Mumbai, March 19 (IANS) An entire generation of cinegoers was left scarred when they walked into the theatres in 2008, to discover that the character of Kalpana (played by Asin) in ‘Ghajini’ died without knowing the true identity of her lover, Sanjay Singhania (played by Aamir Khan).
For millennials, who thrive on a potent dose of commercial cinema, it’s a deep wound that refuses to heal. There are emotional Reels on Instagram, talking about how Kalpana dying without knowing who he was, is the worst thing to happen to Sanjay’s character.
IANS met director A.R. Murugadoss ahead of his upcoming release, the Salman Khan-starrer ‘Sikandar’, and asked the burning question, hoping that the filmmaker would spill some tea. And, he did break down the scene, and how the camshaft of the hidden information powered Sanjay’s vengeance setting a taut revenge-drama in motion.
Talking about the same, the director told IANS, “When I wrote the script, I thought, ‘What if Kalpana comes to know he is the real Sanjay? How will she react to it?’. I arrived at the conclusion that this one little addition in the script will water down the impact of the revenge that Sanjay harbours for Ghajini”.
In the film, Kalpana even gives Sanjay the money, before she is brutally murdered by ‘Ghajini’. Her gesture deeply touches Aamir’s character in the film. The director used Kalpana’s innocence as a device to further the sentiments of the audience.
The director further mentioned, “Sanjay had so much to tell her, reveal his identity to her but he couldn’t do all of that because not only Kalpana died before he could tell her, he also suffered from short-term memory loss after that incident. These two things fuel his passion for revenge, and make it real”.
The filmmaker then flipped the conversation, and posed a counter thought, as he said, “If Kalpana got to know about the true identity of Aamir’s character, we wouldn’t be discussing this scene, it’s been 16 years since the film released, and yet everyone talks about it, as a writer and director I see that as a job well done”.
A.R. Murugadoss has mostly worked with some of the biggest superstars of Indian cinema, with Ajith Kumar in ‘Dheena’, Chiranjeevi in ‘Stalin’, Suriya and Aamir Khan in ‘Ghajini’ (both Tamil and Hindi versions), Thalapathy Vijay in ‘Thuppakki’, Akshay Kumar in ‘Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty’, and now with Salman and Rashmika Mandanna in ‘Sikandar’.
While it may seem like a dream filmography to have all the superstars in most of your films, dealing with such big names raises the stakes. How does he navigate the challenges of working with superstars?
The director told IANS, “For superstars, we have the responsibility to satisfy their fans and the business. So, we can’t cheat the fans and we can’t show the regular stuff also. With all the big stars, as a filmmaker you have to go with their way but a bit differently. So, that is the challenge. Some dialogues could be lengthy, so before rolling the cameras, we discuss how the information can be conveyed by keeping the dialogue very lean”.
He also spoke about how he mounts action in his films, as he said, “When we go to set to film the action sequence, we should discuss, ‘why this action?’ Is the hero fighting for his mother, sister, girlfriend or somebody else. So, if something happens to the mother, the action would be done differently vis-a-vis how it would be for a friend, sister or a girlfriend”.
He continued, “Also, the placement of the action sequence is very important, if it comes in the first half, it won’t land a deeper impact on the audience, we can’t do a climax fight in the first half. Also, the mood of the scene is also very important, if the mood is well built, even one slap is enough. If the mood is not correctly mounted, the audience will get bored”.
“I am basically a writer and director, so I know better than anyone else. For a film, which I have written, the work starts six months or maybe one year prior to the actor entering the project. So, I meet the actor and narrate the story. I know how my character will speak, how he will sit, how he will eat, how he will behave with friends, because I am living with it. If the hero goes with some other track, then I will have to step in to make the corrections”, he added.
Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, ‘Sikandar’ is set to debut in theatres on March 28.
–IANS
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