Ghajini (2008 film)

Ghajini
Theatrical release poster
Hindi

गजनी

Directed by A. R. Murugadoss
Produced by
Written by
Screenplay by A. R. Murugadoss
Aamir Khan (Climax)[1]
Story by A. R. Murugadoss
Starring
Music by A. R. Rahman
Cinematography Ravi K. Chandran
Edited by Anthony
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • 25 December 2008 (2008-12-25)
Running time
180 minutes[2]
Country India
Language Hindi
Budget 52 crore[3][4] ($15 million)[5]
Box office 232 crore ($53 million)[5]

Ghajini is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language action-thriller film written and directed by A. R. Murugadoss, with a climax co-written by Aamir Khan,[1] and produced by Allu Aravind, Tagore Madhu and Madhu Mantena. It stars Aamir Khan, Asin, Jiah Khan and Pradeep Rawat in lead roles, with Tinnu Anand, and Riyaz Khan (in his only Hindi role) in supporting roles. The score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman.

It is a Bollywood remake of Murugadoss's own 2005 Tamil film of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the film Memento (2000).[6][7] Ghajini follows the story of a businessman who develops anterograde amnesia following a violent encounter in which his love interest, a model named Kalpana, was killed. He tries to avenge the killing with the aid of photographs from a Polaroid Instant camera and permanent tattoos on his body.[8] It largely follows the same plot as the Tamil original, but with an altered climax rewritten by Aamir Khan.[1]

Ghajini became the highest-grossing Indian film of 2008, and the first Indian film to cross the 100 crore mark domestically, creating the 100 Crore Club.[9] Ghajini's paid preview collections were 27 million.[10] On release, it became the highest-grossing Indian film of all time, until it was surpassed by another Aamir Khan movie, 3 Idiots (2009), the following year. Aamir Khan's character was featured in a 3D video game titled Ghajini – The Game, which is based on the film.[11]

Plot

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 girlfriend Kalpana (Asin). He systematically kills the people who were involved in 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 6 months later, with a still-amnesiac Sanjay who is once again the CEO of AirVoice and is volunteering at an orphanage named after Kalpana. Sunita gives him a gift that reminds him of his bond, with Kalpana, and Sanjay sees Kalpana by his side. Sanjay is finally at peace with himself.

Cast

  • Aamir Khan as Sanjay Singhania, a rich businessman; the chairman of a mobile phone company, Air Voice; who later suffers from short term memory loss after a brutal attack
  • Asin as Kalpana Shetty, a model who gains publicity by falsely proclaiming herself to be the girlfriend of Sanjay Singhania
  • Jiah Khan as Sunita, a medical student, who tries to study the case of Sanjay Singhania and his amnesiac problem, even though she is forbidden to do so
  • Tinnu Anand as Satveer Kohli, Kalpana's boss
  • Pradeep Rawat as Ghajini Dharmatma, a gang honcho and the mastermind of many illegal and criminal ventures.
  • Sai Tamhankar as Sunita's friend
  • Khalid Siddiqui as Air Voice manager
  • Rajendran as Henchman
  • Supreeth Reddy as Ghajini's Henchman
  • Riyaz Khan as Inspector Arjun. A police inspector who is investigating the murders by Sanjay Singhania.
  • Sunil Grover as Sampat
  • Vaibhav Mathur as Struggling Ad-Model

Production

It was rumoured earlier that the film was titled Kajri.[12] It is a remake of the Tamil film, Ghajini (2005). Aamir Khan, who had never before made a remake film in his career,[13] was initially hesitant to do the film, but was convinced by Suriya, the original star of the Tamil Ghajini, who told him he was "the only one who could do justice to the character."[14] Suriya was a fan of Khan, and had some involvement in the film's development, discussing minute details with Khan for two years during the film's development.[13]

Aamir Khan was involved in the film's creative writing process, deciding what should remain from the original Tamil Ghajini and what changes should be made. Murgadass revealed that the altered climax of the film was rewritten by Khan. According to A.R. Murugadoss:[1]

We didn't make too many changes in the rest of the film. Every time I'd suggest a change in Ghajini from the original, Aamir would firmly cut it down, saying we should stick to the Tamil script. But he decided we should rewrite the climax. The entire location, incidents and dialogues for the climax were re-written by Aamir. I think the Hindi version is far better than the Tamil Ghajini because of the changes Aamir made

Influences

Murdagoss's original 2005 Tamil version of Ghajini was inspired by the American film Memento (2000), 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 suffers 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 are also similar. 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".[15] However, he acknowledged that Murgadoss's original Tamil film was at least partly inspired by Memento, stating, "Murgadoss had heard about a film called Memento and the concept had really fascinated him. Without having seen the film he went ahead and wrote his own version of the script and screenplay. Having finished his script, he then saw Memento, found it very different from what he had written, and went ahead and made Ghajini."[16] Christopher Nolan was later made aware that an Indian film with a plot similar to Memento was released. As said by Anil Kapoor in an interview, when he met Nolan, he said Nolan was "upset" about the film and Nolan said that he was neither credited nor compensated.[17]

The film's title is a reference to Mahmud of Ghazni, the tenth-century Sultan of Ghaznavid Empire whose name is pronounced "Ghajini" in Tamil.[18] Several comical scenes in the film are similar to Happy Go Lovely (1951). The scene where Kalpana (Asin Thottumkal) helps a blind man to cross the road is similar to the French film Amélie.[19]

Filming

Shooting started in Chennai in May 2007.[20] Climax was shot in Old City, Hyderabad. Other filming locations included Bangalore, Cape Town, Deadpan Desert and Mumbai. Aamir Khan had spent a year working out at the gym, training for his role.[21] This film marked the Bollywood debut for Asin. The film's production budget was 65 crore (equivalent to 129 crore or US$18 million in 2017).[4]

Release

Ghajini (main villains named film) was released on 25 December 2008 with an estimated 1,500 prints worldwide,[22] including 1,200 prints (digital and analogue versions) in the domestic market,[23][24] making it the largest Bollywood release at that time. The domestic rights were sold to Geetha Arts for 530 million (US$7.4 million), while satellite, overseas and home media rights were sold at a total of 400 million (US$5.6 million), breaking the records of Shah Rukh Khan's film Om Shanti Om's 730 million (US$10 million).[25]

The overseas distributors, Reliance Entertainment released the film with 300 prints in 22 countries, including 112 prints in the USA and Canada, 65 prints in the UK and 36 prints in the UAE. Ghajini was also released in Norway, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.[26] It had around 650 paid previews which fetched it around 70 million.[24]

Home media

The two-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 US$19.99. It received a 15+ age rating by the British Board of Film Classification for persistent and excessive violence.[27]

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: Ghajini – The Game. It is a third-person action game consisting of five levels of play; here the player controlled the protagonist Sanjay to accomplish missions using martial arts, weapons, and artefacts.[28] It was hailed as India's first true 3D PC game with an MSRP of US$14.99. Although never officially rated, the distributor recommends that 15+ year old players partake in the game.[29] Ghajini has also reportedly earned 40 million (US$560,000) from gaming rights (a first for a Bollywood film), 210 million (US$2.9 million) for satellite rights for India and overseas and something to the tune of 100 million (US$1.4 million) for home video and music.[23]

Controversies

Director A. R. Murugadoss was arrested shortly before the film's completion. According to Salem Chandrasekhar (producer of the Tamil original), he had not bought the rights to remake the film in Hindi.[30]

Reception

Critical response

Sonia Chopra of Sify gave the movie 3.5 stars and recommended watching it "For the four As—Aamir, Asin, AR Murgadoss and AR Rahman".[31] Rajeev Masand of CNN IBN gave 3 stars writing, "Ghajini isn't a particularly good film, but entertainment it delivers by the bucketful."[32] Martin D'Souza of Bollywood Trade News Network gave 3.5 stars, noting the flaws in screenplay, while praising the action.[33] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama remarked that the movie "is a winner all the way" and gave it 4.5 stars.[34] Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India praised the performance by Aamir Khan as its high point and awarded 3.5 stars.[35]

Zee News described Aamir's performance as his best till date.[36] 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".[37] 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."[38] Anupama Chopra of NDTV said "Ghajini isn't a great film or even a very good one but I recommend that you see it. It is, as we used to say in the old days, paisa vasool.[39] Kaveree Bamzai of India Today said that "This is brutality, choreographed by a poet, and therefore that much more compelling." giving it 3.5 stars.[40]

The film received some mixed and negative reviews. Gaurav Malani of Indiatimes gave 2 stars, criticising its length while praising the performance of the cast.[41] Raja Sen of Rediff rated the movie 2.5/5 and criticised the performance of Asin while concluding, "overwhelming feeling is one of regret".[42] Shubhra Gupta of Express India concluded that Ghajini is too long, too violent, and criticised Jiah Khan's acting and dancing skills, but praised the performances of Aamir Khan and Asin.[43] Hindustan Times gave it 2 stars and said "You'd like to give Ghajini a long-term memory loss. Kya, kyon, kahan? Murugadoss.? Aamir? Asin? Who? Got to jog my memory... maybe after 15 minutes."[44]

Box office

Ghajini grossed 110 crore in five days. A success party was organised at Taj Land's End hotel in Mumbai on 30 December 2008 to celebrate this feat.[45][46][47] Trade analyst Komal Nahta estimated the film's first week nett collections to be 62 crore.[48]

Ghajini grossed 232 crore (equivalent to 460 crore or US$64 million in 2017) in two weeks—including a domestic gross of 162 crore (equivalent to 321 crore or US$45 million in 2017)[23] and an overseas collection of 70 crore (equivalent to 139 crore or US$19 million in 2017).[49][50][51] A success party was organised to celebrate its 200 crore worldwide celebration in January 2009.[52] By that time, the film had also nett 104.31 crore domestically,[49] making it the first Indian film to nett over 100 crore domestically, creating the 100 Crore Club.[13][53]

Ghajini became the highest-grossing Indian film ever at the time,[54] and was declared an "All Time Blockbuster".[55] Its record was eventually surpassed a year later by another Aamir Khan film, 3 Idiots (2009).[54]

Soundtrack

Ghajini
Soundtrack album by A.R Rahman
Released 24 November 2008 (2008-11-24)
Recorded Panchathan Record Inn and AM Studios
Genre Feature film soundtrack
Length 28:23
Label T-Series
Producer A. R. Rahman
A.R Rahman chronology
Yuvvraaj
(2008)
Ghajini
(2008)
Slumdog Millionaire
(2009)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Rediff[56]
Bollywood Hungama[57]

The film has six songs, including two remixes, composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Prasoon Joshi.

Track list
No.TitleArtist(s)Length
1."Guzaarish"Javed Ali, Sonu Nigam5:29
2."Guzaarish Remix"Javed Ali, Sonu Nigam5:29
3."Kaise Mujhe"Benny Dayal, A.R. Rahman, Shreya Ghoshal5:46
4."Behka"Karthik5:13
5."Behka Remix"Karthik5:13
6."Latoo"Shreya Ghoshal4:30
7."Kaise Mujhe"Instrumental4:01
8."Aye Bacchu"Suzanne D'Mello3:48
Total length:28:23

Reception

Bollywood Hungama wrote, "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."[57] 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."[56] According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, the soundtrack album sold about 1.9 million units, making it the year's best selling Bollywood music soundtrack album.[58]

Awards

See also

References

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