Ghajini opens well

Suriya is the kind of actor whose versatility makes you wonder what he is upto next. After the not-so-successful Perazhagan and Mayaavi, and a will-it-won't-it Chennayil Oru Mazhaikkaalam, he comes back with Ghajini (Gajini, Ghazini, Ghazni whatever). The soundtrack by Harris Jeyaraj is already topping the charts, and this adds to the expectation. Of course, there is also Asin! It is already known that it is inspired by Memento, a movie that raised the Hollywood bar by many levels. If Ghajini does even half of that to Tamil cinema, we - the viewers - are at gain.

If hearsay is to be believed, the movie is quite good - slickly packaged and well delivered. And it has taken a grand opening too. A friend who went in search of tickets to Mayajaal in Chennai remarked that "there was a crowd equal to that of 3 huge colleges" that was waiting for tickets. Most of them had to return in dismay. Most other movie halls, especially Sathyam Cinemas, is booked out for the next few days.

Nowrunning.com reports that the movie is poised to open with a bang.

All areas and other rights of Ghajini have already been sold making it a profitable venture for producer Salem A. Chandrasekhar.The original Rs. 5 crore-budget for the film, which was in the making for nearly a year, has been overshot by Rs.3 crore to Rs. 8 crore. Yet the producer is happy that it is worth the money spent...

Murugadoss says "Our target audience for Ghajini are the youth who from 80 per cent of opening viewership". The advance booking for the first week has been on a par with superhit "Chandramukhi" and Vikram's "Anniyan".

Incidentally, Suriya is, for the first time, playing distributor too. The same article reports

Surya himself is so impressed that he plans to dub it in Telugu. "The story and treatment are different and will appeal to one and all," he said on the eve of release of the film in Chennai, the area for which he has bought the distributing rights.

May he entertain us for long!

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Appended at 08:30 AM on Friday, September 30:

A friend adds:

Ghajini is amazing. It is quite unlike the run-of-the-mill fare. Contrary to the publicity, the director hasn't really tried hard to mimic Memento. No reverse scenes, no complex logic. But the screenplay is fast and taut. The storyline resembles that of Amnesia.

Suriya has acted well - not as many dialogues, but lots of scenes where his expressions rule. Asin takes the cake. She looks awesome, and acts even better! Nayanthara is the weak link. Background score blends well. Verdict: Superhit!