Ghajini

The Bollywood remake of the Tamil blockbuster "Ghajini" retains both the title and leading lady (Bollywood debutante Asin) from the original. Still, you might wonder, What exactly does "Ghajini" mean? Literally, I haven't a clue. But after watching this three-hour celluloid saga, it seems to signify a torturous desire for love, justice, and revenge all at once. The latest attempt by Aamir Khan to prove himself more cerebral than the Bollywood standard, "Ghajini" emerges at the intersection of "The Hulk" and "Sholay", right around the corner from "Memento" and "Army." But it is its own picture, one that hearkens back to the Bollywood revenge dramas of the 1980s. Dharamendra must surely be strutting proudly somewhere.

The story of "Ghajini" will be familiar to anyone who's ever seen a Sunny Deol or Sylvester Stallone film – or if you've read a Marvel comic in the last 75 years. Sanjay Singhania (Aamir Khan) is a debonair cell phone tycoon who falls for a struggling model named Kalpana (Asin). But Kalpana isn't content leading a life in front of the camera independent of altruism – she helps the handicapped into museums, escorts blind old men to bus stops, and even disrupts the trafficking of young girls whose internal organs are forcibly removed and sold by a gang of villains headed by a depraved monster named . . . Ghajini.

Ghajini cannot tolerate being challenged or thwarted, so he and his goons murder Kalpana in front of Sanjay (who is curiously left alive in an episode depicting the very worst of human nature). By the time Sanjay recovers, he is suffering from retrograde amnesia, a form of short-term memory loss wherein the patient cannot remember anything longer than 15 minutes. Clearly, avenging his beloved's murder will not be easy.

Enter senior medical student Sunita (Jiah Khan) whose fascination with retrograde amnesia gets the best of her. Soon, she has inserted herself into the cat-and-mouse game and her life is at stake. She puts into play many of the most critical plot twists, though at considerable peril to her own safety. Curiosity killed the cat; it just might kill a few medical students, too, in "Ghajini." There isn't anything particularly surprising or innovative about "Ghajini" (as "Lagaan" and "Rang De Basanti" certainly were – and memorably so). You shouldn't be surprised by how it ends. It is distinguished purely by the performances of its main players, especially Aamir Khan as a tortured avenger whose biggest obstacle is himself. He is part forsaken lover, part Sanjeev Kumar in "Sholay" and Sridevi in "Army", and part Hulk superhero whose physical strength and tolerance for pain is beyond the limits of human biology. It would be easy to dismiss his indifference to physical pain as requisite Bollywood disbelief suspension, but then, that's exactly the point: after witnessing Kalpana's murder, Sanjay is no longer human; he is reduced to a series of synapses punctuated with animal lust for violence and domination. There are more than a few scenes in the film where his behavior is more reminiscent of a caged bull than an amnesia patient. This isn't Aamir's best work, but he deserves credit for going where he hasn't ventured before.

Jiah Khan impresses as an earnest but foolhardy character; she is the lynchpin throughout much of the film, serving as both the character who puts the story into action and acts as the link between Ghajini and Sanjay. Mercifully, she is not cast as Sanjay's latent love interest. Curiously, she is given a staged dance number at a critical point in the film, something the film could certainly do without. Come to think of it, all of the film's musical sequences (fine compositions though they are) should be rightly deleted. They are well-placed, but essentially distracting from the narrative.

The film's most interesting yet most conventional characterization (as played by Asin) very nearly steals the show from Aamir Khan; maybe it's something about debuting with Aamir Khan (or maybe it's the fact that this is her second go at the role) but Asin very clearly reminds one of that other actress who debuted with Aamir Khan. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Asin seems to have graduated from the Juhi Chawla School of Acting, but the semblance is definitely there: the hyper vivacity, the bubbly cheeriness, the cutie pie with a healthy dose of sarcasm the hero is only too happy to suffer (romantically). The idealized Kalpana will remind you of many gummy sprite roles of the past: a big hearted, well-intentioned impish beauty with a big mouth. Think Juhi Chawla in One Two Ka Four (or Kajol In K3G). . . or Juhi Chawla in Ishq . . . or Juhi Chawla in Bol Radha Bol. You get the point. But the real point is that a star is born: Asin is here to stay.