The Rajinikanth reference starts within a few seconds into Arya’s latest film, Ghajinikanth . The setting is a cinema hall back in the year 1998, and the film being screened is Dharmathin Thalaivan. A couple is watching their favourite superstar’s film with much fervour when the lady – who is pregnant – suddenly goes into labour. She delivers a baby even as Rajinikanth on screen is forgetting his pants and walking out in public (Rajini played an absent-minded professor in that film).
The baby (Arya) is also named Rajinikanth but he doesn’t turn out to be the stylish superstar that we’ve seen in films like Billa. He’s very much like the Rajinikanth of Dharmathin Thalaivan, suffering from forgetfulness and temporary memory loss. He sets out for a date, but forgets that half way and starts concentrating on solving a friend’s relationship issues. Heck, he even forgets that he’s supposed to meet his prospective father-in-law.
It’s this clearly defined character arc of the protagonist that gets Ghajinikanth (which is based on Telugu film Bhale Bhale Magadivoy ) off to a good start. Arya is supposed to be working in an organic plant research centre (and one wonders why he isn’t mixing up plants because of his forgetfulness) but the seed of the film isn’t that – it’s his quest for love and getting married. When he sees a random girl walking by (Vandana, played by Sayyesha, a heroine who seems to be much in demand in Kollywood of late), he’s very impressed. You don’t need brains to guess what happens next - he falls in love with her.
- Cast: Arya, Sayyeshaa, Sampath, Sathish
- Genre: Comedy
- Storyline: A forgetful man needs to convince the love of his life
But there are problems: her father, who has met Arya once, doesn’t have a great opinion about him. And this means that Arya has to involve his friends (Satish and Karunakaran) and employ the age-old Tamil cinema troupe of impersonation to solve the situation and get the girl.
It does gets the laughs, admittedly. There’s a scene that parodies Kamal Haasan’s Vasool RajaMBBS that brings the roof down. The interval block too, which uses the popular Kaala dialogue to good effect, is passable, and the laughs continue in the second.
As long as the tone is on the lines of a light-hearted comedy, Ghajinikanth goes along smoothly. But the portions in which it takes itself too seriously - there’s a cop (Lijeesh) who is besotted with Vandana and that leads to an unnecessary action sequence in the end – bog it down big time. Director Santhosh Jayakumar, who gave us two sex comedies ( Hara Hara Mahadevki and Iruttu Arayil Murattu Kuththu ), does have a fair comic streak in him – something that reminds me of Rajesh during the Siva Mansula Shakti and Boss Engira Bhaskaran times – and he should develop that more in the future.
