Jai Arjun Singh / New Delhi Jan 03, 2009, 00:30 IST
One of the hazards of having built up a reputation as a cerebral actor-cum-producer — more interested in perfecting one’s craft and being associated with original, well-scripted projects than in the Bollywood rat race — is that you’re occasionally held to those standards.
Aamir Khan probably knows this if he’s looked at some of the online reactions to his new film Ghajini, a remake of the Tamil movie of the same name, which in turn borrowed its basic premise from Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Memento.
In the first place, Khan’s position as a Serious Artiste is slightly overstated — he is thought of in these terms only in the context of mainstream Hindi cinema, and when the reference points are other Bollywood superstars like Shah Rukh and Salman (already, it can be argued that the younger, more low-profile Abhay Deol has an equally noteworthy résumé over the past three years). But his commitment to quality can’t be faulted, and movies like Rang de Basanti and Taare Zameen Par have shown that it’s possible for an intelligently written film to be an audience-pleaser too. Which is why the potboiler Ghajini is now being judged by higher yardsticks than the ones usually applied to masala movies.
In an insightful review on his blog Blogical Conclusion (http://tinyurl.com/9e7eum), Baradwaj Rangan says: “The problem with Ghajini is that it’s not content being a big, trashy B-movie (or perhaps a more truthful way of putting it would be that those of us who expect consistently great things from Aamir Khan are unable to look at it as just a big, trashy B-movie).” Blogger thedeskjockey writes on Desicritics (http://desicritics.org/) that this doesn’t feel like an Aamir Khan film. “The finesse and class associated with his previous movies is not there. It feels more like a huge ego trip for the actor where he matches the other Khans in body and the Deols in brute force.” Other voices likewise clamour that they feel let down.
But were the high expectations justified in the first place? Long before Ghajini was released, word had spread that it was a remake, that too of a film which was “inspired”. A member of a Facebook group titled “Why watch Ghajini when you can watch Memento?” (http://tinyurl.com/ a7zpu6) says “Even the Tamil version was an utterly dumbed-down version of Nolan’s classic.” (Another member inadvertently gives us a part explanation for why the new Ghajini will be a hit regardless: “I would still want to see how ‘good’ or bad a copy it is.”)
A commenter on Rangan’s blog raises another sensitive topic. “I’m puzzled by people expecting ‘perfectionism’ from AK only to be disappointed when he does something like Ghajini,” she says, “because, to me, the bulk of his supposedly great films have been typical Bollywood movies with an inflated sense of self-importance.” For some indeterminate reason, another commenter then begins a long rant about how Aamir’s achievements pale in comparison to Kamal Hasan’s. Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away, denizens of Rediff.com (http://tinyurl.com/93trsw) are squabbling about how Aamir’s latest compares with Shah Rukh’s latest (the tepid Rab ne Bana Di Jodi), and who is Bollywood's “real Badshah”.
In a country of 1.3 billion people, any film will necessarily have armies of passionate defenders. Thus a commenter named ideaunique sagely points out that “millions of people are liking the movie very much (Box Office nos are saying it all) — so what does that mean? Don’t those millions don’t know what is good?” Eventually, even an icon for serious cinema must be vindicated by the cash counters.
i want to be an actor like aamir khan.aamir sir u r the best in bollywood.i want to be raj of qsqt i want to be munna of RANGEELA, i want to be sidhu of GHULAM
I wantto be ACP RATHOD of SARFAROSH.I want to be AKASH of DIL CHAHTA HAI.AKASH is my dream character.i want to be bhuvan of LAGAAN
i think that gahjini is the best movie in bollywood .It is very different and unique story which is cool. i think rab ne bana de jodi is good but i think that gahjini was much much WAyy better. in my opinion aamir khan did a better job then srk.. aamir khan is my favorite actor.
i love his work.
best actor.
aamir is the best.
boss aamir khan is the best. I agree to one of the boarders that the people who have written this blog are surely SRK fans. Aamir Khan is a true star in itself. He has worke very hard for the look in Ghajini and credit should be given to him. Moreover he has more friends in the film industry than SRK. SRK has gone to the extent of criticizing the great Mr. Bacchan when he felt that it was difficult to surpasse him in accolades. SRK is sick.
I think that the film was excellent. Very different to any other bollywood typical love story. Aamir Khan touches on different issues that we never see in bollywood cinema, such as dyslexia in taare zameen par and now short term memory loss in Ganjali. The film also touches on the issue which does still exist in India of girls being sold. I think we need to have more films like this. The effects etc are very good, not tacky and I think the film is even better than memento - altho too long!
Hi Jay,
with ref. to the last para...my original comment to rangan was \"at the end of the day - those millions who got entertained and more millions who will still get entertained in coming few days by watching Ghajini - they are the real audience sir - they go to find few moments in that dark cinema halls - those few moments which touch their emotions no matter in what form those moments come?.hardly 5-10% people take movie-going experience as seriously as your write-up?..\"
Dear Author,
The films needs the actor to be like that. so that he can take the revenge directly. he cant take long route because he will forget things in 15 minutes. only thing he could do make his body in way that the people can believe that he is able to do that fightings..
out of 100 if 3 people say its a regular crap movie then who cares coz for 97 people is a super hit.
I liked the movie alot and I found best performance my Aamir ever , his 13 months hard work is there in the movie and now movie is earning like anytin.
Aamir rocksssss ,
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