Coming Soon - Ghajini

[Pics Courtesy IndiaGlitz, Dinakaran]

With Chandramukhi and Anniyan out of the way, Ghajini has now moved to the top of the list of movies I am really looking forward to. At this point, it looks like the film will release September 2 but knowing how notorious our producers are about sticking to announced release dates, we can only cross our fingers and hope that Ghajini makes it to theatres as announced.

Surya is ofcourse the biggest reason I am looking forward to Ghajini. The actor has pretty much defined the phrase ‘growing as an actor’ as far as Tamil cinema is concerned. I clearly remember his weak turn in movies like Naerukku Naer(where I bemoaned Simran’s pairing with such a weak actor), Poovellaam Kaettuppaar and Friends(where his poor dancing skills were magnified since he danced with Vijay).

But it took a Bala to identify his strengths. Surya was perfectly suited to play the ‘strong and silent’ protagonist in Nandhaa and was pretty much reborn as an actor. He refined the character in Mounam Pesiyadhe and perfected it in Kaakka Kaakka. He was cool and dashing as the police officer and one could say he had truly arrived as an actor. It was once again Bala who highlighted his versatility by casting him as a talkative, glib-tongued petty thief in Pithaamagan. It was the exact opposite of his successful roles so far but he carried it off brilliantly.

I most admire Surya for the effort he has made to grow as an actor. He is one actor who has shown improvement in every department, be it acting, dancing, fighting or physical appearance. Based on tidbits and stills, Surya has two personas in Ghajini – a cool, debonair businessman and a revenge-seeking, tattooed-all-over avatar with tonsured head. Intriguing…

Ghajini is directed by Murugadoss, the director of Dheena and Ramanaa. Those two films marked him as a director who knows the pulse of the audience. He melded elements like sentiments, romance (very cute!) and stunts for a nice masala entertainer in Dheena while he packaged a social message in an entertaining manner in Ramanaa(apart from giving Vijayakanth his only decent role in recent times!). So having him behind the camera is a positive thing.

Ghajini is also the first major release for the film’s heroine Asin, who has releases with Vikram, Vijay and Ajith following this. Nayantara is also supposed to be in the film but, all stills I’ve seen so far have featured only Asin with Surya. So I’m hoping the Nayan news is true…

The film’s music is by Harris Jayaraj, who is coming off two hits in Anniyan and Ullam Ketkume. After a couple of listens, I thought the music was average but the audio is apparently a hit back home. That always bodes well for a film.

Though Surya was excellent in both Maayaavi and Perazhagan, the films themselves were no big performers at the box-office. Hope Ghajini reverses the trend. It does seem to have all the ingredients right. And Surya definitely deserves it!