Long time back I watched Memento, which was a masterpiece in the thriller generation. It was (and is) one of my all time favourite thrillers. After watching it I became a great fan of Christopher Nolan who also later provided us two Batman movies so far. Now after a long time again I had to see Indian version of Memento. Here Indian in the sense doesn't always mean of Hindi film industry Bollywood. It can be of any industry, and let's take here Tamil film industry Kollywood since Ghajini is originally made in Tamil as well dubbed in Telugu.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. Just after learning that it was inspired from Memento I decided of watching it, but neglected again and again. 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. Still then the main theme was on taking revenge of his lover's murderers. 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. Nevertheless, Surya Sivakumar is really impressive in both roles – as a rich, cool and romantic businessman lover as well as a serious amnesiac running after murderers for revenge. And most important to mention is the name of Asin who performed a tragic but marvelous role as Kalpana. Pradeep Rawat's double role was so boring, and I guess it was created just to spark in the running story, nothing else than this. 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. After his first appearance I expected as if he has a strong significance in making the story sharper. 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.
