Ghajinikanth Review: A Decent Family Entertainer That Has Nothing New

Right after the first look of Ghajinikanth was released we were able to guess what this movie is going to be.

A combo of Ghajini (the movie that had Suriya with temporary memory loss) and Rajinikanth is Ghajinikanth.

What has Rajinikanth to do with Ghajinikanth? Well, in Dharmathin Thalaivan, superstar Rajini sports a role where he is quite forgetful – so forgetful that he even forgets to wear dhoti for work and goes out with underwear.

The first look of Ghajinikanth portrayed Arya in such a characterization. Moreover Arya’s character name in Ghajinikanth is Rajini.

Well, so we all know it is some old school stuff! The movie is actually a remake of the Telugu Bhale Bhale Magadivoy, starring Nani.

What’s new? Well there’s nothing new. But in order to be a decent entertainer, a movie need not have anything new.

Some known template presented in a entertaining manner will do – the screenplay here plays a crucial role.

Does Ghajinikanth entertain you? The movie indeed tries really hard to, but only works here and there.

Santhosh P Jayakumar seems to have tried to change the “adult comedy director” image that he had got with his two previous movies – Hara Hara Mahadevaki and Iruttu Araiyil Murattu Kuthu.

For one Ghajinikanth is far different from his previous movies and doesn’t have any sort of adult focus (except for one or two double meaning jokes).

The movie is a family entertainer. Arya’s forgetfulness is the key here. How it is used to evoke various emotions of the audience is in the hands of the director.

Arya seems to have tried too hard to be funny and it is so obvious at many places in the movie. Nevertheless, he delivers a decent performance.

Ghajinikanth has Sayyeshaa as the lady lead and she does her job neatly. Unlike her previous movies (apart from Vanamagan), with Ghajinikanth, she seems to have a bit more of a screen time.

Sathish and Karunakaran are friends of Rajini who help him out in weird situations and as well as generate laughter with their one-liners.

There are a couple of really hilarious scenes in the movies. Apart from those, the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously – so you shouldn’t too either!

Rajinikanth is unable to get a girl due to his forgetfulness. There are funny scenes that lead up to here.

And then our hero meets Sathyamoorthi (Sampath) – after knowing about the memory loss weakness of Rajini, Sathyamoorthi refuses to let him marry his daughter.

His daughter happens to be Vandhana (Sayyeshaa) and without knowing this, Rajini falls for her. He hides his weakness and manages to impress her.

Both fall in love with each other. Naren plays Arya’s father and he does fit his role perfectly.

We also have Ajay, a funny cop, who is keen on marrying Vandhana and hence attempts to expose Rajini’s memory issue.

These along with the presence of Rajini’s friends do create some funny sequences. How the two come together forms the rest of the story.

If you just want to be entertained without taking entertainment too seriously, Ghajinikanth could be for you.

The movie could have been a little bit pacier. In particular, the first half wanders pointlessly for sometime and establishing the memory loss issue of Rajini is not so concrete.

Though not as sharply entertaining as the original, this remake works in parts to entertain you!