Ghajini (2008 film)
Ghajini (pronounced [ɡədʒniː]) is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film co-written and directed by A. R. Murugadoss. It stars Aamir Khan, Asin and Jiah Khan, with Pradeep Rawat as the titular antagonist. In the film, Sanjay Singhania (Khan), once an eminent businessman, suffers from anterograde amnesia after encountering the murder of his fiancée Kalpana (Asin) and sets out to avenge the same with the aid of photographs from a Polaroid Instant camera and permanent tattoos on his body.
| Ghajini | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | A. R. Murugadoss |
| Presented by | Allu Aravind |
| Screenplay by | A. R. Murugadoss Aamir Khan |
| Story by | A. R. Murugadoss |
| Dialogues by | Piyush Mishra |
| Based on |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Ravi K. Chandran |
| Edited by | Anthony |
| Music by | A. R. Rahman |
Production company | |
| Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 184 minutes[3] |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | ₹65 crore[4] |
| Box office | est. ₹232 crore[a] |
Ghajini served as the remake of Murugadoss's directorial Tamil-language film of the same name. The central plot was derived from two films: Memento (2000) and Happy Go Lovely (1951). Aamir Khan and Murugadoss co-wrote the film, with Khan suggesting changes to suit the Hindi audience. Allu Aravind, Madhu Mantena and Tagore Madhu jointly acted as the producers; the film was distributed by Geetha Arts. A. R. Rahman composed the film's music.
Released theatrically on 25 December 2008, Ghajini became the highest-grossing Indian film of the year, and the first Bollywood film to cross the ₹100 crore mark domestically, creating the 100 Crore Club.[7] Ghajini's paid preview collections were ₹ 2.7 crore.[8] It went on to become the highest-grossing Indian film of all time, until it was surpassed by Aamir's next, 3 Idiots (2009), the following year and then by Shah Rukh Khan's Chennai Express (2013). Aamir's character was featured in a 3D video game titled Ghajini – The Game, which is based on the film.[9]
Plot
Sunita, a medical student, is investigating the anterograde amnesia case of Sanjay Singhania, the chairman of Air Voice, a telecommunications company. She does so against her professor Dr. Debkumar Mitra's wishes, in spite of Sanjay being under criminal investigation. Sanjay, who loses his memory every 15 minutes, uses a system of photographs, notes, and tattoos on his body to recover his memory and remember his mission of avenging the murder of his fiancé Kalpana Shetty, who was killed by a criminal kingpin, Ghajini Dharmatma.
Police officer Arjun Yadav, who is investigating a murder that Sanjay committed knocks Sanjay unconscious in a scuffle at his apartment and finds two diaries in his drawer. He learns that Sanjay who is a successful entrepreneur met Kalpana, a struggling model, after he planned on installing an advertising billboard above her apartment. When his agents arrive at Kalpana's shooting site to negotiate with her about it, Kalpana's boss, advertising veteran Satveer Kohli, misinterprets this as a romantic advance and, in a view of fame and fortune, encourages Kalpana to accept the overture. Kalpana also decides to pose as Sanjay's girlfriend. As soon as Sanjay finds out about the false rumor, he plans to meet Kalpana to confront her but fails, as he starts to like her after seeing her altruistic nature. He poses as Sachin Chauhan, a newcomer model, and lies to Kalpana about himself. Soon, he falls deeper in love with her. At the end of the first diary, on 31 December, Sanjay, still playing Sachin, proposes to Kalpana who, taken aback by such a sudden gesture, asks for the night to think over it. He decides that if she would agree, then he would reveal his true identity to her, but, if not, then he would quietly walk away from her life as Sachin.
As Arjun starts reading the second diary, Sanjay attacks him and ties him up. Sunita locates the apartment, finds Arjun and learns of Sanjay's murder plot. She steals his diaries and frees Arjun. As she and Arjun escape, Arjun is hit by a bus. Sunita then informs Ghajini about the fact that Sanjay is coming to him to kill him. Sanjay finds out about this and goes to attack her at her dormitory, where he is arrested and given a sedative. Ghajini is informed by the police about Sanjay's belongings and he poses as Sanjay's friend. Soon Sanjay's employees and doctor arrive and take him home. There, Ghajini and his men destroy his pictures and cover his tattoos, thus leaving him with no memory of the past.
After Sanjay gets arrested, Sunita reads the diaries. She finds out about Kalpana. In the second diary, Kalpana accepts the proposal, but on the condition that she marry only after she purchases three ambassador cars, due to a past commitment. One thing leads to another and Sanjay decides on telling her the truth about himself later. The diary ends abruptly when Sanjay has to go overseas for a few days.
After some research, Sunita eventually learns Kalpana travelled to Goa, where she stumbled across and freed a group of girls from a sex trafficking ring racketeered by Ghajini. Sanjay returns home and finds Kalpana stabbed. Ghajini hits Sanjay in the head with an iron rod which results in brain injury, before killing Kalpana with the same rod, in front of him. Feeling guilty of doubting him, Sunita reminds Sanjay of Kalpana's murder and helps him track Ghajini to his local area. Sanjay then kills his men but has a memory loss fit while searching for Ghajini, who takes advantage of the situation and stabs Sanjay. As he prepares to kill Sunita the same way he killed Kalpana, Sanjay recovers his memory and kills Ghajini with the iron rod.
Six months later, Sanjay returns as the chairman of Air Voice and is volunteering at an orphanage named after Kalpana, helping everyone like she did, and trying to heal. Sunita gifts him the cement pad with Sanjay and Kalpana's foot impressions and he feels Kalpana beside him, as the screen pans out in a fading sunset.
Cast
- Aamir Khan as Sanjay Singhania / Sachin Chauhan, a rich businessman; the chairman of a telecommunications company, Air Voice; who later suffers from short-term memory loss after a tragic incident caused by Ghajini, being solely motivated, thus, to kill him and his cohorts
- Asin as Kalpana Shetty, a model who gains publicity by falsely proclaiming herself to be the girlfriend of Sanjay Singhania, but soon becomes his love interest, later getting killed by Ghajini
- Jiah Khan as Sunita Kalantri, a medical student, who tries to study the case of Sanjay Singhania and his amnesiac problem, even though she is forbidden to do so
- Pradeep Rawat as Ghajini Dharmatma, a gang honcho and the mastermind of many illegal and criminal ventures who is targeted by Sanjay
- Riyaz Khan as Inspector Arjun Yadav, a police inspector who is investigating the murders Sanjay committed
- Rajesh Khattar as Arjun's voice
- Khalid Siddiqui as Pankaj Shroff, Sanjay's private assistant and an Air Voice manager
- Tinnu Anand as Satveer Kohli, Kalpana's boss
- Sai Tamhankar as Amrita Kashyap, Sunita's friend
- Supreeth Reddy as Ghajini's henchman
- Vibha Chibber as Havaldar Vaijayanti
- Sunil Grover as Sampat, a model who is being trained as the fake Sanjay Singhania
- Rajendran as Ghajini's henchman
- Firdausi Jussawalla as Dr. Peston Wadia
- Sonal Sehgal as ad model
- Anjum Rajabali in a cameo appearance as Dr. Debkumar Mitra, Sunita's professor
Production
It was rumoured earlier that the film was titled Kajri.[10] It is a remake of the Tamil film, Ghajini (2005). Aamir Khan, who had never before worked in a remake film in his career,[11] 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."[12] 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.[11] Priyanka Chopra was offered a lead role in the film, but Khan preferred Asin Thottumkal over her as he loved her performance in the original film.[13]
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 Murugadoss:[14]
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 Khan, "Ghajini is not a remake or even slightly inspired by Memento, but rather 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]
The CGI opening brain sequence was inspired by the 1999 film Fight Club by David Fincher. This sequence was also used in the Tamil version of the film.
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.[17] 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.[18]
Filming
Shooting started in Chennai in May 2007.[19] Climax was shot in Old City, Hyderabad. Other filming locations included Bangalore, Cape Town in South Africa, the Deadpan Desert in Namibia and Mumbai. Aamir Khan had spent a year working out at the gym, training for his role.[20] This film marked the Bollywood debut for Asin. The film's production budget was ₹65 crore (US$14.94 million).[4]
Release
Ghajini was released on 25 December 2008 with an estimated 1,500 prints worldwide,[21] including 1,200 prints (digital and analogue versions) in the domestic market,[5][22] making it the largest Bollywood release at that time. The domestic rights were sold to Geetha Arts for ₹530 million, while satellite, overseas and home media rights were sold at a total of ₹400 million, breaking the records of Shah Rukh Khan's film Om Shanti Om's ₹730 million.[23]
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.[24] It had around 650 paid previews which fetched it around ₹70 million.[22]
Home media
The two-disc collector's edition DVD was manufactured by Big Home Video and distributed by international distributor, Adlabs Films Ltd (New name is Reliance MediaWorks) on 13 March 2009.[25]
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.[26] It was hailed as India's first true 3D PC game with an MSRP of US$14.99.[citation needed] Although never officially rated, the distributor recommends that 15+ year old players partake in the game.[27]
Controversy
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2013) |
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.[28]
Reception
50% of the reviews in review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes were positive.[29]
Critical response
Rajeev Masand of CNN IBN gave 3 stars writing, "Ghajini isn't a particularly good film, but entertainment it delivers by the bucketful."[30] Martin D'Souza of Bollywood Trade News Network gave 3.5 stars, noting the flaws in screenplay, while praising the action.[31] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama remarked that the movie "is a winner all the way" and gave it 4.5 stars.[32] Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India praised the performance by Aamir Khan as its high point and awarded 3.5 stars.[33]
Zee News described Aamir's performance as his best to date.[34] 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".[35] 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."[36] 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.[37] 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.[38]
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.[39] Raja Sen of Rediff rated the movie 2.5/5 and criticised the performance of Asin while concluding, "overwhelming feeling is one of regret".[40] 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.[41] 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."[42]
Box office
Ghajini released worldwide on 25 December 2008, on Christmas Day. The film became the first-ever Bollywood film to open in double digits, collecting ₹102 million ($1.27 million) on its opening day, followed by ₹118 million ($1.47 million), ₹102.5 million ($1.28 million) and ₹87.5 million ($1.09 million), taking its four-day opening weekend collection to ₹410 million ($5.13 million). The film went past ₹1 billion ($12.5 million) domestically in its fourth week, thus becoming the first ever Bollywood film to cross ₹100 crore domestically. It was the first Bollywood film to enter the 100 crore club.
Ghajini became the highest-grossing Indian film ever at the time,[43] and was declared an "All Time Blockbuster".[44] Its record was eventually surpassed a year later by another Aamir Khan film, 3 Idiots (2009).[43]
Soundtrack
| Ghajini | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | 24 November 2008 | |||
| Recorded | Panchathan Record Inn and AM Studios | |||
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack | |||
| Length | 34:00 | |||
| Label | T-Series | |||
| Producer | A. R. Rahman | |||
| A.R Rahman chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Rediff | [45] |
| Bollywood Hungama | [46] |
The film has six songs, including two remixes, composed by A. R. Rahman and with lyrics penned by Prasoon Joshi.
| No. | Title | Artist(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Aye Bacchu" | Suzanne D'Mello | 3:48 |
| 2. | "Behka" | Karthik | 5:13 |
| 3. | "Guzaarish" | Javed Ali and Sonu Nigam (humming) | 5:29 |
| 4. | "Latoo" | Shreya Ghoshal | 4:30 |
| 5. | "Kaise Mujhe" | Benny Dayal and Shreya Ghoshal | 5:46 |
| 6. | "Behka (Remix by Dj A-Myth)" | Karthik | 5:13 |
| 7. | "Guzaarish (Remix by Dj A-Myth)" | Javed Ali and Sonu Nigam (humming) | 5:29 |
| 8. | "Kaise Mujhe" | Instrumental | 4:01 |
| Total length: | 34:00 | ||
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."[46]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."[45] 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.[47]
Awards and nominations
See also
Notes
References
- ^ Frater, Patrick (15 January 2009). "TIFC under fire from Altima". Variety. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
- ^ Jhunjhunwala, Udita (23 January 2009). "Financing - Box office - Stars fell to earth". Screen International. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
- ^ "Ghajini". British Board of Film Classification.
- ^ a b "10 of the Most Expensive Bollywood Films Ever Made". The Times of India. 17 April 2015.
- ^ a b Meena Iyer (8 January 2009). . The Times of India. TNN. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2009.
- ^ "Ghajini collection details submitted to court". The Hindu. 28 January 2009.
- ^ "Aamir Khan's 10 BIGGEST Hits - Rediff.com".
- ^ "'3 Idiots' surpasses Aamir's last release 'Ghajini'". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 29 December 2009.
- ^ . India.com. 22 December 2008. Archived from the original on 1 February 2009.
- ^ Faridoon Shahryar (21 November 2006). . IndiaGlitz. Archived from the original on 6 December 2006.
- ^ a b "Exclusive: Suriya on Aamir's Ghajini". Rediff. 29 December 2008.
- ^ . Sify. December 2008. Archived from the original on 10 December 2017.
- ^ "5 blockbuster movies Priyanka Chopra REJECTED! In 3 of them Deepika Padukone replaced her | Entertainment News".
- ^ "Aamir Khan rewrote Ghajini climax". Hindustan Times. 31 December 2008.
- ^ "Aamir, "Ghajini is not a remake... "". One India. Archived from the original on 18 February 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
- ^ Aamir Khan (29 June 2007). . The Lagaan Blog. Archived from the original on 8 August 2007. Retrieved 2 March 2009.
- ^ Raveh, Daniel (2016). Sutras, Stories and Yoga Philosophy: Narrative and Transfiguration. ISBN 978-1-138-63838-9.
- ^ "Amelie and the Blind Man" (Video). Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2010 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Ghajini shooting in Chennai". Retrieved 24 August 2010.[dead link]
- ^ "How Aamir trained for Ghajini". Rediff.com. 15 December 2008.
- ^ . Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 23 February 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
- ^ a b "Ghajini to fire up screen with 300 paid previews". The Economic Times. 23 December 2008. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
- ^ "Aamir's 'Ghajini' Sold for RS 90 Crore!!". Stardust. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
- ^ . Reliance Entertainment. 22 December 2008. Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
- ^ "Ghajini's DVD MSRP". Amazon.com. 29 July 2009. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
- ^ . 29 July 2009. Archived from the original on 13 April 2009. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
- ^ . Eros Entertainment. 29 July 2009. Archived from the original on 7 February 2009. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
- ^ Vicky Nanjappa (1 March 2008). "Ghajini director Murugadoss arrested, released".
- ^ Ghajini, retrieved 27 December 2021
- ^ Masand, Rajeev (25 December 2008). . CNN-IBN. Archived from the original on 26 December 2008. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ Martin D'Souza (25 December 2008). . Bollywood Trade News Network. Archived from the original on 31 January 2010. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ Adarsh, Taran (25 December 2008). "Ghajini Review". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ Nikhat Kazmi (24 December 2008). "Ghajini Critic's review". The Times of India. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ . Zee News. 25 December 2008. Archived from the original on 16 August 2011. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ "Ghajini: A sleek album of dark memories". Rediff. 25 December 2008. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ Noyon Jyoti Parasara (29 December 2008). . AOL India. Archived from the original on 31 December 2008. Retrieved 23 March 2009.
- ^ . NDTV. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
- ^ "Ghajini: It's brutal but almost lyrically so". India Today. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
- ^ Malini, Gaurav (26 December 2008). "Ghajini: Movie Review". The Times of India. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ Raja Sen (24 December 2008). "Hum Do, Humaare (Memen)to". Rediff. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ Shubhra Gupta (25 December 2008). . Express India. Archived from the original on 29 December 2008. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ . Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
- ^ a b "The other Khan: A marketing genius". Business Today. 21 February 2010.
- ^ . Archived from the original on 15 January 2008. . Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ a b Sen, Raja (25 November 2008). "Rahman goes gloriously wild with Ghajini". Rediff.com. Retrieved 24 December 2008.
- ^ a b Tuteja, Joginder (24 November 2008). "Ghajini music review". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 24 December 2008.
- ^ . Box Office India. Archived from the original on 24 June 2010.
External links
- Film Review on Devildead (in French)
- Ghajini at IMDb
- Ghajini at Rotten Tomatoes
- Ghajini at AllMovie
- Ghajini at Box Office Mojo