Ghajini

Plot synopsis:
Sunita (Jiah Khan) is a medical student, working on a project about the human brain with her classmates. When she was denied access by her professor to the curious case of Sanjay Singhania (Aamir Khan), a man reported to have anterograde amnesia, because it is under criminal investigation, Sunita decides to investigate the matter herself.
It is later revealed that Sanjay loses his memory every 15 minutes. He uses a system of photographs, notes, and tattoos on his body to recover his memory after each cycle to remind himself of his mission: to avenge the death of his wife Kalpana (Asin). He systematically kills the people who were involved to the murder. His main target is Ghajini Dharmatma (Pradeep Rawat), a notable social personality in the city, and the man directly responsible for Kalpana's death and Sanjay's condition.
Police inspector Arjun Yadav (Riyaz Khan) tracks Sanjay down to his apartment and knocks him unconscious. Yadav finds two diaries in which Sanjay has chronicled the events of 2005 and 2006. The film flashes back to 2005 as Yadav reads the diary. Sanjay Singhania is the chairman of the Air Voice mobile telephone company. In the course of business, he sends his men to meet Kalpana, a struggling model of Mumbai, 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, encourages Kalpana to accept the overture. Kalpana thinks of it as an innocent prank that may fetch her better modelling work and decides to act as Sanjay's girlfriend. Sanjay goes to confront Kalpana about this but falls in love with her at first sight. He hides his identity and introduces himself as Sachin, and the two begin spending time together. The diary ends with Sanjay proposing to Kalpana and promising himself that he will reveal his actual identity if she accepts.
When Yadav is about to read the 2006 diary, Sanjay awakes and attacks him, tying him up. Ghajini realizes that someone is trying to kill him but is unable to figure out who. Sunita visits Sanjay's flat and discovers Sanjay's plan to kill Ghajini. She takes both his diaries before finding Yadav, beaten and bound, and freeing him. Just then, Sanjay arrives, he remembers neither of them and chases them out. Yadav is hit by a bus as he flees in terror, and Sunita, believing Ghajini is the good guy in danger, informs him about Sanjay. Ghajini arrives at Sanjay's flat and destroys all of Sanjay's photographs and notes, as well as the tattoos on Sanjay's body, so that Sanjay is left with nothing to help him recover his memory.
Meanwhile, Sanjay discovers that Sunita had warned Ghajini and he goes to her dormitory to kill her, but Sunita calls the police and Sanjay is arrested. Back in her dormitory as Sunita reads the diaries, the film flashes back to 2006, where it is revealed that Kalpana had accepted Sanjay's proposal. When this diary ends abruptly, Sunita investigates further and discovers that Kalpana was travelling to Goa for a modelling assignment when she came upon 25 innocent young girls being trafficked. She had saved the girls with the help of some army soldiers on board, who named Ghajini as the ringleader of the racket. Outraged, Ghajini broke into Kalpana's apartment with his goons to kill her. When Sanjay arrived, he found Kalpana stabbed. Ghajini then hit Sanjay over the head with an iron rod. Sanjay's last sight was Ghajini brutally murdering Kalpana with the iron rod. Kalpana's last word to Sanjay was "Ghajini."
Sunita, now aware of the shocking truth, finds Sanjay in the hospital and tells him the truth. He flies into a heartbroken rage and tracks down Ghajini with Sunita's help. He fights off all of Ghajini's henchmen with a superior and anger-fueled strength. Ghajini,upon realizing Sanjay is too strong for him, flees. Sanjay's memory loss strikes again, and he forgets who Ghajini is. Ghajini takes this opportunity to stab Sanjay and taunt him with the grisly tale of how he murdered Kalpana. As he is about to make Sanjay relive the experience by killing Sunita in the same exact way, Sanjay recovers the memory of Kalpana's murder, and overpowers Ghajini in a flash of strength. He finally kills Ghajini, in the same way Ghajini had killed Kalpana.
The film ends with a still-amnesiac Sanjay volunteering at an orphanage named after Kalpana. Sunita gives him a gift that reminds him of his bond with Kalpana, and Sanjay imagines Kalpana by his side, finally at peace with himself.

Tags: revenge, murder, flashback

Review:
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?
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).
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.
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.
We Tamils can watch a great movie told in a great way.
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.
I saw this movie and was impressed first only for one reason .The new concept of short term memory loss .But then later when I saw the original one Memento I was totally awestruck by how beautifully the screenplay was done ,you in fact live with the character ,which you can never feel for once in Ghajini .Well thats not the only flaw the whole brilliance and intelligence of Mememto is diminished in Ghajini .
Yes it has this concept of short term memory loss .But instead of developing on that , the story is killed half the way .
Well I was impressed with Ghajini only because I was happy that directors have started thinking about new concepts ,but I was wrong .This one too turned out to be a copy ,nothing original ..
Gajini, Directed by A.R.Murugadhas is a action movie, this time with a story.
Rajasekar, Antony above all Kanal Kanna are the real hero's of the film in Story, Camera, Editing and Stunts respectively.The highlight of the movie is the climax stunt between Surya and the Villain  absolutely fabulous.
When I saw alavandhan (movie) I thought what else can you do to beat this kind of stunt (remember kamal vs kamal) but the vision of the director, stuntman and the visual effects is really amazing and surprisingly perfect (It took 10 days to complete the climax).Surya has performed beautifully in both the characters.
Surya, Asin pair in the movie looks fresh and good.
Harris Jayaraj is looking confused in many places in the background score, he gives you a feeling as if you are seeing his earlier movie (anniyan, thotti jaya) but he has made it equal with songs specially "Sutrum Villi Sudarae" is beautifully choreographed and filmed.A.R.Murugadhas has done the story (The knot was taken from an English film Memento), screenplay and direction very well, but the two songs (Nayantharas and the climax song) are definitely the show stoppers as they bring down the phase and the impact of the story in a descending order, must have been avoided (remember Ramana where we has effectively only 2 songs) Gajini a movie worth watching..
I got to tell you that this movie elevated my respect to Tamil film industry.
Most of the time the director's direction matters in the movie.
Agreed that the core theme (Short Term Memory Loss) of Ghajini is taken out of Memento.
its about how a short term memory loss patient takes revenge on people who killed his lover.
Sanjay ramasamy(surya)is an short term memory loss patient and in the flash back he is an business tycoon ,but falls in love with a advertisement model(asin),who is interested in helping others.because of this nature she lands up into trouble and it goes up to the extent of she being killed.Surya who develops short term memory loss after an assault,plans to take revenge on those people responsible for his lovers murder.nyanthara plays the role of a medical student who is interested in case history of Surya.
initially without knowing the story of Surya,she creates problem for him indirectly,but at last help him to reach the people whom he wanted to kill.this season being an one withreleases of lots of psycho thrillers,ghajini could do well.except certain scenes where there logic is overruled ,its a good movie.
After watching "Memento", the Hollywood original, i was expecting a good remake of the same with an added Indian masala pinch from Ghajini.The film started off well but lost its touch after fifteen minutes as itloses its way gradually and one can expect only the worse as the movie progresses.
The love story plot in the movie Drags a lot.
3. Only Pratap Rawat was the saving grace of what can be duly called a FLOP SHOW To conclude i must say -> that this film would be loved only by ardent Surya fans and those who really don't care to bother much about the Movie as Mr. Murgadoss had deviated from the path completely.
Long time back I watched Memento, which was a masterpiece in the thriller generation.
Now after a long time again I had to see Indian version of Memento.
It can be of any industry, and let's take here Tamil film industry Kollywood since Ghajini is originally made in Tamil as well dubbed in Telugu.I must admit that I caught this Ghajini just by its subtitle since I cannot understand any of Southern Indian languages.
And so now I am commenting on this impressive title Ghajini after finally grabbing it.In Memento Christopher Nolan used a unique storytelling technique which was not used before by any other director, and made me to watch it thrice to understand the whole story.
But although Ghajini is not exactly a carbon copy of Memento, it has the similarities of the lead role suffering from 'anterograde amnesia' and following the incidents of written notes & tattoos corner by corner in his body as reminders.
The rest of the story is from itself.Murugadoss did a memorable job by making an Indian version of Memento in his own way by using his own talent and not fully depending on Hollywood.
I watched him first and last time in super hit Sarfarosh as illegal weapon supplier Sultan, and now again.I equally noticed some unnecessary issues like police officer's role performed by Riyaz Khan.
His role was not that important for the story but he appeared in the movie as if he is born simply to die from an amnesiac patient.
Besides, many songs were also not important for showing the tragic romance between Sanjay and Kalpana, and could easily be avoided.After all I wish to give only 7 out of 10 for lacking of originality in the action scenes.
During running of the movie only the fact that made me bored were the action scenes by which I felt as if I am watching some cartoons in Cartoon Network or Pogo.
I know most of the Indian action scenes are made in this sense just to turn a superhero for some time.
That's why Ghajini could have been a superb heart-touching and entertaining if important action scenes are presented more realistically than they are..
when this director will direct a original film..Surya acting is very artificial.
R. Murugadoss' Ghajini starring Aamir Khan, given that it had broken, and is still continuing to rake in stellar box office receipt records for a Bollywood movie around the world.
For me, it piqued my interest enough to revisit his 2005 Tamil version starring Surya Sivakumar in the lead role, with Asin who also starred in both versions as Kalpana, and Pradeep Singh Rawat as the villain, curiously not called Ghajini here, but Laxman.
I shall leave comparisons with Christopher Nolan's Memento unmentioned because I've done so with my earlier review of Ghajini (2008).Instead I shall focus more on the similarities and differences in the Murugadoss films, since he crafted both the screenplay and dialogue, and directed both movies with predominantly the same leads, save for the protagonist Sanjay Ramasamy (Surya Sivakumar) inflicted with short term memory loss.The opening credits stayed similar, and for the first half hour, I thought I would be watching the same 2008 movie all over again.
The structure of the story remained for at least two-thirds of the film, and especially the romance between Kalpana and Sanjay, except for distinct differences such as the knowledge of who the chief villain is with the possession of the all important polaroid, and spending some time showing how Sanjay had tattooed himself with the clues.While it may be easy to work on a remake, given that you're basically rehashing what you've done before, and more so with experienced actors in the same role again, it is easy to free fall into complacency and to go through the motions with your own remake especially.
But kudos to Murugadoss for identifying plot loopholes, and to make changes for the better in the Hindi version, rather than to import such flaws wholesale into the new movie.
Sorely missed were the daily routine that Sanjay would have to relive everyday, which I thought was an important scene to reinforce his difficulty in trying to hunt down the gangsters.The final act turned out to be an all out whackfest without too much thought put into making this film more plausible, opting instead for a pseudo-terrorist hostage situation.
Sutrum Vizhi has this really hypnotic, head-banging beat to it.My frank opinion would be to watch the Hindi version not because it's vastly superior, but for its production values as well as a more coherent story reworked for a much better result.
This version is still valuable in terms of seeing how far everyone had come, and for fans of Asin, this is the film that provided her that breakthrough in her career.The Region Free DVD by Venai Holdings is presented in matted letterbox format.
Ghajini Just because Amir Khan  the superstar of Bollywood is attempting to make this Tamil re-make in Hindi, I was interested to see this original (which itself is a rip-off of Hollywood movie Memento).The story is very much similar to the original Hollywood movie Memento.
The hero (Surya)  who is suffering short term memory loss - revenges his girl friend's (Asin) murder through the help of notes, photographs and in the end  another heroine (Nayantara) to track the killer Lakshman and his brother (both played by Pradeep Singh Rawat).The movie is told in typical Indian (Tamil) style.
As the flash back is a love story between Surya and Asin  there are lots of songs thrown in.
Whenever there is no flashback, the hero fights and kills the goons.I hear that this was a hit movie in Tamil when it was released  so explains the taste of Indian audiences.
Let me make it clear here  that for me, this movie even though not so good, was better than the original Memento.
Seeing two movies of similar stories and both made poorly by the Director, I am interested to see what Amir Khan Productions is up to?
Be it the romantic and rich Sanjay or the struggling man out to seek revenge, Surya is simply original and expressive.He has really bent his back to make the action sequences sizzle.
Rajasekhar's camera work is also another high point of the film.Kanal Kannan's stunt choreography needs special mention.Thanks a lot for Murugadoss for showing that masala movies need not be inane or insipid.Ghajini works, big time..
An absorbing movie,about a novel concept with the high dose of violence songs and glamour- is Ghajini in a nutshell.
What makes it stand out is the performance of the lead pair- Surya and Asin.
Inspired from the Hollywood thriller Memento, the director has done ample changes to fit it into the Indian scenario.
A patient (Surya) suffering from Short term memory loss becomes the subject of interest of a glamorous (?) medical student Chitra(Nayantara), who is warned from going any further.
Then it is left to Chitra to bring out the whole truth behind the Hero's present condition and help him take revenge.Surya is Sanjay Ramaswamy, a business tycoon who falls in love with the vivacious and aspiring small time model Kalpana (Asin).
Once Kalpana saves some girls from the clutches of a group of kidnappers .She gets killed by child traffickers while Sanjay, who is a witness to the murder, is grievously injured, leading to his short term memory loss.
The director Murugadoss and Surya have put in a lot of efforts trying to show the plight of the person who cant remember anything for more than 15 minutes.
The villain Rawat is the typical baddie and his double role really seems unnecessary.The positives:Surya is the heart and soul of the movie.
Kudos to the director and the actor for making the character of Kalpana lovable and extremely elegant.The pair of Surya and Asin are perfect in every way.
With such a lovely pair, better choreographed songs would have a big plus.Overall this movie is worth a watch because of the refreshing lead pair and the interesting presentation of a new idea.Director Murugadoss has lived upto the Expectation and hype created by Ghajini...
Of course,some readers would say that Memento(the English version of Ghajini)was better.*cough cough*EXCUSE ME?!This movie is Oscar material.Momento is crap compared to Ghajini.Guy Pierce acted like a wallaby and didn't look good AT ALL.Surya's looks and acting and Asin's cute and acting must earn this title an Oscar Nomination.Now,to the cons of the film.Nayantara's acting was........BORING!The lady has grown too fat and was also ugly.Her character was also pretty foolish and was technically not needed at all.Riyaz Khan could have taken care of the job pretty well.The villain could have been a little less gruesome.The ending,too,was very abrupt.But two exceptionally good points about the movie were Surya's looks(he was so hot!)and graphics(awesome!).You movie buffs must catch this cool title with subtitles.The songs 'Oru Maalai' and 'Suttum Vizhi'are two wonderful songs which I really liked.I,being a girl who hates Tamil movies,think this one is definitely a winner.With a touch of romantic numbers,a hint of action sequences and a pinch of graphics,Ghajini is a must watch..
I know this is one movie, but I'm going to use this as a vehicle to express my thoughts on all of modern Indian filmmaking.
That's the end of my actual review of the film, so you want my advice if you're considering watching it?
Go watch Memento instead.Now for my review of all Indian cinema.
As many would know it's taken based on the English movie 'Memento' released in 2000.
Tamil story is very much customized for local market with good romance.Movie is good in the first half with good romance story, Asin is pretty, and songs are shot well with lovely costumes.
Screen play isn't so good, the second half of the movie becomes boring as the story is pulled here and there with too many twists.
Songs had been edited well.Bad part is Tamil movie is still made with totally illogical screen play and funny / unbelievable scenes.
I think the directors have to mature in giving the movies which shows reality.
This applied to most of the directors and actors.Ghajini is a decent entertainer for most of the time.
It is not a crime to rip off movies into Tamil and Hindi.But what is loathsome is the inept "Indianization" of the movie.It is commendable that Director Murugadoss has even thought of bringing Memento to the Tamil audience but did it need such a loose script to hopelessly adapt it for the mainstream moviegoers of the state?The movie starts off taut enough.Suriya,the lead actor,seems to be making the right moves in choosing the projects he associates himself with.But in spite of what he might want to hear,it is his billionaire character that easily outshines the truculent amnesiac in the movie.
The second half of the movie fizzles out with the bollywood imported villain(the director really is childish with his double acting stunts)and Nayan Thara(in obscenely ill-fitting attires).The music is surprisingly good.Harris Jeyaraj,unlike the Director Murugadoss has actually put in some effort to get his scores right.Watch the movie if you want to.I'd definitely not recommend it..
People call this a copy from the movie Memento!
they have just inspired the concept of Short Term Memory Loss and the struggles of the hero.
better learn the difference between remake and inspiration!Cast: Suriya- the most romantic hero of Tamil cinema has done lots of justice to the movie.
Asin- Should be and always be the best movie she has done in Tamil.
Riyaz Khan- tough his character is short-timed, he has done a perfect job as a police officer.
One of the best of Suriya movies and is recommended to watch many times , even get a original blue-ray DVD as a collection!
There is not special in Ghajini.A copy of Memento Movie which far better with style.The Tamil Director has made the movie in the Indian way has the medical student searching for the character who has the problem amnesia.The flashback tells that the rich man who loves the girl till the end of first half does not tell her till he reveals the secret.The villain will come and hit the hero in the head when the heroine gets killed during the incident he losses consiousness.Avenging the twin villains will be done like Matrix in the climax Watch the English version better than this one.
The director has promoted ASIN in her ADS skills as a character who likes Ghajini.