Ghajini (2005 film)

:"For the 2008 Bollywood film see, Ghajini (2008 film)."Infobox_Film
name = Ghajini


director = A. R. Murugadoss
producer = S. A. Chandrasekhar
starring = Surya Sivakumar
Asin Thottumkal
Nayantara
Pradeep Rawat
Riyaz Khan
released = September 29, 2005
music = Harris Jayaraj
cinematography = R. D. Rajasekhar
distributor = Sri Saravana Movies
runtime = 180 minutes
country = India
language = Tamil
budget = Rs.7.5 Crores
imdb_id = 0449951

"Ghajini" ( _ta. கஜினி) is a Kollywood feature film directed by A. R. Murugadoss released on September 29, 2005. The film stars Surya Sivakumar, Asin Thottumkal, Nayantara, Pradeep Rawat and Riyaz Khan. The film is a remake of the Hollywood psychological thriller "Memento" directed by Christopher Nolan. It is currently being remade into Hindi by Murugadoss again starring Aamir Khan with Asin Thottumkal playing the same role.

The film's story revolves around a rich business entrepreneur falling in love with an ad film actress. The entrepreneur and the actress fall in love, though she does not know that he is an entrepreneur. When she successfully saves a bunch of children who were in danger, she is brutally murdered by a gang leader and the entrepreneur himself gets hit hard on the head when he tries to save his lover, eventually leading him into a state of short term memory loss. He is later studied about and helped by a psychology student to take revenge on the one who murdered his lover. The film's title, "Ghajini", was taken from Mahmud Ghazni, an ancient invader of India who is said to be similar like the film's protagonist.

Plot

Sanjay Ramasamy (Surya Sivakumar), a rich businessman who owns a cellular phone company named "Air Voice" and the events surrounding his relationship with Kalpana (Asin Thottumkal).

Kalpana, an advertisement model goes around telling her advertisement crew that she is the love interest of Sanjay. She does this in spite of she having never met him and also goes to the extent of giving an interview about her "relationship" to a popular magazine. Sanjay happens to hear about this through the media and wants to settle scores with her. On his way, he catches a fleeting glimpse of a young woman (who happens to be Kalpana) helping handicapped children to cross a street. It is love at first sight for Sanjay. He moves on to confront Kalpana at her advertisement studio. He is pleasantly surprised to realize that she is the same helpful woman he saw a while ago. He chooses to hide the fact from her that he is Sanjay, calling himself as Manohar. Kalpana eventually falls in love with him.

Once, while on a train to Mumbai, Kalpana saves a group of young girls from abuse by a group of goons led by Lakshman (Pradeep Rawat). After a few days, the same goons come to Kalpana's house in order to avenge their embarrassment. Incidentally, Sanjay arrives at the scene and fights off the goons, but during the ensuing fight, Kalpana is murdered. The irony showcased is that Kalpana never finds out that he is Sanjay. Lakshman then strikes the downcast Sanjay on his head severely with a metal rod. Sanjay survives the blow, but suffers from a short-term amnesia. At any given time, he does not remember anything that happened more than 15 minutes back, although he frequently has flashbacks of Kalpana's murder. He determines to take revenge on those responsible for Kalpana's death. The rest of the story is about how Sanjay, along with a medical college student Chitra (Nayantara), goes about finding Lakshman and the goons.

Cast

*Surya Sivakumar as Sanjay Ramasamy. Surya plays a rich business man, an owner of a mobile phone service provider company. The character "Sanjay Ramasamy" was critically acclaimed and Surya was awarded a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor.

*Asin Thottumkal as Kalpana. Asin had won hearts of many during the year of 2005 through her role as "Kalpana", a charming, bubbly girl who acts in television advertisements. After her successful roles in Tamil cinema from "M. Kumaran son of Mahalakshmi" and "Ullam Ketkumae", she saw her first commercial success.

*Nayantara as Chithra. Nayantara played a curious medical college student, "Chithra", who is given permission along with her classmates to study the case of "Sanjay Ramasamy". She appears the most throughout the film as she unravels Sanjay's mysteries and past life and goes places to find more information about the psychiatric patient she wants to meet.

*Pradeep Rawat in dual roles as Lakshman and his twin. Pradeep plays the main antagonist "Lakshman" who brutally murders Kalpana for insulting him and ruining his plans. At the climax, when Sanjay is challenged to face-off Lakshman, he is introduced to his twin brother. In the confusion, Sanjay is told by Chithra to kill both the brothers as a benefit to not just him but to society as a whole.

*Riyaz Khan as a police investigator. Riyaz Khan plays the supporting role of a police inspector who investigates the murders by Sanjay Ramasamy. He also learns about some of Sanjay's past life.

Production

Casting

To play the lead role of this film A. R. Murugadoss approached some 12 other actors with some being Ajith Kumar, R. Madhavan, Joseph Vijay, and Vikram but all rejected due to date problems. Initially, Ajith accepted the role and the film was to be titled "Mirattal" and also photo session took place but subsequently dropped out. Then the role finally went to Surya Sivakumar who grabbed it and it turned out to be the biggest commercial successes in his career.

Meera Jasmine was the first choice to play the role of Kalpana. But she dropped the project and later replaced by Asin Thottumkal which helped her to establish as the top lead actress in Kollywood. [ [http://www.tamilstar.com/news/publish/article_1502.shtml Gopika - Asin accept Meera's rejects ] ]

Inspirations

The concept is based on an English movie Memento which is directed by Christopher Nolan, adapted from his brother Jonah Nolan's short story "Memento Mori". It stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a former insurance fraud investigator searching for the man he believes raped and killed his wife during a burglary. Leonard suffers from anterograde amnesia, which he contracted from severe head trauma during the attack on his wife. The concepts like writing notes behind instant Polaroid photographs, tattooing facts on body etc. are directly adapted from the movie.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features 5 songs composed by Harris Jayaraj, with lyrics by N. Muthukumar.

# "Oru Maalai" (5:54) - Karthik
# "X Machi" (4:12) - Mathangi & Nakul
# "Sutrum Vizhi" (5:18) - Sriram Parthasarathy & Bombay Jayashree
# "Rahathulla" (4:50) - Anupama
# "Rangola Ola" (4:26) - Shankar Mahadevan & Sujatha Mohan

Awards

2006 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards
* Won - Best Film — "Ghajini"cite web|url=http://in.movies.yahoo.com/070907/85/6kgna.html|title= Tamilnadu Govt. awards]
* Won - Best Actor — Surya Sivakumar

"'2006 Filmfare Awards
* Won - Best Actress — Asin Thottumkal [cite web|url=http://www.tamilworld.com/hot-news/the-53rd-film-fare-awards.html|title= The 53rd Film Fare Awards]
* Won - Best Editing — AnthonyFact|date=March 2008
* Won - Filmfare Best Male Playback Singer — Karthik

Reception

The movie had a very large opening. It managed to sustain the tremendous opening, and went on to be Surya's biggest hit at the time.Dubious|date=March 2008 It collected 49 crores revenue to make it one of the third highest grossing Tamil-language films of 2005 followed by "Anniyan" and "Chandramukhi".

The Hindi version of Ghajini with pre-release movie rights becoming hot property Ghajini has earned an estimated Rs 90 crore by selling its distribution rights. Last year, Om Shanti Om was the top grosser in distribution rights, it sold the rights to Eros for a reported Rs 73 crore.

See also

*"Ghajini (2008 film)"
*"Memento (film)"

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0449951|title=Ghajini
* [http://www.tamil-movies-online.tamilshots.com/photos/archived/2005/gajini Gajini movie photos]
* [http://www.imayam.org/songs/radio/index.jsp?action=playlist&artist=Ghajini Listen to Songs Online]