trigger_jam

Typical movie about India that western audiences love so it isn't surprising it has all these great reviews and nominations. AR Rahman's score is good. The acting is decent enough. The whole notion of the actors speaking in English was difficult to get over. Especially when the "slumdog" busts out English in an English accent. What was the point of having a mix of Hindi and English dialog? Story is very similar to Hindi movies of the 90s like Parinda, Sadak etc. But of course the whole "who wants to be a millionaire" is a unique touch over the typical "slum" stories. There is nothing extraordinary about it but there is nothing all too dull about it either. It sits comfortably in the middle.

Ghajini is an out-&-out action movie. Therefore, although it is unconventional it follows some of the roles that fix it into the action movie category. If you're going to analyze this movie from outside that, then you may so choose to do so but that would be criticizing a fresh water fish for dying in the ocean. No matter that. It isn't a perfect action movie but it has several moments of near perfection. Aamir Khan's performance brings about most of those moments. His work on his body certainly makes the action sequences more believable. But the violence and action isn't unjustified and for that we have an equally balanced portion of the story dedicated to the establishment of Asin's character, Kalpana. She aptly balances Aamir's rage and justifies his almost inhuman desire for vengeance. Ghajini did not exceed my expectations but it didn't disappoint them either. It did very well as an action movie which is all it is trying to be. Nothing more, nothing less. Thank you for reading.

Can't say this movie is terrible because while the first half is rather slow the second half picks up pace which increases till the end. Although the acting by everyone involved was comfortably above par, I suppose the script left something more. Things speed up so soon at the end that I got this uncomfortable feeling that I didn't get everything out of it. I think there ought to have been a better way to make this movie because it is a solid, compelling story but just told in an unfriendly manner. The first half was initially disturbing because one couldn't figure out what is going on and what does Clooney's character actually do. While later on the story does fill up and while some of the "hunting" sequences were well done, in the end things just get unraveled too quickly. In the end, I felt that the movie was too short and that they should've spent more time explaining Clooney's predicament.