After a long incubation period.. supposedly for post-production work.. AR Murugadoss' Ghajini is finally out.. First of all, let me state that I HAVE NOT seen "Momento".. so this review will not take any influence that that cult classic could have had on Ghajini..
The film takes off quite well.. with a murder and the subsequent follow up scenes which show the killer to be our hero.. with the peculiar problem of "short term memory loss" (the mandatory 'doctor explaining to students' scene is also there.. he cant remember anything for more than 15 mins.. so he resorts to some useful techniques like photos, notes on the walls of his house and etchings on his own body to remember all the stuff he has to do..
the story : Villain kills hero's lady-love (Asin) and also injures him in such a way that he has this memory loss prob.. hero in spite of this obvious handicap decides to wreck vengence.. the entire film is about how he achieves this.. The movie adopts the by-now commmon forward-backward timeline using the hero's diary to show us the events in his past which has got him to the present.. The frothiness of the past story contradicts well to the moody proceedings in the present..
Surya is growing by leaps and bounds.. he gets into the character well.. be it as the top flying businessman Sanjay Ramasamy who romances Asin and the biz world simultaneously or as his own shadow self struggling to remember that he has to avenge his love.. but there are some scenes where his own past performances peek out.. he is yet to even come close to the levels of Kamal Hassan..
Asin sparkles with her spontanity, and obvious screen presence.. a very good performance here augurs well for her future.. Nayantara is wasted (or maybe she wastes it herself) in what could have been a significant role.. the others all do their jobs well..
Harris Jeyaraj has done a commendable job with the BGM.. though the songs are just above average with song placings as usual either unwanted or unwarranted..
Drawbacks.. the film is not always taut and clever.. there are many sequences which require leaps of logic possible only in Tamil filmdom.. these could have been avoided when taking on his sort of a subject.. songs are there just for the commercial element.. Nayantara costume designer needs a small break.. and the director needs to realize that multiple villains must mean some twists and not a well choreograohed fight sequence!!
Overall.. what could have very easily beena brilliant movie is just a very good one in the end!!
Score : 69 / 100
