Ghajini (2008 film)

Ghajini
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	A. R. Murugadoss
Screenplay by	A. R. Murugadoss
Story by	A. R. Murugadoss
Produced by	Tagore Madhu Madhu Mantena Allu Aravind
Starring	Aamir Khan Asin Thottumkal Jiah Khan Pradeep Rawat Riyaz Khan
Cinematography	Ravi K. Chandran
Edited by	Anthony
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Distributed by	Geetha Arts
Release dates	India 25 December 2008 United States 23 December 2008 UK 23 December 2008
Running time	183 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹50 crore (US$6.0 million)
Box office	₹189.45 crore (US$23 million)

Ghajini (Hindi: गजनी) is a 2008 Hindi film written and directed by A. R. Murugadoss and produced under Geetha Arts. It is a remake of the 2005 Tamil film Ghajini, which was also directed by Murugadoss starring Surya Sivakumar in the lead role. The film stars Aamir Khan, Asin Thottumkal and Jiah Khan in lead roles while Pradeep Rawat and Riyaz Khan essay supporting roles. Aamir Khan has stated that Ghajini is not a remake, rather it is inspired by Christopher Nolan's film, Memento. Aamir Khan spent a year at the gym, continuously training with his personal trainer for the role.

The film is an action-thriller, with strong romantic elements, that explores the life of a rich businessman who develops anterograde amnesia following a violent encounter in which his love interest, model Kalpana, was killed. He tries to avenge the killing with the aid of Polaroid Instant camera photographs and permanent tattoos on his body. The character of Aamir Khan also featured in a 3-D video game titled Ghajini - The Game, which is based on the movie.

Plot

The film opens with Sunita (Jiah khan), a medical student, and her friends working on a project about the human brain. She wants to investigate the curious case of Sanjay Singhania (Aamir Khan), a (former) notable city businessman, who is reported to have anterograde amnesia. Her professor denies access to Sanjay's records as it is currently under criminal investigation. Sunita nonetheless decides to investigate the matter herself.

Sanjay is introduced as he brutally murders a man. He takes a Polaroid picture of the man, and time-stamps it "done". It is revealed that Sanjay has a strange form of anterograde amnesia where his memory is wiped out every 15 minutes. Sanjay uses a system of photographs, notes, and tattoos on his body to recover his memory after each cycle. It is revealed that Sanjay is ultimately out to avenge Kalpana (Asin Thottumkal), and that he is systematically killing the people who were responsible for her death. His main target is "Ghajini" (Pradeep Rawat), a notable social personality in the city.

Police Inspector Arjun Yadav, on the case of the serial murders, tracks Sanjay down to his flat and attacks and disables him. Yadav finds two diaries where Sanjay has chronicled the events of 2005 and 2006. The film enters flashback to 2005 as Yadav reads the diary. Sanjay Singhania is shown as the owner of the Air Voice mobile telephone company. In the course of his business, Sanjay sends his men to meet Kalpana, a struggling model, about putting up a billboard above her apartment. The owner of Kalpana's advertising firm misinterprets this as a romantic advance, and in view of a possible lucrative Air Voice ad campaign and other benefits, encourages Kalpana to accept the overture. Kalpana thinks of this as an innocent prank, that may fetch her better modeling work, and decides to play out the charade as Sanjay's girlfriend.

When Yadav is about to read the 2006 diary, Sanjay attacks him and ties him up. He tracks down Ghajini to a college function where Ghajini is the guest of honor. Sanjay snaps some pictures of Ghajini and decides to kill him. He meets Sunita at the function and after some conversation, decides to befriend him. Later that evening, Sanjay mistakenly attacks and kills one of Ghajini's goons in the parking lot. The dying goon tries to remind Ghajini about an incident that took place two years back. Ghajini is perplexed and fails to remind himself well enough.

In the meantime, Sunita visits Sanjay's flat and finds Yadav, beaten and bound. She also finds that Ghajini is Sanjay's target. Sunita finds the two diaries and frees Yadav. Yadav tells her that Sanjay is a known serial murderer. Sanjay arrives suddenly; he remembers neither of them and chases them out. Yadav is eventually hit by a bus, while Sunita barely escapes. Believing Ghajini is in danger, she informs him that Sanjay is after him. Ghajini arrives at Sanjay's flat to kill him. He destroys all the photographs, notes and scratch off Sanjay's tattoos. Satisfied that he has neutralized Sanjay by wiping out any trace that connects back to him, Ghajini leaves.

Meanwhile, back in her dorm, Sunita reads the diaries. The film flashes back to 2006. It is revealed that Kalpana had accepted Sanjay's proposal. This diary ends abruptly. Sunita investigates further, and discovers that Kalpana was traveling for a modeling assignment by train when she came upon 25 innocent young girls being transported to Goa to work as prostitutes and organ donors. She saves the girls who name Ghajini as the ringleader of the racket. Ghajini goes in search of Kalpana. His goons broke into her apartment and wait for her to return. Sanjay arrives there to meet Kalpana. Her last word to him was "Ghajini". The goons attack Kalpana. Sanjay intervenes but Ghajini hit him over the head with an iron rod. Sanjay's last vision was to witness Ghajini brutally murder Kalpana with the iron rod.

Sunita, now aware of the shocking truth, finds Sanjay and tells him the truth. He flies into rage and goes after Ghajini. Arriving at Ghajini's lair in downtown Mumbai, Sanjay confronts all of Ghajini's henchmen and with superior strength, manage to disable all of them. Finally finding Ghajini himself, Sanjay fights Ghajini hand-to-hand. However, Ghajini realizes that he is no match for Sanjay's strength, so the two engage in a chase until Sanjay's memory loss strikes him again. Ghajini turns about and stabs him. He begins to taunt Sanjay with the grisly tale of how he murdered Kalpana, when Sanjay, with a sudden burst of last minute strength, overpowers Ghajini. Sanjay kills Ghajini in the same way as Ghajini had killed Kalpana.

The film ends with Sanjay, still experiencing amnesia, volunteering at an orphanage. Sunita gives him a small gift which is the cement slab of plaster on which Kalpana and Sanjay pressed their foot when Kalpana moved into a new apartment to remind him of his fond association with Kalpana.

Cast

• Aamir Khan as Sanjay Singhania, a rich business man; the chairman of a mobile phone company, Air Voice. He suffers from amnesia which makes him forget all the events that had happened 15 minutes ago.
• Asin Thottumkal as Kalpana, a model by profession who gains publicity by proclaiming herself to be the girlfriend of Sanjay Singhania.
• Jiah Khan as Sunita, a medical student, who is trying to study the case of Sanjay Singhania and his amnesiac problem.
• Pradeep Rawat as Ghajini Dharmatma, a gang honcho and the mastermind of many illegal and criminal ventures.
• Riyaz Khan as Inspector Arjun. A police inspector who is investigating the murders by Sanjay Singhania.

Reception

Critical response

The film received generally positive reviews from critics. Sonia Chopra of Sify gave the movie 4 stars and recommended watching it "For the four As—Aamir, Asin, AR Murgadoss and AR Rahman". Rajeev Masand of CNN IBN gave the movie 3 stars writing, "Ghajini isn't a particularly good film, but entertainment it delivers by the bucketful." Martin D'Souza of Bollywood Trade News Network gave the movie 3.5 stars, noting the flaws in screen play, while praising the action. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama remarked that the movie "is a winner all the way" and gave it 4.5 stars. Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India praised the performance by Aamir Khan as its high point, and awarded 3.5 stars. Zee News described Aamir's performance as his best till date. Sukanya Verma of Rediff gave the movie 3.5 stars, while describing the film as "a sleek album of dark memories, which are terrifying to relive and shattering to experience". Bollywood Movies review gave it a 4 star for good screenplay, directing and good acting by Aamir Khan and Asin Thottumkal.

The film also received some negative reviews. Gaurav Malani of Indiatimes gave the movie 2 stars, criticizing its length while praising the performance of the cast. Raja Sen of Rediff rated the movie 2.5/5 and criticized the performance of Asin while concluding, "overwhelming feeling is one of regret". Shubhra Gupta of Express India concluded that 'Ghajini' is too long, too violent, and criticized Jiah Khan's acting and dancing skills, but praised the performances of Aamir Khan and Asin. Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL India said, "Most comparisons often point out that a remake is not as worthy. Ghajini however succeeds when it is compared to the Tamil version directed by the same director."

Box office

According to Box Office Mojo, Ghajini's box-office totals were about Rs. 100 crore ($21m). The film collected about Rs. 115 crore net in India and over 35 crore overseas. Its total worldwide gross collection is over 140 crores ($30m). It is currently the third highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time and highest-grossing Indian film of all time according to net collections.

Production

The film's shooting started in Chennai in May 2007. Other filming locations included Bangalore, Cape Town, Deadpan Desert, Mumbai and Hyderabad.

Release

Ghajini was released on the 25 December 2008 with an estimated 1500 prints, of which 213 were released to overseas markets. The film had around 650 paid previews which fetched it around INR 70 million. The domestic distribution rights of Ghajini were sold by Geetha Arts for INR 530 million and home video rights as well as overseas rights and satellite rights for another 500 million to Adlabs Films Ltd.

Home media

The 2-disc collector's edition DVD was manufactured by Big Home Video and distributed by international distributor, Adlabs Films Ltd on 13 March 2009 with a MSRP of $19.99 USD. It received a 15+ age rating by the British Board of Film Classification for persistent and excessive violence.

Video game

A PC video game based on the film was manufactured and produced by FXLabs Studios Pvt Ltd and Geetha Arts and marketed and distributed by Eros Home Entertainment entitled Ghajini - The Game. It is a first person perspective game consisting of five levels of play, here the player controlled the protagonist Sanjay to accomplish various missions using martial arts, weapons, and artifacts similar to the Hitman games. It was hailed as India's first true 3D PC game with an MSRP of $14.99 USD, although never officially rated the distributor recommends that 15+ year old players partake in the game.

Mobile content

Indiagames Ghajini is a mobile games and applications based on the film. Indiagames has developed 4 games and 1 application based on the title on the mobile platform. It has different types of games like Ultimate Workout, Memory Revival, Brain Trek, and a number of mini games.

Inspiration

Both Ghajini and the original Tamil version were based on the American film Memento, which itself was adapted from the short story Memento Mori. The film stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a former insurance fraud investigator searching for the man he believes raped and killed his wife during a burglary. Leonard has from anterograde amnesia, which he contracted from severe head trauma during the attack on his wife. Certain concepts like writing notes behind instant Polaroid photographs and tattooing facts on his body were inspired by the film. The lead actress and the director of both the Hindi and Tamil versions of the movie are the same.

Comical part of the film is inspired from Happy Go Lovely (1951). The scene where Kalpana (Asin Thottumkal) helps a blind man to cross the road is a direct lift from the French film Amélie.

According to Aamir Khan, "Ghajini is not a remake or even slightly inspired by Memento, but it's a remake of the Tamil film, Ghajini".

Soundtrack

Main article: Ghajini (soundtrack)

Untitled

The film has six songs composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Prasoon Joshi. While Harris Jayaraj scored the Tamil version, Rahman started from scratch for the Hindi version. The soundtrack album was released on 24 November 2008 by T-Series.

Track listing

Song	Singer(s)	Duration	Notes
"Guzarish"	Javed Ali	5:29	Picturised on Aamir Khan and Asin
"Aye Bachchu"	Suzanne D'Mello	3:48	Picturised on Asin
"Kaise Mujhe"	Benny Dayal & Shreya Ghoshal	5:46	Picturised on Aamir Khan and Asin
"Behka"	Karthik	5:13	Picturised on Aamir Khan and Asin
"Latoo"	Shreya Ghoshal	4:30	Picturised on Jiah Khan
"Kaise Mujhe (Instrumental)"	Instrumental	4:01

Reception

The album received positive reviews from critics and fans. Bollywood Hungama gave an extremely positive review saying, "The music of Ghajini is all set to make waves way into 2009 after the Christmas release of the film. When 'best of the best' list would be compiled at the year end, it would be hard to ignore Ghajini." Rediff.com gave it the highest possible rating of five stars with the reviewer praising Rahman saying, "This could just be one of his finest albums ever. Not just are the tracks great, but each one segues into the next with perfect unpredictability."

Awards

• Star Screen Award for Most Promising Newcomer - Female, Asin Thottumkal
• Stardust Superstar of Tomorrow - Female, Asin Thottumkal
• Stardust Hottest New Filmmaker, A.R. Murugadoss
• Stardust Hottest New Film Award, Ghajini
• Filmfare Best Female Debut Award, Asin Thottumkal
• Filmfare Best Action Award, Peter Hein
• IIFA Best Female Debut, Asin Thottumkal
• IIFA Best Villain Award, Pradeep Rawat

External links

• Official website
• Film Review on Devildead Template:Fr
• Ghajini at AllMovie
• Ghajini at IMDb
• Ghajini at Box Office Mojo