The Hindu : New Delhi News : A chilly entertainer to finish the year

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Sunday, Dec 28, 2008
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New Delhi

A chilly entertainer to finish the year

Rana Siddiqui Zaman

Jumbo pack: Packed with action, thrill, romance, humour and visual appeal, the Aamir Khan-starrer ‘Ghajini’ is the show of the week.

GHAJINI

(At Delite and other theatres in Delhi and elsewhere)

Hype helps, they say. It does. Good old Aamir Khan employed all kinds of publicity tools to promote his new co-production Ghajini and by all indications it has definitely done wonders for him.

Irfan Contractor’s sleek hairstyle has become a trend of sorts and A. R. Rahman’s music for Prasoon Joshi’s beautiful lyrics is a hit already. But then all the ingredients wouldn’t have got the desired result had Aamir himself not been there in the film. Ghajini is out and out an Aamir Khan film in which debutante Asin Thottumkal — hats off to her! — is a perfect foil. She stands out as his beloved. She makes her presence felt with her vivacious looks and natural acting skills.

Briefly, this remake of the much talked about original Tamil film Ghajini which in turn was based on Christopher Nolan’s novel “Memento” is about a wealthy America-returned businessman named Sanjay Singhania who falls in love with a young model coordinator (Asin) who capitalises on his name and fabricates a love story to promote her nondescript ad company. She is killed for saving a few girls kidnapped by a gangster called Ghajini, and Sanjay Singhania is hit by a rod as he goes to save her. Now a patient of short-term memory loss, Sanjay must keep the fire of revenge aflame within himself.

The fruit of Aamir’s labour of 13 months to puff up and tattoo his body is worth watching. As a smiling lover boy, even with creases of age, he makes your heart skip a beat. But it is his new gym-honed body — thanks to Satya, his trainer — and the efforts of Peter Heins, his action director, that steal the show.

There is a flip side, though. How come Ghajini, on whose name the entire film is based, is made to look so weak? Pradeep Singh Rawat, who plays Ghajini, is a sore thumb who dresses like a South Indian but speaks Haryanvi. Despite those tough looks and baritone, Rawat leaves no imprint. Is that a deliberate attempt to make Aamir look larger than life? But then, just think twice. After Raakh, his second film (1988) in which Aamir played a vengeful lover, this is his second action film and he has left no stone unturned to look his best. His stunts look believable. Rawat should have prepared better. Or shall we say he was a wrong choice in the first place?

A treat in real edge-of-the seat moments, this neat and clean film also has liberal doses of humour. Most songs, except “Kaise mujhe….”, are apt to release tension. The visuals offer spectacular scenery. Special effects, especially in “Bahka main bahka….”, are enjoyable, thanks to DOP Ravi K. Chandran.

The film loses a few points because of too much violence that often disturbs with shrieking sound effects. But then, it’s been a long time since we saw spectacular stunts with such real sounds, thanks to sound designer Rasul Pookutty.

Young Jiah Khan as the medical student has done justice to her limited role. Rarely has a film in recent times incorporated issues like ad agencies, women and organ trafficking, doctors and hospitals’ roles in it, kidnapping, cause of the orphans, nexus between rich business houses and gangsters, so effectively.

Aamir carries the whole film on his shoulders and Asin provides a charming companion. The climax, juvenile momentarily, appeals to you, and you are ready to ignore that a gnawing killer Sanjay Singhania goes scot free!

Watch it for all the action and love!

JUMBO

(At Delite Diamond, Delhi, and other theatres)

This one is cute but leaves so much to be desired. One keeps wondering why the cute little elephants look like anything but elephants. Despite that you don’t mind the blue baby Jumbo or Jayaveer Singh (voiceover by Ashar Khan/Akshay Kumar), who goes out in search of his father, Yudhveer, a warrior in the kingdom of Shakti Nagar, but is infamous for being a runaway soldier after he loses to the rival kingdom’s elephant Bakhtawar (Gulshan Grover).

This villain tusker boasts of the strength of ten elephants. Jumbo’s mother (voice of Dimple Kapadia) is separated from him as he leaves her in search of his father….

Still wondering about the story? Yawn! It’s the age-old recurring tale of the battle between the weak (Shakti Nagar) and powerful kingdoms (Shaurya Nagar) mixed with a lost-and-found formula.

Tired and traumatised with Shaurya Nagar’s brutal henchmen who loot Shakti Nagar of all their agricultural produce, they decide to wage war against them. And guess who trains the elephants? An experienced old mahout whose adopted daughter, a petite pink elephant Sonia (Lara Dutta), is Jumbo’s love interest!

The film, despite good music and popular numbers such as “Everything is gonna be all right….” that is played in the background for most part, a love song, “Kya madahoshiyan hain….”, and a war song, “Badhte chalo….”, leaves little impression.

If an animation film is made for Indian kids, rest assured they would be able to identify more with Indian faces than Chinese. This one here has Chinese-looking human soldiers and elephants.

Right, there is no need to get stereotyped, but distorted thin legs and trunks don’t make elephants anyway.

Akshay Kumar wasn’t really needed to jive on “Everything is gonna be all right….” to begin this film. He should have restricted his role to that of a narrator. His thin voice doesn’t go with a warlike, gigantic tusker.

But not everything here is lacklustre. The delightful respite comes through a sainik (voice of Asrani) and tiny colourful pigeon who plays postman (voice of Rajpal Yadav). He wears a hat, distributes his visiting cards printed on his own feathers, keeps a diary of contact numbers, and guess what? He proposes to petite dove too!

This much-hyped animation film from Percept Pictures doesn’t quite meet even the average standards. The kids who have been fed on Kung-Fu Panda and Finding Nemo, and even Hanuman or Bal Ganesha for that matter, may not find it a great experience.

Watch it if you have no grand plans for the weekend.

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