Monday 29 December 2008

Ghajini [2008]


Bollywood, in the last few years, has developed a ready-made formula for quick and easy success – plagiarize a famous/cult foreign flick, suitably modify/delete contents that viewers might find incomprehensible or controversial, ‘Indian-ize’ them by adding songs, dances, romance and comedy, and voila, your movie is ready to go for shoot. Ghajini is the latest in this crappy trend, with the source being the brilliant, mind-bending thriller Memento, but bereft of the bravura filmmaking of the Nolan classic. Ghajini is filled with inane characterizations, a complete lack of an eye for detail or rationale, filled with comic-book like action sequences that are a straight lift of B-grade Tamil movies and containing more bloopers than the makings of sitcoms; consequently we had a few more laughs (make that a lot) than perhaps was the director’s intent. And to make matters worse, the movie stars Amir '8-Pack' Khan, who, with his fame for Method acting, had created an enormous hype prior to release, thus making the show that much more ludicrous. Being afflicted with ‘Short Term Memory Loss’ can be a boon when you are watching a movie like this.








Director: A. R. Murugadoss
Genre: Action/Revenge Movie/Romance/Musical/B-Film
Language: Hindi
Country: India

12 comments:

sitenoise said...

And didn't the director already make this film in Tamil language a couple years ago? Is that common?

Anonymous said...

@ sitenoise: Perhaps the director forgot his blunder :)

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Shubhajit said...

@Sitenoise - Wow! You seem quite updated on the Bollywood front! Well, remaking of a good/hit movie in another language happens in India. After all far more languages spoken here than you can possibly count with your fingers. The director promoted the movie as a remake of a Tamil movie of the same name, forever believing that the audience would be gullible to the fact that the source lies elsewhere.

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Sthito said...

Why disrespect the little black half-star? :)

Sthito said...

Being afflicted with ‘Short Term Memory Loss’ can be a boon when you are watching a movie like this.
Couldn't be put any better. Touche.

Shubhajit said...

That's the equivalent of 'Lame Duck Award'.

Adrenaline and all that Jazzz said...

This is what happens when petty people try to emulate the likes of Nolan.
Anyways, this film took the limelight away form a much greater deed, namely 'Oye lucky lucky oye' this is a groundbreaking movie, the technique, the execution and the plot are simply ingenious, Dibakar Banerjee is a genius.... all those who fell for this(Ghajini) crappy flick, were i guess a little Un-Lucky.

Shubhajit said...

I too have heard a lot of positive vibes about Oye Lucky... I guess I should give it a try.

1minutefilmreview said...

We couldn't agree more. We have not seen this film but judging from your utter disdain of it, we believe abstinence is the best road to take. In cases like these, oftentimes imitation isn't always the best form of flattery.

When Zhang Yi Mou decided to remake 'Blood Simple', he acknowledged the source material and had received consent from Coens. This movie going by what you wrote is just laziness in part of the producers to make original films. Greed is also at play here as the director feigned not to have seen 'Memento' before, choosing instead to not only bite the hands which never wanted to feed him in the first place, but claiming work that is not his as his own. What a bold-faced liar! The best thing to do is boycott anything done by this director in future.

Shubhajit said...

Along with laziness, this also shows the director's indecency, greed, idiocy & his complete lack of any creative ability. Yeah, the director is already part of my blacklist consisting of people whose movies I've decided to boycott as a small personal gesture towards the world of cinema.

Arnab Tumpy said...

Almost all the Big Banner Bollywood films starring Big stars are trash.. And the blockbuster ones are such a pain to watch :(