until one has watched Memento. Imagine remaking "Titanic" with fight scenes on the ship deck, duet songs with many dancers and some mother-sister sentiment and a long dialogue by Jack before he drowns in the sea. Its disgrace to the original. You'll know what I mean, when you watch Memento. I sincerely request you to watch it, just once.
Vaasan