Ghajini and Slumdog Millionaire

Something must be really wrong with me. I saw both the films and HATED both. Let's go one step at a time

GHAJINI: One does not expect holes in the storyline of an Aamir Khan script.
1. The CEO is giving sound bytes for a media interview when the girl calls him up for a chaddi ad. So, he is a media savvy CEO BUT the heroine has never seen him on TV or seen a picture of him in the newspaper.
2. A girl agrees to marry a guy, without ever asking him about his family, and without going to his house even once. He has been to her house, but she has never been to his house.
3. He was hit on the head and has this ST amnesia. Good. So when he wakes up right after the accident, he should have forgotten about it.. ?? OK, someone told him about it, and he made furious notes to remind himself every morning. All in 15 minutes. Where did he get those polaroid pictures? He would have to remember the faces from the accident to take those pictures. OK, in the film, at one place, he says he remembers only the accident. Then why does he forget the accident every morning?? Wait, i m missing something here.. this just doesnt make sense!
4. A guy with a slit throat cannot, in most cases, talk enough to tell another person in a complete sentence that the intended victim was someone else - you.

Let's leave the holes in the story aside for a moment. There is nothing to the story-telling, except the freshness of the heroine's rather competent acting. Aamir can kill on screen. We saw that in the first slitting of the throat. The 50th pointless slitting of the throat will not convince us any more than the first. Aamir Khan is not Daniel Craig. When we want to see pointless violence and lots of flesh, we see a Bond film. When we want to see a film that makes sense, we see an Aamir Khan film.

Aamir Khan with 8 packs is great. Aamir Khan in a pointless plot with just the 8 pack to recommend him, somehow does not work for me.

Slumdog Millionaire:
In the movie, there is one shot where an American woman points to a cow and says excitedly to her partner: "Look, cow!" This film is exactly like that shot. Danny Boyle takes some random shots of Dharavi and his western audience says "Look, a slum!" and gives him the excited awards.
Let me ruin it for you. In the book :
1. There is no Jamal. There is Ram Mohammed Thomas.
2. There is no brother.
3. There is no mother and there are no Hindu Muslim riots and no orphaning after the riots.
4. There is no Latika. Frieda Pinto's character doesn't exist.

The film has taken the concept of a poor person making a lot of money on a game show because of his life experiences; taken exactly one episode from the book and added all others from his own imagination; and called it "based on the book".

Like a Karan Johar film is made for the NRIs, Danny Boyle's film is made for the Western audience that wants to see India as a gross, unjust, poor place.

The only saving grace of the film is Dev Patel. He has the right body language, the right eyes and the right expressions on his face. He is good. Frieda Pinto impresses more in the awards functions than in the film. The others do not impress at all.

My review of Slumdog millionaire: Read the book instead. Its a breezy read that will take the same time, and is lots more entertaining.

Feel free to slaughter me for these reviews.