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GHAJINI : MASALA MEETS MUSCLE


The remake of the South-Indian original, Ghajini reminds me of the 8o’s revenge based dramas; films like Shiva which, in their turn, were remakes of South-Indian hits. Hence the abundance of large instruments of torture and gory fight scenes which usually end up with a knife in the back or a smashed head. With the color-coordinated songs (clothes match the cars) this film is also reminiscent of older Jeetendra-Sridevi pot-boilers like “Himmatwala” etc.

It’s a vendetta based film, where the whole point of the film is revenge. Aamir plays Sanjay Singhania, a very, very rich tycoon, who’s run afoul of a nasty businessman/crook. When the villain vastly damages Sanjay and his loved ones, resulting in Sanjay losing his lady-love Kalpana (Asin), and most of his memory, he must have his revenge on an enemy he doesn’t quite remember.

This is a formula film – nothing new about it. The first half of the film is mostly breezy – there are some gory parts, but on the whole it’s pretty light-hearted and fun. This is mostly due to the heroine - peppy Asin, a newcomer who also starred in the Ghajini original. Asin makes an impressive Hindi debut; she reminds me of a slimmer version of Sridevi – the hair, the figure, the over-archingly self-aware, over the top acting.

The second half of the film features some very gory fight scenes, and much brutality. Amir goes from a sweet lover-boy to rabid, growling revenge-seeker, very believably. Truly, in such films, where direction is adequate, but not quite flawless, where the story needs you to put away rational doubts, and brute force, not realism rules, can one see the finesse of an actor. And Aamir is quite a fine performer.

Jiah Khan who plays a major role, can’t act. And neither can the guy who plays the role of police inspector; he does very little besides flex his muscles. The rest of the cast is just about adequate; the villains are evil and sneering and trigger-happy, and the “good people” are very holier-than-thou. The heroine especially is a wholesome do-gooder, earnest and a little too empathetic – the kind of chirpy, scootie-driving gal who appeals to all the richie-rich, macho tycoons of desi filmdom, because of her golden heart.

This film is quite interesting with it’s anterograde amnesia theme; the hero able to retain events of only the past 15 minutes. And while the pace is fast, and keeps you engrossed, all facets of such a potentially complicated story aren’t intelligently handled. The director glosses over much of the things-that-could-be. In reality, Aamir’s mentally tortured character might need intensive therapy, but in the film he bashes 7 men all by himself, deals with many traumas, and manages to beat up villains with iron rods stuck into him.

Yes, it is a masala film, so yeah, I’ll bite my tongue and continue. I liked the film – it’s an interesting drama, dark and gruesome. But it also has romance, light-hearted moments, and features one of my favorite heroes. The heroine packs some oomph, the film has good cinematography and some very nicely picturised, melodious songs. The song which features “multiple” Amirs , all in different get-ups and all in the same frame was especially interesting. The downer is that Ghajini is predictable fare; there had been a spate of such films during the Shiva phase, and this theme seems a little jaded for today’s time. I wish it had had more finesse and attention to detail, been more realistic, and avoided some amateurish blotches – then it would have been quite superlative.

RAB NE BANA DI JODI : GOOD, BUT LACKS FINESSE


The much awaited “Rab ne bana di jodi” lives up to it’s hype - well almost. A film by director Aditya Chopra, this one is a romance. It’s meant to be one of those romances where we are persuaded to believe that true love comes because of inner, and not outer beauty (I could contest this genre by pointing out that such stories abound when the guy is the geek, and the girl is quite beautiful, if not Ms. Universe herself - after all how many times in desi films have you seen a geeky girl get the guy ?).

I won’t give too much of the film away - but here are the basics. In the face of tragedy, Taani (Anushka) is unexpectedly married off to geeky Surinder Sahni (SRK). She had hoped to marry her sweet-heart, but married to a boring Surinder, she resigns herself to a life of being a dutiful wife. Lively Taani loses her spark, but the love she thought she’d never feel again is awakened when she meets funny, young Raj . . .

The film’s story places it squarely in sadda Punjab, in Amritsar to be precise. It’s a far cry from Switzerland, and the breath-taking locales of Europe are replaced her by the narrow gallis of Sahni’s town. However the scenery is still colorful, the skies still blue, and the shots still beautifully composed. The glitz and glamour of a regular YRF film are a little toned down and the item-numbers have to be disguised as acts in a dance competition.The direction is strong as always, and Chopra is more careful than usual when sketching out his characters.

Surinder Sahni (Suri) is delineated out with affection. He is boring and staid and a creature of habit. A simple man, he loves his new wife with all his heart. Hers, body and soul, he offers himself up to her, to do with as she pleases (only she can‘t see it). Sodden and soaked in a love, which he is too shy to reveal, he is afraid that she will never love him (she tells him as much). His desperation to win her over is movingly depicted, and SRK, whom I’ve never considered much of an actor, save for his role in Swades, does an impeccable job; I really felt for poor Suri.

Anushka Sharma makes a strong debut. She is an average actress (which is generally more than enough in Bollywood), a graceful dancer with a shapely figure. This debut could have better had her character been graced with the same attention to detail as Surinder’s did. As it is, Taani is something of an unknown ; why she does what she does is a mystery - we don’t really know what goes on in her mind. As such we tend to empathize with her a little less.

This film starts off strong; we get to know Suri and his timid life. In comes Taani, and we get to know him better (unfortunately not her). And then closer to the interval, with that incongruous throwback-to-the-oldies song, the film starts to lose it’s moorings. It continues in this un-hinged fashion for quite a bit of the middle third, with events which have no bearing on the story. I feel Aditya Chopra, with all his talent, gets afflicted with the Raj-Kapoor-brand-of-love syndrome (which I find particularly annoying). This results in the film’s emotional momentum, which was building up quite nicely upto now, suddenly getting sporadic, and teetering between love and tragedy. If you’ve seen Raj Kapoor’s “Mera Naam Joker”, where he tries to dredge up sympathy (pity ?) for his (unlikeable) character, you’ll know what I mean.

One of the film’s songs is the soft and nicely picturised “haule haule”. The film in it’s build-up to the climax, doesn’t seem to be taking it’s own advice (i.e.; not so haule, haule) because we do not actually get to see the build-up of love in Suri’s life. True love strikes in the space of one song, and Suri is broadly brushed into his “chosen one” status fairly quickly. It is too filmi and too pat. Chopra seems to be saying - Here it is , do you get it now ? It is like we are wayward children, who need to be told what to feel, instead of an attentive audience which can gauge emotion by itself.

The film - it outs itself. Chopra seems to want to bare it all for us, the audience, as if he doesn’t trust us to reach the right conclusions by ourselves. As such, I’m a little disappointed that this film lacks the finesse that a “Hum dil de chuke sanam” had, and that a director of Chopra’s calibre sacrifices what could have been a thing of beauty at the altar of commercialism. "Rab ne bana di jodi", while a fairly decent film, lacks the subtlety, that slow churn of blossoming love, that might have transformed this above ordinary film, into a spectacular one. It might seem that I’m quibbling over a minor matter, and being awfully picky. After all, in this age of “Golmaal” and “Golmaal returns” how does a little lack of finesse matter in an otherwise wholesome product ?

The film has lots of plot-holes, and requires you to wear your Bollywood-colored glasses, to overlook them. Me, I overlook them because of Suri - such a likeable character is he ! So, yes, this is very watchable film featuring a great beginning, a crowd-pleaser of an ending, and a mediocre middle. Kid-wise this is a clean film, although suited to older kids, because of the relatively slow pace of the film, and the forays into the pseudo-tragic.