YESTERDAY, I saw the trailer of the movie Ghajini. It left me surprised. I was happy to have seen something new from Bollywood; something other than family drama and romance-based tragedy. But later I was reminded of a Hollywood movie based on the same concept that I had seen two months ago. I realised that the upcoming Amir Khan movie was a copy of the Hollywood flick, Memento. Memento is a movie where a man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife. People who watch Memento (2000) can infer, upon comparison with Ghajini, that the latter is a copy of the former. Do watch the trailer of both the movies.

Ghajini is also based on the same concept. Sanjay Ramasamy (Aamir Khan), a rich tycoon, suffers from short-term memory loss as a result of an injury inflicted by a metal pole when he tries to intervene in the murder of his girlfriend. Because of the severe head injury he sustains, his memory does not last beyond fifteen minutes and naturally, he cannot remember incidents that have occurred in his life earlier. So, he makes notes and takes pictures with a Polaroid camera to ensure that the ailment, viz., loss of memory, can help him lead as near-normal a life as possible.

The movie is said to be a remake of the south-Indian movie, Ghajini, which was also said to have been inspired by Memento. Actually both the movies are not born out of inspiration but are mere copies of the Hollywood movie, Memento. This is not the first time that Bollywood has copied a Hollywood movie. But any Bollywood movie with a new concept is copied from Hollywood, apart from the traditional Indian films which are filled with ingredients like family drama and romance.

When will Bollywood offer to Indians a good movie based on its own creativity and not based on or inspired by some Hollywood movie? The common man awaits a good blockbuster from Bollywood. We must wait and watch the movie to evaluate it; assess the extent to which the movie has been copied; ascertain what Bollywood masala has been added to the movie. Surely the movie is going to be interesting and call for a first-day-first-show watch, with Amir Khan shining again after Taare Zameen Par. So let us watch the movie. I’ll be back with the post-release review of the movie. By then, watch Memento; it is a good movie based on a good synopsis and is something different; it is based on chronological events, which are well-timed.