Gajini : Review

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Though not much of a movie-goer, I never miss out the big movies. I try to watch them first day. After Chandramukhi and Anniyan, Gajini was one movie I expected a lot out of and thus decided to watch it first day inspite of a mammoth Rs.120 ticket at Sathyam. This ended up being a not-so-great movie, but it definitely is better than most movies around.

Surya plays Sanjay Ramasamy, a short-term memory loss patient. He overcomes this handicap of his to take revenge on the guy who killed his lover. That is the gist of the movie. The theme, as many know, is inspired by the Hollywood flick Memento. I haven't seen Memento myself. After hearing the original story I feel Murugadoss had a pretty neat Indian version in mind. But what came out was entangled in logical loopholes and an excessively masala climax which hamper the overall impact of the movie.

First, this movie breaks away from the monotony of Tamil masala. A new subject with a nice treatment. Surya and Asin steal the show. But for them, I pretty much feel the movie would have got nowhere. The romantic sequences have been etched out beautifully by the director and the pair has done full justice to their character. The flashback, in which the duo appear, is well placed in the movie and comes as a welcome break for the audience. Its complete drool time when they appear on screen. Asin is complete drool material! A good mix of a homely and roomly girl!

Though the positives end with that, they definitely make the movie worth watching atleast once.

Nayanthara's screen presence is amazing. She literally fills the screen. Filling the giant screen at Sathyam is quite a task, which was earlier accomplished only by Ramkumar when he went Repeeeettu in Chandramukhi. She has pierced her nose, applied lotsa kaajal on her eyes, not shampooed her hair for around two years giving it the coir look and put on enough weight to become the second largest mammal on earth after the blue whale. On the whole, she would have made a scarier ghost in Grudge saving all the make up. Her expressions were so scary that it is believed to have earned an A certification for the film. To top it all off she wears extremely small, tight clothing and is constantly being chased. First time since Rajnikant's "Annayin Aanai" (?) that I saw a baby elephant run in movies. Those of you guys who felt Nayanthara was a good country wood, after watching Chandramukhi, please check out this movie.

The songs are completely out of place in the movie. They seems to appear when you least expect them. But for "Oru Maalai" and "Suttum Vizhi", Harris Jeyaraj irritates. Senseless BGM that don't even let you follow the dialogues. Mandaiku maela mudi valartha mattum Rahman aagida mudiyuma? Mandikulla moolai-um valaranum. The fact that he is a lover of all languages comes to the fore once again in this movie. For the chorus, he has used Japaneese, Chineese, Sinhaleese, Burmeese and Dharbees till date and is expected to use C, C++ and Java in future. Innovation-aam. Paavam Surya who got this "Zoooooooooolooooooooooooooooooo, Boooozoooooooooooooo" BGM. I was thinking to myself, "athu Magix-oda naai paeru-la?". I hereby invite Maruthuvar Ramadas and Dalit Panther Thirumaalvalavan to take strict action against Harris Jeyaraj for izhivu paduthifying Tamil language.

Click to enlarge : Gajini Map

The villain looks to be a Northie. Heroines import-ey big kodumai, idhula villain vaeraya? Pathetic. Don't we have enough talent around? Why pick somebody who can't even speak Tamil properly? Idhula double action vaera. The villain twins have comically been names Ram and Lakshman. I was just hoping there isn't a Yaadon Ki Baarath style re-union and thankfully that did not happen.

Except for "Suttum Vizhi", which had some sweet graphics in it, the other songs have been picturised just decently. "Oru Maalai" was nice because of the cute Surya-Asin scenes, but whether it did justice to the song is a different question. One tends to lose the song and stay fixed to the scenes. That's not something appreciable. Though "Oru Maalai" came out of HJs repository (Mudhal Mudhalai from Lesa Lesa), the song still has the impact. HJ seems to be running out of tunes already.

The stunts are pretty good in the movie if we choose to overlook the presence of a foamy canvas where the villains fell. That was something very evident in the fight sequence before Asin's death - a long black sheet with lots of folds on it is supposed to be a tar road? The climax fight once again contained the time-slice shots. It did not irritate me this time around because it was used minimally and also not a direct copy of Neo vs Smith.

Lapse of logic is ok, but lack of logic konjam over! Was that part of indianising the movie? Romba kevalam.

The pace of the movie, which makes the first half enjoyable, is lacking in the second half and the movies drags. The movie had the potential to be a lot better. The expectation which the first half generates is not satisfied in the second half with its masala cimax. What had looked to be a novel attempt ended in a yet-another-Tamil-movie fashion. That makes one dislike the movie to an extent. Overall its a decent movie that could have been a lot lot better.

P.S. : Asin-ku enna vayasu?? Enna vida chinnavala ava??