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Ghajini (2005 film)

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Ghajini
Directed byA. R. Murugadoss
Written byA. R. Murugadoss
Produced bySalem A. Chandrasekaran
StarringSuriya
Asin
Nayantara
Pradeep Rawat
CinematographyR. D. Rajasekhar
Edited byAnthony
Music byHarris Jayaraj
Distributed bySri Saravanaa Creaations
Geetha Arts (Telugu dubbed version)
Release date
October 14, 2005
Running time
180 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil
Budget₹6.5 crore (US$780,000)
Box office₹67 crore (US$8.0 million)[1]

Ghajini (Template:Lang-ta) is a 2005 Tamil psychological thriller film directed by A. R. Murugadoss released on October 14, 2005. The film stars Suriya, Asin, Nayantara, Pradeep Rawat and Riyaz Khan. It was dubbed and released in Telugu by Allu Aravind in November 2005, and both versions enjoyed critical and commercial acclaim. It was remade into a Hindi film by Murugadoss again in 2008, starring Aamir Khan with Asin playing the same role. The film's concept is an inspiration from Christopher Nolan's Memento.[2]

The film's story is 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.

Plot

The story centers on Sanjay Ramaswami (Surya Sivakumar), a rich businessman who owns a cell phone company named Air Voice and the events surrounding his relationship with Kalpana (Asin Thottumkal).

Kalpana, an advertisement model, meets with representatives from Sanjay's company who come to request a business agreement and ends up telling her advertisement crew that she is Sanjay's love interest - after the crew mistakenly thought that the executives were sent by Sanjay to ask for her love. She has never met him, but soon exploits popularity from her "relationship" with him and inadvertently gives an interview for a magazine. Sanjay, who reads the article, goes to confront her. On his way, he catches a fleeting glimpse of Kalpana (whom he doesn't know yet) helping handicapped children to cross a street, and falls in love. He moves on to confront Kalpana at her advertisement studio and is pleasantly surprised to find that she is the same woman he saw a while ago. He chooses to hide his true identity, takes the name Manohar, so that he can get to know her. 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. 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 anterograde amnesia.

His condition makes him forget everything that happened every 15 minutes. The only memory he has is of Kalpana's murder, though he cannot remember the murderer. He embarks on a quest to avenge her. Despite his condition, he succeeds in finding and killing Lakshman's men. Chitra(Nayantara), a medical student, takes interest in Sanjay's case and meets him. Sanjay, reluctantly, adds her to his photo collection labeling her as a friend so that she could meet him and talk later. Later, Chitra finds his intention to murder Lakshman and tattles on him.

Lakshman is amused that a man with short term memory loss is trying to kill him. Nevertheless, he destroys all the information Sanjay collected, all his photos and even shaved the tattoos Sanjay had off so that he will forget his quest. However, Chitra finds and reads Sanjay's journal and become sympathetic to his cause. She tells Sanjay who murdered Kalpana.

In the final confrontation, Sanjay fights with both Lakshman and his twin brother and kills them.

Cast

  • Surya as Sanjay Ramaswami (Manohar). Suriya plays a rich business, the owner of a mobile company called Air Voice. Sanjay fell in love in Kalpana, but introduced himself to her as a struggling actor, Manohar. Kalpana is killed in a horrible manner and Sanjay develops a special form of Amnesia where he remembers events only up to 15 minutes. To aid his pursuit of revenge, Sanjay tattoos important details on his torso.
  • Asin as Kalpana. Asin plays an ad model, who claims to be the lover of Sanjay Ramasamy an successful entrepreneur. When she meets him, he introduces himself to her as Manohar, a struggling actor. Kalpana, showcased as a kind-hearted person, becomes involved in a case when rescues girls kidnapped by Lakshman. Kalpana is killed in front of Sanjay by Lakshman.
  • Nayantara as Chitra. Nayantara is a medical student, who tries to study the case of Sanjay Ramaswamy and his amnesiac problem. She appears throughout the film as she attempts to unravel Sanjay's mysteries and past life and goes places to find more information about the psychiatric patient she wants to meet. Despite initial friction between Sanjay and herself, she later helps Sanjay take his revenge over Lakshman and his twin.
  • Pradeep Rawat as Ram and Lakshman. He kills Kalpana for insulting him and ruining his plans. At the climax, when Sanjay goes to kill Lakshman, he is introduced to his brother. In the confusion, Sanjay is told by Chithra to kill both as a benefit to not just him but to society as a whole.
  • Riyaz Khan
  • Sathyan
  • Manobala

Production

The film was initially announced as Mirattal in March 2004 to be produced by NIC Arts and to feature Ajith Kumar and Asin in the lead roles, with a photo shoot also being held. Yuvan Shankar Raja was then signed as the music director.[3] However the project fell through after Ajith had pulled out and negotiations to make the film with Madhavan in the lead role also collapsed.[4][5] In November 2004, it was announced that the project was revived by Salem Chandrasekhar and that Suriya would portray the leading role. Suriya subsequently had to tonsure his head for the film before production, with Asin retaining her role while Shriya Saran and Prakash Raj were selected to play other roles in the film.[6] It was revealed that Asin would play the role of Kalpana, with the name being inspired by the late Indian astronaut Kalpana Chawla.[7] Shriya was later replaced by Nayantara for the second leading female role, after the former became busy with other films and Pradeep Rawat replaced Prakash Raj.[8]

The film was launched on February 11, 2005 at AVM Studios in Chennai with the cast of the project in attendance.[9] In early April 2005, two songs for the film were shot in Switzerland with costumes brought in from Paris for the shooting.[10] Shooting continued and the film finished production in July 2005.[11]

Controversy

In response to allegations of plagiarism, Aamir Khan noted "Murgadoss had heard about a film called Memento and the concept had really fascinated him. Without having seen the film he went ahead and wrote his own version of the script and screenplay. Having finished his script, he then saw Memento, found it very different from what he had written, and went ahead and made Ghajini."[2]

Soundtrack

Untitled

The soundtrack features five songs composed by Harris Jayaraj. While it was titled Mirattal, Yuvan Shankar Raja was the initial composer. A. R. Rahman scored the Hindi version of the film.

No Song title Singers Length (m:ss) Lyrics Description
1 "Oru Maalai" Karthik 5:54 Thamarai Filmed in various parts of Tamil Nadu on Surya and Asin, when Sanjay realises he has fallen in love with Kalpana.
2 "Sutrum Vizhi" Sriram Parthasarathy, Bombay Jayashree 5:19 Na. Muthukumar Filmed in Switzerland on Surya and Asin, as the second diary flashback of Sanjay begins.
3 "Rahathulla" Anupama 4:50 Thamarai Filmed in Chennai on Asin, as Kalpana is introduced.
4 "Rangola Ola" Shankar Mahadevan, Sujatha 4:26 Kapilan Filmed in sets on Surya and Asin, when Kalpana is longing for Sanjay.
5 "X Machi" Mathangi, Nakul 4:12 Vaali Filmed in a college on Nayanthara as an item song, during which Sanjay is trying to kill someone.


Release

Reception

This film was a super hit and a turning point in Surya's career. The dubbed version in Telugu was also well received and both versions were declared super hits[12].

Awards and nominations

In addition to the following list of awards and nominations, prominent Indian film websites named Ghajini one of the 10 best Tamil films of 2005, with Rediff, Sify and Behindwoods all doing such that. The film also featured, prior to release, in "most awaited" list from film websites.

Award Category Nominee Result
2005 Filmfare Awards South Best Actor Surya Sivakumar Nominated
Best Actress Asin Thottumkal[13] Won
Best Director A.R.Murugadoss Nominated
Best Film Salem A. Chandrasekaran Nominated
Best Lyricist Thamarai
(Oru Maalai) 		Nominated
Best Male Playback Sriram Parthasarathy
(Suttum Vizhi) 		Nominated
Best Male Playback Karthik
(Oru Maalai) 		Won
Best Female Playback Bombay Jayashree
(Suttum Vzhi) 		Nominated
Best Music Director Harris Jayaraj Nominated
Best Cinematographer R. D. Rajasekhar Nominated
Best Editor Award Anthony Won
2005 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Best Film Ghajini[14] Won
Best Actor Surya Sivakumar Won
Best Music Director Harris Jayaraj Won
Best Male Playback Sriram Parthasarathy
(Suttum Vizhi) 		Won
Best Female Playback Bombay Jayashree
(Suttum Vizhi) 		Won
Best Cinematographer R. D. Rajasekhar Won
Best Lyricist Na. Muthukumar
(Suttum Vizhi) 		Won
Best Audiographer A.S. Laxmi Narayanan Won
Best Editor Anthony Won

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ a b Aamir Khan (Friday, June 29, 2007). "Ghajini". The Lagaan Blog. Retrieved 2009-03-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Mirattal". Indiaglitz.com. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
  4. ^ http://www.sify.com/movies/surya-replaces-ajit-in-mirattal-news-tamil-kkfvESbhcac.html?scategory=tamil
  5. ^ http://www.hindu.com/mp/2004/03/22/stories/2004032201000200.htm
  6. ^ http://www.sify.com/movies/suryas-new-exciting-film-news-tamil-kkfvA1hihhh.html?scategory=tamil
  7. ^ http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/13443.html
  8. ^ http://www.sify.com/movies/nayantara-in-ghajini-news-tamil-kkfv6ojaggj.html?scategory=tamil
  9. ^ http://www.sify.com/movies/surya-as-an-action-hero-news-tamil-kkfv86jidhd.html?scategory=tamil
  10. ^ http://www.sify.com/movies/surya-in-switzerland-news-tamil-kkfv6yfegfd.html?scategory=tamil
  11. ^ http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/15779.html
  12. ^ http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/hindi/article/43845.html
  13. ^ "The 53rd Film Fare Awards".
  14. ^ "Tamilnadu Govt. awards".
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