Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Ghajini : Masala Overdose!

What a month December has been. Two blockbusters from two greatest stars of Bollywood.

1. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
2. Ghajini

First was ‘Rab Ne…’ I have watched it 2 times already and I can tell you that barring 2 dialogs Shahrukh uses the word ‘love’ to refer to ‘love’ instead of the regular hindi word ‘pyaar’.

And then there was ‘Ghajini’ which I watched on the first day last show at my home town Bhusawal. What an experience that was! In last one and half years, that I have spent at Pune, I had almost forgot what an electrifying atmosphere there is on the release day of a blockbuster. There were throngs of young rowdy guys ready to fight for the tickets. (I made the safe choice by buying my ticket in black for, hold your breath…, 50 rupees.)

But of course the seats weren’t numbered, which means whoever enters first, gets better seats. Result: A hard fought battle to get into the movie hall. I plunged myself with all the enthusiasm and courage I had and managed to get in quite early. But the real credit for securing the seats for our group must go to my cousin brother Prashant who is a Mumbai local veteran and is accustomed to getting into the locals through similar crowd. But I think I should get a little credit too just for managing to get in all of my bulk through that slit of a gate.

Image Credit: Nino Satria

Alas, Ghajini was a disappointment. Don’t ask why? Long list of problems: Irregular pacing, too long, too many songs, an age old 'the villain killed the heroine so the hero killed the villain' kind of story... But most importantly, WHAT WAS THE NEED OF THE ‘MITHUN-FIGHT’ AT THE CLIMAX? It is really laughable to see a bunch of bad men throwing themselves at Aamir Khan only to be thrown in air with a single blow. And what’s more puzzling? None of these bad guys had a gun or a sword or a knife? And this is supposed to be a big gang involved in national-level human trafficking and body parts selling.

But yes if you are ready to leave such ‘little’ issues aside and ready to accept that these are Bollywood movies after all, then both ‘Rab ne…’ and ‘Ghajini’ are quite entertaining (in parts). What both Aditya Chopra and Aamir Khan has done is that they have packed every last bit of masala they had in their respective movies to ensure commercial success. After watching the movies one can’t help but wonder, ‘Only if there was a bit less of the masala, these could have been great movies’.