Ghajini (2008 film)


Ghajini is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film written and directed by A. R. Murugadoss and produced by Allu Aravind, Tagore Madhu and Madhu Mantena. A remake of Murugadoss's own 2005 Tamil film of the same name starring Suriya and Asin, which in turn was reported to be inspired by the 2000 film Memento and the 1951 film Happy Go Lovely, it stars Aamir Khan, Asin, Jiah Khan and Pradeep Rawat in lead roles, with Tinnu Anand, Sunil Grover, Khalid Siddiqui and Riyaz Khan in supporting roles. The score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman, while Aamir co-wrote an altered climax.
Set in Mumbai, Ghajini follows the story of Sanjay Singhania, 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 murder, committed by the eponymous gangster-turned-public figure, with the aid of photographs from a Polaroid Instant camera and permanent tattoos on his body.
Ghajini became the highest-grossing Indian film of 2008, and the first Bollywood film to cross the 100 crore mark domestically, creating the 100 Crore Club. Ghajini's paid preview collections were 27million. On release, it became the highest-grossing Indian film of all time, until it was surpassed by Aamir's next, 3 idiots, the following year. Aamir's character was featured in a 3D video game titled Ghajini – The Game, which is based on the film.

Plot

Sunita 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, a Mumbai-based businessman who has 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. He systematically kills the people who were involved in the murder. His main target is Ghajini Dharmatma, a notable social personality in Mumbai, and the man directly responsible for Kalpana's death and Sanjay's condition.
Police inspector Arjun Yadav 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 wakes up 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. 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 and given a sedative to knock him unconscious. The police dial Ghajini's number which was tattooed on Sanjay's body and he lies to the police that he is a friend of his. Sanjay is taken home to rest but Ghajini and his men break into his flat and destroy all his pictures so that he won't remember anything and remove all the tattoos on his body.
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 returned home from a business firm in London, he found Kalpana stabbed. Ghajini hit Sanjay on the head with an iron rod which resulted in a brain injury. 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 amnesia 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 story ends 6 months later, with a cured Sanjay who is once again the Chairman 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

It was rumoured earlier that the film was titled Kajri. It is a remake of the Tamil film, Ghajini. Aamir Khan, who had never before made a remake film in his career, 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." 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. Priyanka Chopra was offered a lead role in the film, but turned down the part because of scheduling conflicts.
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. Murugadoss revealed that the altered climax of the film was rewritten by Khan. According to A.R. Murugadoss:

Influences

Murdagoss's original 2005 Tamil version of Ghajini was inspired by 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 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". 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." Christopher Nolan was later made aware that an Indian film with a plot similar to Memento was released.
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. Several comical scenes in the film are similar to Happy Go Lovely. The scene where Kalpana helps a blind man to cross the road is similar to the French film Amélie.

Filming

Shooting started in Chennai in May 2007. 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. This film marked the Bollywood debut for Asin. The film's production budget was.

Release

Ghajini was released on 25 December 2008 with an estimated 1,500 prints worldwide, including 1,200 prints in the domestic market, making it the largest Bollywood release at that time. The domestic rights were sold to Geetha Arts for, while satellite, overseas and home media rights were sold at a total of, breaking the records of Shah Rukh Khan's film Om Shanti Om's.
The overseas distributors, Reliance Entertainment released the film with 300 prints in 22 countries, including 112 prints in the US 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. It had around 650 paid previews which fetched it around.

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.
Ghajini reportedly earned from gaming rights, for satellite rights for India and overseas, and something to the tune of for home video and music.

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. 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.

Controversy

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

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". Rajeev Masand of CNN IBN gave 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 3.5 stars, noting the flaws in screenplay, 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". 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." 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. 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.
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. Raja Sen of Rediff rated the movie 2.5/5 and criticised 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 criticised Jiah Khan's acting and dancing skills, but praised the performances of Aamir Khan and Asin. 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."

Box office

Ghajini grossed 110crore in five days. A success party was organised at Taj Land's End hotel in Mumbai on 30 December 2008 to celebrate this feat. Trade analyst Komal Nahta estimated the film's first week nett collections to be 62crore.
Ghajini grossed in two weeks—including a domestic gross of and an overseas collection of. A success party was organised to celebrate its 200crore worldwide celebration in January 2009. By that time, the film had also nett 104.31crore domestically, making it the first Bollywood film to net over 100crore domestically, creating the 100 Crore Club.
Ghajini became the highest-grossing Indian film ever at the time, and was declared an "All Time Blockbuster". Its record was eventually surpassed a year later by another Aamir Khan film, 3 Idiots.

Soundtrack

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

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

Awards and nominations

AwardsCategoryRecipients and NomineesResults
Screen AwardsMost Promising Newcomer - FemaleAsinrowspan="1"
Screen AwardsBest FilmGhajinirowspan="3"
Screen AwardsBest ActorAamir Khan-
Screen AwardsBest ActressAsin-
Stardust AwardsSuperstar of Tomorrow - FemaleAsinrowspan="2"
Stardust AwardsHottest New FilmmakerA.R. Murugadoss-
Stardust AwardsHottest New FilmGhajinirowspan="1"
Filmfare AwardsBest Female DebutAsinrowspan="3"
Filmfare AwardsBest ActionPeter Hein-
Filmfare AwardsFilmfare RD Burman Award for New Music TalentBenny Dayal for Ghajini, Yuvvraaj and Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na-
Filmfare AwardsBest FilmA.R. Murugadossrowspan="5"
Filmfare AwardsBest DirectorA.R. Murugadoss-
Filmfare AwardsBest ActorAamir Khan-
Filmfare AwardsBest ActressAsin-
Filmfare AwardsBest Music DirectorA.R. Rahman-
International Indian Film Academy AwardsStar Debut of the Year - FemaleAsinrowspan="4"
International Indian Film Academy AwardsBest Special EffectsPrime Focus-
International Indian Film Academy AwardsBest ActionPeter Hein, Stun Shiva-
International Indian Film Academy AwardsBest Sound RecordingResul Pookutty, Amrit Pritam Dutta-
International Indian Film Academy AwardsBest FilmMadhu Mantena, Allu Aravind, Tagore Madhurowspan="6"
International Indian Film Academy AwardsBest ActorAamir Khan-
International Indian Film Academy AwardsBest DirectorA.R. Murugadoss-
International Indian Film Academy AwardsBest ActressAsin-
International Indian Film Academy AwardsBest VillainPradeep Rawat-
International Indian Film Academy AwardsBest Music DirectorA.R. Rahman-
Producers Guild Film AwardsBest DirectorAR Murugadoss
Producers Guild Film AwardsBest ActorAamir Khanrowspan="2"
Producers Guild Film AwardsBest CinematographyRavi K. Chandran-