Ghajini

<p>Chitra is a medical student, who along with her friends is working on a project about the human brain. Chitra wants to investigate the curious case of Sanjay Ramaswamy, a notable -based rich businessman who is reported to have . Her professor Ravindran denies access to Sanjay’s records as it is currently under criminal investigation. Overcome with curiosity, Chitra proceeds to investigate the matter herself in secret. Sanjay loses his memory every 15 minutes and uses a system of photographs, notes, and tattoos to recover his memory after each cycle. It is revealed that Sanjay is ultimately out to avenge the death of his lover Kalpana and that he is systematically killing the people responsible. His main target is Lakshman, the head of a -based human trafficking network and a notable socialite in Chennai. Inspector Ravi is on the case of the serial murders. He tracks Sanjay at his flat and knocks him unconscious. Ravi finds two diaries titled 2002 and 2003 where Sanjay has chronicled the events of his life. In 2002, Sanjay Ramaswamy is the owner of the AirVoice mobile telephone company, who meets Kalpana, a struggling model, and secretly develops romantic feelings for her while introducing himself as “Manohar”. Eventually, both of them spend time together and gradually develop a liking for each other. The diary ends with Sanjay proposing to Kalpana and promising himself that he will reveal himself as Sanjay Ramaswamy if she accepts. Before Ravi can read the 2003 diary, Sanjay regains consciousness, attacks him, and ties him up. He tracks down Lakshman to a college function where the latter is the guest of honor. Sanjay takes pictures of Lakshman and decides to kill him. However, he mistakenly attacks and kills one of Lakshman’s goons in the parking lot. Lakshman is perplexed and fails to recollect the incident. He decides to find and kill his enemies one by one, but Sanjay is not among them. In the meantime, Chitra visits Sanjay’s flat and finds Ravi, beaten and bound. Chitra finds the two diaries and frees Ravi. She also finds that Lakshman is Sanjay’s target. The inspector tells her that Sanjay is a known serial murderer. Sanjay arrives suddenly; he remembers neither of them and chases them out. Ravi is eventually hit and killed by a bus, while Chitra barely escapes, going into a phone booth. Believing Lakshman is in danger, Chitra informs him that Sanjay is after him. Sanjay discovers that Chitra had warned Lakshman and goes to her dormitory to kill her, where Chitra calls the police and Sanjay is arrested but later freed. Lakshman discovers about Sanjay through a police inquiry and arrives at Sanjay’s flat, destroying all the photographs, and notes, and scratching off Sanjay’s tattoos. Chitra reads the 2003 diary, which states that Kalpana accepted the proposal, but on the condition that she marry only after she completes her past commitment. The diary ends abruptly as Sanjay left for a business trip. Chitra investigates further and discovers that Kalpana was traveling to for a modeling assignment by train when she rescued 25 innocent young Tamil girls to Mumbai and Kolkata. Lakshman, who is the ringleader of the racket, killed two girls who recognized him and goes in search of Kalpana. His goons broke into her apartment and tried to kill her, only to be trashed off by Sanjay, but Lakshman attacks Sanjay and kills Kalpana with an iron rod. Now aware of the truth, Chitra finds Sanjay in the hospital and tells him the truth. Sanjay tells her to lead him to Lakshman. Meanwhile, Lakshman’s twin brother Ram arrives from Kolkata to help him pursue Sanjay. Arriving at Lakshman’s factory in downtown Chennai, Sanjay sees Lakshman leaving in a car and follows him, but Chitra calls him and tells that he is here thinking that Ram is Lakshman, which everyone hears. Ram and his men try to kill her but she escapes to her dormitory. Ram and his henchmen arrive along with Lakshman and ask her to bring Sanjay, threatening to kill her friends otherwise. She goes to find Sanjay, along with their henchmen, and finally finds him. Sanjay confronts and disables all of Lakshman’s henchmen and goes to the dormitory to kill Lakshman. Sanjay fights off Lakshman and Ram but gets badly beaten and injured by them. But when he sees Kalpana’s presence and recollects how Lakshman killed her, he overpowers and kills the brothers. With his vengeance fulfilled, Sanjay leaves with Chitra, where he stops at a crossing to let young children cross the road. A young girl smiles at him and he returns the smile. As per the film’s opening credits: “I found the basic story — the part about the memory loss — very interesting. It was something not dealt with in Tamil before. I thought even a layman could understand the medical problem. The screenplay was very exciting too”. In 2004, AR Murugadoss began work on a film titled , with and , NIC Arts producing and as the music composer. However the project fell through and negotiations with also collapsed. In November 2004, it was announced that the project was revived by Salem Chandrasekhar and that would portray the lead role. Suriya subsequently had to tonsure his head for the film before production, with Asin retaining her role while was selected to play another role in the film. Murugadoss said that he had narrated the script to 12 actors but none of them agreed; Suriya was the 13th actor. The name of Asin’s character Kalpana was inspired by the late Indian American astronaut . Saran was later replaced by . The film was launched on 11 February 2005 at AVM Studios in with the cast of the project in attendance. In early April 2005, two songs for the film were shot in Switzerland with costumes brought in from Paris for the shooting. Shooting continued and the film finished production in July 2005. was inspired by the American film , which itself was adapted from the short story . In response to allegations of plagiarism, noted “Murgadoss had heard about a film called 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 , found it very different from what he had written, and went ahead and made .” Malathi Rangarajan of stated that: “Those who have watched , will not miss the similarities between the English flick and . Yet Murugadas’s ingenuity lies in adapting the inspiration to suit the taste of the audience”. Murugadoss stated, “I had written half the story of when I saw . I liked the character in the film who remembers things for just 15 minutes. So, I used just that character.” After the release of the , was reported to be upset when he found out that Murugadoss had borrowed elements from without giving him due credit. However, later he spoke fondly of the success of the film. He said, “I have heard it was very successful, I heard people liked it. So I will watch it at some point. I was aware of it, and I am very honoured”. Several comical scenes in the film are similar to (1951). The film’s title is a reference to , the tenth-century of whose name is pronounced “Ghajini” in Tamil. The soundtrack features five songs composed by . Regarding the song “Suttum Vizhi”, Harris said that when Murugadoss narrated him the situation in which the hero is full of admiration for the heroine’s attitude and compassion and he dreams of her. Initially, he thought of a peppy song but after hours of discussion, he decided on a melodious tune. was censored with a by the , with few minor cuts. The film and its dubbed Telugu release opened to high critical acclaim. was a commercial success and became among the highest grossing Tamil films of that year. , together with and , earned more than three times their combined cost of production. The Telugu dubbed version, which was released on 4 November 2005, was also successful and did better business than many straight Telugu films. The film’s success earned Suriya a fan following in . It also prompted producers in the Telugu film industry, to acquire the dubbing rights to Suriya’s Tamil films and release them in Telugu. wrote: “Full marks to the director and Surya for coming out with one of the best edge-of-the-seat racy thriller seen in recent times. Malathi Rangarajan of wrote that ” is recommended for those who seek extra strong, stylish, over-the-top entertainment” and also wrote that “it is an action film with plenty of intense, dark and suspenseful filled moments”. Lajjavathi of praised the performances of Suriya and Asin, Rajasekhar’s cinematography, Jayaraj’s music and Murugadoss’s direction. Aamir Khan who saw the original film decided to remake the film in Hindi. Murugadoss again directed the Hindi version. Asin reprised her character and the film marked her debut in Bollywood. The climax in Hindi version was altered, with Murugadoss revealing that Khan rewrote the climax portions. The remake version was released in 2008 to positive reviews and became a successful film at the box office. In 2006, Munirathna announced that he would remake the film in Kannada with and . However the remake failed to materialise; instead the Telugu film (2002) was remade in Kannada as (2006) and a few scenes were borrowed from . The film’s success established Suriya as an action hero and Asin as a top actress. Asin described Kalpana in as “a life-time role” for her. Nayanthara, who appeared in a supporting character, later said that appearing in was a big mistake and the “worst decision” she ever took. In a comedy scene from (2006), Ganesh ( ) parodies Suriya’s looks from to impress . In (2007), Body Soda ( ) imagines himself dancing for the song “Suttum Vizhi” with Sruthi (Asin). In (2010), Shiva ( ) remembers that he has to kill gangster Swarna when he looks at a Polaroid photo of her. In the Telugu film (2007), Seenu ( ) plays a prank on Inspector Babji ( ) by calling every women and singing “Oka Maaru” (Oru Maalai) and also getting him beaten up. ‘s character in (2008) is called “Ara Ghajini” ( ) and loses his memory every half an hour. In (2009), ‘Coma’ Ramaswamy ( ) imitates Suriya’s entry scene in the film. In (2009), amnesia patient Rajini ( ) runs into a nurse and the song “Hrudayam Ekkadunnadi” (Suttum Vizhi) plays in the background. In the Kannada film (2011), a man in Suriya’s getup attempts to kill Raghurama ( ) after seeing him with the glass of tea in his polaroid photo. In (2012), Aaku Bhai ( ) imagines himself dancing for the song “Hrudayam Ekkadunnadi” (Suttum Vizhi) with Nandini (Shriya Saran). In the 2014 Kannada film , a remake of Tamil film (2012), the first look poster featured the film’s actor in the look inspired from . The 2018 film was named as a blend of the words “Ghajini” and ” “, and was titled so because of the forgetful nature of Rajinikanth’s character in (1988) and Suriya’s character in .</p>