Never before did I see a movie named after its villain. Yes, Ghajini is the name of the villain. Whatever the word means, I don't think there can be an acceptable excuse for naming a movie after its villain. So it's not Amir Khan in and as Ghajini, nor is it Asin. Ever since I heard about Ghajini, I had been thinking it must be the heroine's name. But when I saw the movie today, I found it weird that it wasn't so, in spite of the word sounding so feminine.
Well, there was a lot more that was weird in the movie. I'd call it funny, rather than weird, coz weird is a very respectful word and the movie does not deserve so much respect.
The movie starts with a wonderful video showing the insides of the brain - the neurons in beautiful patterns, connected to each other through their dendrites (if my long-term memory is working fine, that's what they are called. But it fails me most of the time, so am not sure). I know from reading a few books on brain that those junctions at which the neurons are connected with each other are seats of our memory (besides something called hippocampus). Thus our memory consists of lots of information in bits and pieces scattered all over our brains. It is believed that the brain classifies all that information through associations and relationships. How we save and retrieve data is not known with any certainty, but ya, as per the movie, if you are hit by an iron rod twice on your head, one of the things that can happen is that you might lose your long-term memory and an ability to convert your short-term memories into long-term ones. That's what happened with Amir Khan, named Sanjay Singhania in the movie.
Though it was too big a leap for the Indian Cinema to talk about brains, memories and stuff, the makers of Ghajini did screw up in neat, clean and simple manner in a lot of places; such that any person with reasonable common sense and short-term memory could notice and appreciate that bollywood lived up to its tradition. Plus, Amir did a great job of playing Rajni Kant and Sunny Paa Ji at various points in the movie. I would have liked to see the Shahrukh inside him too, but I guess the 8-packs had killed his softer side. He was more fond of howling like Tarzan than talking anything romantic with the girl, who, by the way, was very cute. I have fallen in love with her; somebody go and tell her please.
So Mr. Sanjay Singhania's problem was that he had lost his long-term memory, and at the same time, his brain could not convert its short-term memory to a long-term one. His short-term memory had a time span of 15 minutes. But there was a funny catch here. The short-term memory problem did not mean that at any point of time Amir remembered whatever happened over the past 15 minutes from that very moment. His memory, in fact, flushed itself every 15 minutes, and once it did that, fresh memory got stored for the next 15 minutes and so on. It's amazing the brain could work in periods of 15 minutes each. (Can this be called quantization of memory?). I am wondering when the first period started. It could be the moment the head was hit. Or it could be some time after that. Or it could be the moment Amir got up every morning from sleep. But then, here's the funnier part. Amir kept a clock with him all the time, that rang an alarm every 15 minutes to indicate to Amir that his memory had been flushed. (How can it be so perfectly timed, I don't understand). This brings back to me memories from the days when I used to be a Software Engineer by designation and claim to be a Java Programmer. I remember from timepass at Geometric Software Solutions Co. Ltd. that Java has something called a Garbage Collector - a program built into the Java Virtual Machine (it's a bigger program that executes the Java bite-code created after compiling any Java program). The Garbage Collector is a process that runs periodically. It does the job of cleaning up, deleting unwanted objects (data) and clearing the memory for reuse. It seems the Garbage Collector for Amir ran after every 15 minutes and somehow, by mistake, it classified every piece of information as unwanted and deleted it.
The movie starts with Jiah Khan, a medical student, wanting to take up Amir Khan's case for a course project. She seems like one of those good students, whose asses itch all the time to do challenging stuff, original work, not copy, not globe, learn and come first. Such people don't share their notes, don't tell what they study and where they study that from, and are teachers' pets. I used to be like that in school, but then I deteriorated (or improved?) continuously thereafter. Coming back, Jiah's prof says no to her request to study Amir, coz Amir has police case running on him, which makes him a risky thing to study. Jiah insists (the itch again), but finally gives in.
How does Amir do his basic stuff in spite of all the problems with his head? How does he survive? Thrive? Jiah asks the prof. The prof says, a lot of stuff Amir does by instinct and by stuff in his subconscious mind. And for his day-to-day activities, Amir manages by writing notes, lots of them.
Hmmmm, so after a scene where Amir beats up a guy, kills him, takes his pic with a Polaroid camera, gets Ghajini's number from his cellphone and some more info about Mr. Ghajini Dharmatma, we move to Amir's house.
It's a flat in Hiranandani, at a walking distance from IIT Bombay (Powai, Mumbai - 400076). I used to go there with a few other frustu guys on weekends to see girls and have aalu ka paratha in Galleria. 2 Parathas for 25 bucks. And very tasty too.
Don't know what Amir had for food, he was never shown eating. His flat was in a very posh locality. (He stayed there coz it reminded him of Asin, at a subconscious level I suppose). Inside, his house was a scary place. Every nook and corner was labelled. Amir enters, keeps his pistol, wallet, camera, pics, etc. in their designated places and goes to sleep.
As he gets up, he gives the wondering idiot look - mai kahaan hoon - and then goes to the bathroom, which has stuff written all over. Somewhere on its mirrors, it is written take off your shirt, and that's where Amir gets a chance to flaunt his 8-Packs. But then, you see things written all over his body which served as reminders. He had written things like Revenge, Ghajini, Kill Him, people's mobile numbers, etc. etc. all over his body. So when Amir sees all this in the mirror, he goes nuts, does a Tarzan + Sunny Deol for some time, runs around like crazy, does push ups, gymnastics, runs on a treadmill and then calms down and quietly takes care of his morning ablutions.
Some of his reminders were written very intelligently and strategically. Like when he wears his socks, he finds a note etched on his feet that asks him to take care of something. I am sure he had stuff to look at when he peed. That must be the most important stuff, the heroine's name or something, stuff that he shouldn't miss by any chance. But alas, the movie skipped that detail. But one thing is for sure - a mental case like Amir can't do all this alone, without anyone's help. But then, if we think so much, just like dogs, even we can't enjoy motion picture.
To help him recall stuff, Amir keeps a polaroid camera, probably with perpetually running batteries. He takes pics of anything important and writes a note below it, so as to make sense of it later. Amir's doc is the same guy as Jiah's prof. So when Amir goes to meet his doc, he stumbles upon Jiah, who had seen Amir's pic on her prof's computer. As soon as she sees Amir, her itch comes back with all its intensity. She makes him sit with her and asks him questions about how he manages and stuff. Amir tells her about his camera, his alarm clock etc. She asks him to take her pic twice, one copy for Amir, one for her. Amir obeys, writes "My Friend" below both copies, gives one to Jiah and keeps one in his pocket.
Meanwhile, a police officer tracks down Amir through a bus ticket he left at the house of the guy he killed a little while ago for Ghajini's info. The cop goes to Amir's house, fights with him, hits him on his head and then ties him down. And then he starts searching Amir's house frantically, and gets hold of Amir's diary. And then... the flashback...
Asin does modelling for an ad-making company. She is this nice, cute, playful, talkative and simple girl (à la Basanti), who loves street kids and helps blind people cross the road. And to the latter, she offers additional services like a running commentary of what's happening around the place. And Amir is a Harvard graduate, who has come back in India to run the company his dad had established and dreamt of making big. It's a mobile service provider and has biiiiig targets in terms of cell-phone subscription levels and global expansion.
I think I am getting into a lot of detail. I suggest you do go and watch the movie yourself coz, anyway, you need to see the movie first and not like it much so as to appreciate my post. I'm going to be brief from here on.
Amir's men come to meet Asin (Kalpana Shetty) at her workplace because they need her permission to put a hoarding, showing their company's ad, on top of her house. And from bits of their conversation with Asin that her boss overhears, he misunderstands that Amir has sent his men to ask Asin out. Asin refuses to allow for the hoarding. Her boss thinks she refused to go out with Amir (typical bollywood-kollywood-tollywood funda - didn't hear the most important words and got the wrong message and that made all the difference). Her entire office now feels she has an affair with Amir - the great business tycoon - and Asin enjoys this little moment of fame and never tells them it's not true.
A lot of bla happens around this, like Asin unknowingly gives an interview to Mayapuri magazine about her affair with Amir. Amir gets all heated up when he sees that article, goes to check her out and set things straight, but when he sees her he is all impressed with her qualities that I mentioned above. He can't talk to her properly, gets shy and nervous, like me. He does not tell her he is the Sanjay Singhania she's been saying she's having an affair with. He pretends to be someone else, looking for work. Asin promises to help, very soon gets him a chaddi ad to shoot for. They go out often, get close, Amir proposes, she accepts, Amir still hides he is Sanjay Singhania to make sure Asin does not love him coz of his money.
Some more bla - Asin has to get Sanjay Singhania as the chief guest to a party her boss organizes. And since no one has seen the new-in-India Sanjay, she tries to train Shahrukh's look-alike she knows to act as Sanjay in the party. But then Amir makes fun of his style during the rehearsals, then impresses Asin with some celebrity tricks and gets to play himself as chief guest for the party. Huh! And then, he turns up for the party in style, everyone thinks he is Sanjay, Asin thinks she knows he is not Sanjay, Amir - who is actually Sanjay as we know - even writes a cheque of 5 lacs for charity, etc. etc. My friend Hitesh says all this was meant to make fun of Shahrukh Khan, but I think it did not come out so clearly and so well.
A little more bla - when Amir proposes to Asin, she accepts after a night's thinking, but then she has taken a vow... that she won't marry until she buys 3 Ambassador cars, coz her dad owned 3 of those in the 1990's and had to part with them coz her uncle cheated her dad, who died soon thereafter... So Asin buys one Ambassador car the very next day so that she can marry Amir sooner, takes some street kids and Amir for a drive, Amir drives... Phew!!!... And then, a little later, Amir has to go to London for a 10-day business trip, but he tells Asin that he's going to his village coz his mom is sick, and that he is planning to sell his ancestral land to arrange money for her treatment. And hearing this, Asin sells her newly bought Ambassador car and gives the money to Amir, says don't sell the land, it's ancestral and stuff, take this 1.35 lacs, go to your mom and come back soon! Wow, it can't get any better than this! It's driving me crazy!!!
As you can see, it's getting more and more uninteresting. But interestingly, this was the part I enjoyed the most. That's what love does to you! (i.e., mine with Asin). I'd recommend the movie only due to the parts in which Asin was there. Amir is not worth anything. I don't like his acting, his style, or anything he is admired for. Asin rocks in the movie. When she was there, everything illogical seemed logical, everything stupid seemed cute...
I am not going to tell the remaining story. In short, the flash-back is shown in 3 pieces - the first 2 are in 2 different diaries of Amir read by the Police Inspector and Jiah respectively, and the last was narrated by a lady to Jiah. Jiah, I felt, was the most irritating character in the movie. God cure her itches. Amen. In the end of all flashbacks, Asin is killed by Ghajini, in front of Amir. Amir is hit by a rod a couple of times and phurrrrr goes his memory, short-term, long-term whatever. And for no reason at all, Amir keeps his head shaven thereafter, with a little bit of hair. I say this because in the end, when every score is settled, Amir is shown with fully grown hair. So I don't understand why a newly short-term memory guy would want to shave his head once in 10 days (I can estimate the duration from my experience). Also in the bald look, there is a line of stitch on his head towards its right, which makes the thhobda look sexy (from a girl's point of view). Reminds me of Mridul, my school friend, who used to stick a band-aid tape on one side of his forehead without any injury coz it looked sexy (from a girl's point of view).
In a scene inserted in a very vague fashion (Amir was in the hospital, then suddenly shown at home, and then again in the hospital), Ghajini tries to erase all his traces from Amir's memory-recall mechanism by striking off all that Amir had written over his body and cleaning up all the stuff that Amir had written all over his house. He doesn't pull down Amir's shorts though. I am sure he missed erasing quite a few vital clues which later helped Amir get aroused (and kill Ghajini). He also destroys all of Amir's pics and his camera. I think this was one of the most stupid things shown in the movie - erasing and destroying stuff that helped Amir recall Ghajini - coz there were many people who knew Amir and could tell him about Ghajini (that's how Jiah came to know the facts). Otherwise how did Amir know who killed whom and whom to kill and for what? Some of it was through a faint recall of Asin saying Ghajini's name when she was dying. But beyond that, it's globe. The movie shows Jiah helping Amir recall everything that Ghajini did and bringing out the Tarzan in him.
Interestingly Jiah was the one who earlier went and warned Ghajini that he must beware Amir, who wanted to kill him at any cost. She even got Amir caught by the police by trapping him in the lift of her girls' hostel. (Thank God, girls' hostels at IIML don't have lifts). The police injected Amir with whatever they use to make mad people unconscious, and then stripped him of all clothes except pants, and called up every guy whose number was etched on his body. Only Ghajini's number worked. Ghajini turned up, identified Amir as Sanjay Singhania and said Amir was his friend. Soon Amir's doc and managers turned up from nowhere and bailed him telling the police that he's a psycho case. At this point I got irritated by the tam-gult-ness of the movie.
Finally, Amir's love story and the truth of Ghajini, which Jiah figured out by asking a random woman (not really random coz she was a witness to Asin's murder in a way... wonder how in movies people always find the right person to ask the right question and get the answers too, all that in a flash), made Jiah take Amir's side and so she helped Amir kill Ghajini in the end.
The movie ended with Amir happily settled, spending his time with kids at an orphanage, hair fully grown now. Jiah visits often. Itch never dies.
One question - Can a person with short-term memory (of say 15 minutes) and no way of transferring stuff to long-term storage, be aware, rather 'know' in any way that he has this memory problem? I guess he can, if he writes on his body - "I have a short-term memory, can't remember beyond 15 minutes into past."... similar to what Amir did haan?
