Comedy drama ‘Ghajinikanth’ is for the family

If director P. Santosh Kumar’s last Tamil film Iruttu Araiyil Murattu Kuthu — an adult horror comedy — could not be watched with family, his upcoming comedy Ghajinikanth fixes the issue.

Ghajinikanth is the story of an absent-minded botany scientist who falls in love with a bharatanatyam dancer. This remake of the successful Telugu romantic comedy Bhale Bhale Magadivoy has Arya in the titular role. Sayeesha plays his lover.

The title is a portmanteau of Ghajini (Surya’s critically-acclaimed film where his character suffered from anteretrogade amnesia) and Rajnikanth’s character from Dharmathin Thalaivan (in which the star played a forgetful young man).

While retaining the core from the original, Santosh has tweaked it to suit Tamilian sensibilities. The humour is subtle unlike Telugu cinema where it’s exaggerated, he elaborated.

Besides, the original film released in 2015 and two years later while scripting Santosh ensured that the dialogues were in tune to current times. The film was shot in Chennai with a film sequence in Thailand. The supporting cast includes Satish, Kaali and Sampath Raj. Balamurali Balu has scored music. Bhallu is the DOP.