Beef Overload

When we meet Sanjay, a few things about him seem immediately clear. He attacks his job as a CEO of a cellular network company with an exuberance that some might consider grounds for harassment he personally hounds building owners to convince them to display the hoardings of his company. He is rich beyond reason, though his wealth doesn8217;t help him to deal with a mere galli-ka-gunda-type character. And while he struggles with a medical condition that wipes away his memory every fifteen minutes, he spends his days plotting to avenge the murder of his beloved 8211; a vivacious 8220;phenomenon8221; called Kalpana Asin. Though there is pain lingering behind his plaintive brown eyes, and his animal-like grunts suggest a man who has barely survived some unspeakable tragedy, his disproportionately sculpted body is such a distraction that it makes even the perfectionist Khan8217;s performance seem insincere. Sample this: Sanjay is a corporate honcho whose day supposedly starts with important boardroom meetings, yet, his shirt sleeves are folded till his armpits to display ridiculously pumped up arms.

By now. half of the world knows that Ghajini is a dumbed down version of Christopher Nolan8217;s brilliantly structured breakthrough film, Memento. But even then, Aamir Khan aficionados hoped that their favourite actor would breathe something new to this potential dud.

Memento was one of those rare films where everything fell into place to create cine-magic. It was cool and contemplative, a puzzle movie in which you see the finished puzzle right up front and then watch as it disassembles itself. Ghajini is not even a pale shadow. Only the most morbidly inattentive viewer could possibly fail to figure out virtually every twist in the story from details supplied in the first five minutes.

Sanjay Singhania is a man with a mission. He needs to avenge the murder of his beloved. But there is a problem. He suffers from short term memory loss, which means he has to restart investigation, scribble notes and tattoo messages on himself to get back on track. The man he is looking for, the titular character, Ghajini is a bad guy, who is so uninspiring that you want to look away every time he wriggles into the frame like an irritating bug. Aiding Sanjay on his search is a medical student, Jiah Khan, who has little to do other than gasp and scream while Aamir beats Ghajini8217;s henchmen to pulp. Eventually, he gets to the man, and we all breathe a sigh of relief.

Ghajini is one of those 8220;inspired8221; films which make you want to confront the director and ask him why would he do this to a much loved classic. Why did he have to impose a clicheacute;d love track on what could have been a taut thriller.?Why couldn8217;t it be a shrewd deconstruction of the genre itself, defying linear progression and going backwards and sideways in a logical yet captivating manner, like its inspiration was? Sigh, why indeed.

PS A word about the much talked about Hindi-film debut of South Indian superstar Asin. As the head tossing, gregarious, good samaritan who is supposed to win our hearts, Asin is disconcertingly irritating. She tosses her ponytail from left to right and then from right to left while flashing a gleaming set of flossed teeth, and we are supposed to fall in love? Puhleeez.

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