Ghajini - Aamir the raging bull

After a very long time I had watched a brilliantly shot movie on screen, specially watching it in the Mecca of Chennai cinemas was even more gratifying. Only snag was me and my friends were just seven rows from the screen and we had to literally crane our head and watch the movie. Having watched the movie a lot of times in Tamil I was expecting to draw comparisons. But something made me sit up when I was watching the credits. For a start there weren’t any gimmicks when the hero's name was introduced. It was just plain Aamir Khan (When will Vijay & Ajith… leave alone the lesser bachoos… phew) and a lot of the technicians were from down south. Agreed this is a remake but still made me sit up when worthy souls were recognized. 



Now starting with the movie, as the original it starts with a bang showing the hero stomping a baddie with oodles of vengeance, and the sorry looking doctor explaining scantily clad medical students (phew.. its either overboard or students are taking to other countries a lot these days) about the Hero and his weird disease he is suffering from. Care has been taken by the director to dwell more into detailing and it’s really nice to see an Indian movie with minimum goofs. Aamir after a very long time has literally stormed into the film with his attitude and panache (later on). The attitude he shows in the movie really makes u believe he can really thrash even a goddamn cow into pieces, which is very well presented in the scene where he literally climbs on Riyaz Khan (Police Officer) during a fight. Asin to begin with does look slimmer in the face but only when she wears other dresses do we really see that she is no way near the fit and slim Bollywood heroines and Jiya Khan rightly showcases that. Drawing comparisons to the Tamil and Hindi versions it can be easily conferred that the movie has been shot brilliantly in the Hindi version and also carefully detailed. But when we come to acting part it kinda looks a little more difficult to watch Aamir romance compared to Surya. Asin in the meanwhile is overacting like hell. Man it is a performance only Jyothika from Kushi could have bet. Aamir is good on the style quotient but one thing which made me cringe was a seeing a Chairman wear an overcoat over slacks where it is deliberately folded to show the sinews in his arms. Tamil movie makers and actors (Ajith from Varalaru and Vijay from ATM) should learn from AR Muragadoss, Ravi K Chandran and Aamir on how to showcase different avatars of a single actor on screen and make it look extremely believable, the song (Bekha) was the best shot. Movie as a whole was long and could have been cut down and would have made the thriller more interesting. Comic elements were mainly till the first half and were spoilt by the overacting Asin and the make shift Sanjay Singhania. Sathyan in Tamil version literally blew us off the seats with his dialogues and mannerisms in that character. Music on the whole was good; songs were both pleasing to the ears and eyes (kudos to Ravi K Chandran for this). But on the background score Rahman I believe had lost his chance to excel. This was the movie where he could have created a score equaling Bourne Ultimatum. But he was miles away from that, maybe too much concentration on the Slumdog Millionaire (btw Salute the man for bringing India honors from the Golden Globe). The rest of the characters chipped in and moved away. Jiah Khan was good to watch mainly coz she didn’t overdo her part and was the oomph factor (but more than half the theatre was livid with the director for just showing a minute of the Lattoo song were she was super hot). Violence being the main ingredient for the vengeance Aamir carries was portrayed well, but an outcry to the public. Please leave your toddlers back home for movies (at least movies like this), coz it’s really a pain to hear wailings whenever a goon is hit or when the BGM is on Ur nerves. Climax thankfully has been changed and was a nice attempt. 

Summing up the movie is a must watch, not coz it’s the best, but coz it has all the items listed below

1. Flair

2. Excellent Cinematography 

3. Good music 

4. Great attitude and acting by Aamir (specially after Hrithik and John this is the only guy who can carry of a Six pack or an Eight pack and look extremely comfortable with it. Ask SRK and he would tell u how not to do it) 

5. Excellent detailing and Stunt sequences. 

On the flip side 

1. Asin's overacting irritates 

2. Film's length is a hindrance 

3. Lack of creativity from Rahman on the background score in some places drops the effort delivered on the screen. 

A three out of five star for the movie. And Bollywood is thanking this for raking all the moolah both in and around the country. What are you waiting for? Rush in for the movie.

Chumma Adhirudhu La

This was my first post when i started blogging 17 months ago. :)

June 19th (2007) Monday

Well what else do you think am gonna speak about with a topic like this???
Sivaji released on 15th of this month (well technically speaking 14th) and I being one in many of Rajini fans didn’t get a ticket for the first three days.. Alas God had grace on me and helped me get a ticket on the fourth day (Monday the 19th) in Mayajaal… 

Well you guessed it I was filled with all euphoria and was restless from the morning as the D-day approached.. and as you might well know I couldn’t do my work properly that day… {well matter of fact did I have work?? Phew anyway who care :D}
Nothing went wrong that day (I didn’t have ESP.. if I did have I wouldn’t have thought so).. the weather was very good… that too riding the bike on cloudy day in chennai is in itself a blessing…. Reached office to find no new mails from my onsite coordinator detailing the work ahead for the day, leaving with just some leftover task to be completed from last week (boy!! wasn’t I delighted….) everything is going my way I thought to myself :) (but I didn’t know fate will have the last laugh…) And I finished up work ASAP (as though I had lots to do) and would you believe I was free by 5.30 on a Monday completing my days work.. but anyway had around 3 and a half hrs for the show.. So spent my time discussing with frnds and fellow associates about the movie and how am thrilled to watch the movie.. trying in all ways to infuriate and create envy on all those who hadn’t yet watched the movie already..(well tit for tat.. how do u think I would have felt when a frnd of mine literally ran me the whole script on Friday morning during the 1hr bus ride which made me decide never ever to make frnds in bus LOL and y its better to sleep during travel….) well yaam petra inbam peruga ivaiyagamum (Non tamil reader pls get it translated with some frnd of urs.. Sorry :)) so tried my level best make sure their work was disturbed and thoughts taken to the movie and felt happy (I heard shouts of Sadist!! Well u gottu give some and get some so just brushed it aside..) 

Well tired of all this I looked at my watch to find it hovering in between 6.10 and 6.15…(too much time to kill I thought..) so planned to take a bat and play ping pong for sometime after almost a 4 month drought.. I get down 2 flrs in phase one and up four in phase 2 (navalur) hell of climb… I reach the TT room to find it almost barren with just four guys playing… the whole room gives a nauseating experience with no proper ventilation and in fact would be right if I describe it as an oven.. well I went in search of bats and found two of them which looked like the rats got bored chewing them and took one which had little more leather on it… now went on a treasure hunt for a ball only to find plenty of broken ones and to my dismay I couldn’t find one.. so quickly switched to carom which showed much promise as there was three boards and no one near them so started searching for the coins found them (phew what a relief it was… who knew it was so short lived).. I setup the coins with my frnd in front only then to realize we didn’t have strikers… just then I understand the way the system is run you have tt board, bats but no balls and similarly you have a carom board, coins but no striker.. (kalla kanda naya kanum naya kanda kalla kanum..) many would relate to the previous phrase well tats wat I felt… so finally after swearing a lot (%$&^$&^$) I came down to the lobby (this time using the lift :)) and checked the time it was around 7 and called up my cousin who was supposed to accompany me to the movie and planned a rendezvous to have our dinner which we finished by almost 8 pm.. then I started my voyage to the theatre.. (well it was one of the best 14 km ride I had in the recent times) the weather gods were pleasant on me with great cloudy sky and cool breeze flowing and myself cruising along the ECR road with occasional lightings sneaking across the cloudy sky it was simply awesome and I thought to myself this was the best day of my life and wouldn’t forget it for long (well guys again I didn’t have the ESP to know the former wasn’t going to be true but the latter very much was.. wait.. pls read on..) well with all the excitement we reached the theatre almost three quarters an hour early for the movie… we kept chatting about the movie and time jus flew past… it was 9 pm and the movie was supposed to start in ten minutes so I went had a hot cup of coffee and got one for my cousin and was walking on the corridor and then it happened.. which was supposed to happen tat day tat hour tat place with a bang (chumma athirudu la nalla vekkaranga ya punch dialogue :):)) I had been concentrating on the coffee which was about to be spilt and didn’t notice the near invisible glass (probably saint gobain.. gottu sue those guys… :)) and practically walked into it.. it was a jolting blow and took me 5 secs to recover.. then i decided to wipe of the spilt coffee on my face only to realize blood streaming down my face like sweat on a summer day in Chennai… well immediately dropped the coffee on the floor and rushed to the rest room to wash the blood off and examine the wound which wasn’t very serious but had a cut around 2 cms on my forehead.. washed it and kept cursing internally for the bleeding to be stopped which didn’t happen.. so called up my cousin who immediately came to my rescue with a smirk on his face when I related the event (I did know wat was running in his mind.. me walking into a glass door seeing some gal.. but truth was I was worried about his coffee being spilt.. well guys believe me that’s the truth…) well we tried all sorts of things kept ice on the wound, tied cloth to it.. but the bleeding didn’t stop… so called up my frnd who informed there is a clinic available nearby.. we rushed to it and the doctor thankfully didn’t stitch it up but gave me two shots on my back and we collected the tabs and rushed to the theatre again (well did u guys think I would skip the movie ;-)) only to find it started and we had missed almost 20 minutes (so much for the preparation and the anticipation I had missed the title cards and worse 20 minutes of thalaivar padam) well settled in my seat and had a good time for the rest of the movie.. and once out of the movie was about to start my bike thinking wat a bad day it was (well guys even a second of madness can change a day..) even the weather gods let me down.. it started raining when we started so pulled off for a while and reached home at 2.30 early morning … so much for day full of anticipation and enthusiasm which ended in all pain and agony for me… only good thing to arise was I took sick leave and stayed at home for two days… the rest of the days in office was worse than wat I had expected with everyone whom I had made fun of had revenge on me for my act (tit for tat…) and the week went by like tat..

June 25th (2007) Monday

Well of came the plasters on my forehead and well out emerged the new Harry Potter from Chennai (well tats wat you call a lanky kid with specs on and a scar in his forehead)… :) :)

Well guys I hope I got u, as many would have expected the movie’s review when reading the title… hope it was amusing and u enjoyed it…. Ur comments are welcome…

Finally on the movie its worth watching for Rajini.. :) :)