In Pursuit of Ghajini...

    My cell phone was rang and I finally woke up. My friend wanted to watch Ghajini. He said that we’d go to the local theatre and see the first show. It was a rare day-off that I got from office. Which meant I was free for 4 consecutive days including Christmas and the weekend! It was rare indeed! 

My head was throbbing. I was reading Papillon till early morning. It is a gripping book and I was up till 4.00 AM. Well, so I was the rudely woken up by my friend for Ghajini and I agreed for the movie. Part of my morning routine include signing in on MSN, G-talk, checking my mail , Facebook and Orkut scraps. In 20 minutes, I managed to hurt a very loved one through some routinely insensitive stuff.

“What a way to begin the day!” I thought. My phone was ringing. My friends were ready and waiting for me. But my mind was occupied elsewhere.

I came down and met Rohan. He said that we weren’t going to the local theatre but to a Mulund. The theatre was not exactly the plush malls that one generally goes to but it was a tad better than a grindhouse. These were the movie theatres that were killed by the multiplexes. It is a welcome change sometimes. Not having to pay ridiculous prices for popcorn enticed me more. I mounted the bike and we sped towards Mulund.

We reached the movie hall. Akshay was just back from the ticket counter. He bought two tickets for him and his friend. When it was our turn to buy the tickets, I realised that we were penniless. I have this crazy habit of not carrying cash with me and the grindhouse didn’t accept cards. I asked Akshay to go into the movie hall and said that I’ll join them in about 10 minutes.

I was in the ATM when I got Akshay’s message. It said, “Hey, it’s Rab Ne... and not Ghajini. I’m sorry please go to some other theatre.” I was surprised. He did not even see the hoardings and neither did I. My sister had gone to see Rab Ne bana di jodi and she fled before the interval. So, I and Rohan..oh sorry! Rohan and I (I’m trying to be a nice person.) went to a nearby mall to watch Ghajini. I was wearing slippers and was dressed like an urchin.  I had by now realised that my morning was exceedingly brilliant. I called another friend to join us.

The movie, was brilliant in patches. I was disappointed with Aamir Khan. It had a gripping story but the sloppy camerawork and the jarring music made the experience almost unbearable sometimes. Some sequences were good enough to draw a collective gasp from the audience but the real opinion of the 3.5hr marathon was when people hurriedly left the movie hall when it seemed like the epic was about to end. But to be fair to the movie, it was unfairly panned by the Mumbai Mirror. Maybe we expect too much out of Aamir Khan or I watch too much of Rajeev Masand. But the fact is, though I did not entirely love Ghajini, I would not dissuade others from watching this movie. Asin was a revelation and her character was wonderfully etched. Jiah Khan, thankfully had a miniscule role.

                  My morning wasn’t entirely wasted but it was not ideal either.