Finally the buzz around the release of the latest Aamir Khan starrer Ghajini has just toned down. The film makers were all set to take Indian film making to the next level with a supporting full fledged 3D computer game based on the movie. This brings us to the game that is touted to be the first Indian Action 3D game – which it is not, the first 3D full fledged game made by an Indian Gaming Studio was Bhagat Singh.

The Mission/Storyline

Who is "GHAJINI"? For one man who has nothing left in his life, it is the end of a long road. Sanjay’s last memory is the brutal murder of his girlfriend Kalpana and her last whispered word – "Ghajini". Will he find what he is looking for and avenge her murder? Experience the story through the unique perspective of a man who forgets but does not forgive. Experience his panic and paranoia as he comes to grips with his condition and tries to make sense of a world that is rapidly fading. Help him piece together the fragments of his life by sneaking into heavily guarded buildings searching for a reason to go on. Join him as he fights against those who have taken away his past, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. Find out what lies at the end of that road.

Character(s)

Sanjay is the protagonist of the game. His girlfriend Kalpana has been murdered by someone powerful who is trying to bury the truth. After an injury to the head, he developed a form of short term memory loss where he can’t form any new memories. His last memory is the word "Ghajini" from his dying girlfriend’s lips. Now his mission is to find out what that word means.

Artwork

The artwork is dark and crisp, totally relevant to the concept of the movie. The artwork will remind players of the artwork found in comic books by Indrajal, like Bahadur, of course, we would have to be in the age range of 25-30 to have this connect.

User Interface/Controls

The user interface is pretty bland and commonplace, with players provided with just the health bar and the inventory bar. What this game seriously lacks is a map, especially in the beginning levels, where the main protagonist has to move stealthily from corner to corner.

Gameplay

The gameplay is quite engaging and engrossing, but because of the insane difficulty that is Ghajini – The Game, it does leave a bitter taste in the mouth at the end of it. The game designers should understand that there is a very low pixel count between engrossing and frustrating and this game diddle daddles around that count.

Check out the screenshots of the game

What Does the Game Lack, anyway?
The game lacks ingame options like Save and Quick Save, which does not make any sense in 2008, we all have good enough virtual memory to run ten softwares together, forget saving games whenever we want.

Also, the game sleeve is quite harsh about the minimum requirements and system requirements, but the end product seems like its just dusting the resources of your NVIDIA 7 or 8 series. We did not get the NVIDIA 8 series to see a low polygon bush without bump mapping or a torchlight that looks like a bouquet of flowers – sorry, but its just not done.

The events and puzzles in the game will again remind players of several games that they have been playing, so simply put, there is no WOW factor in the gameplay for this one.

Characterisation

To be very frank, it may seem that the Team A was sent to ’tackle’ the characters and Team B was sent to ’take care’ of the scenario and other backgrounds. Everyone, from the main protagonist to the cops is well made and is detailed out. If you find yourself saying ’bribe the cop and get out’, you know that the character artists have won the day!

Sound

Make no mistake about it, Aamir Khan has give it all to his (first?) voice over assignment, but we have heard better, and that’s his problem. Aamir Khan tries and succeeds in inducing the pathos of a ’wronged person’, but its Mother Nature that plots against him when it comes to his voice in the game. Our ears are more trained to hear the baritonish voice of Hugh Jackman, or the gruff voice of Bruce Willis, or the cent percent baritone of Amitabh Bachchan as that of the ’wronged one’ and the ’against the system’ guy.

Excluding that, the game is almost stunning in terms of sound. All voice-overs are perfectly done. The background music is another highpoint of the game. However, with such a great music score, we’d like the background music to be more prominent in the game.

Fun Factor

Would you have fun playing this game? Frankly speaking, the game is very tough. Of course, if you have liked the movie and you treat the game as just a add-on to the movie

Overall

Yes, we will find ourselves saying that we should not compare Ghajini with the other games, but it is time for Indian Gaming Studios to wake up and smell the coffee. We came in the race very late, but that does not mean that they can get away with such unpardonable acts like Ghajini – the Game.

Minimum System Requirements
Windows* XP SP2 with admin rights*
Intel* Pentium* 4 2.4 GHz+ or equivalent 1 GB RAM
Intel* G965**, NVIDIA Geforce* 6600 or ATI Radeon* X800 With 256 MB Video Memory
1 GB Free Hard Drive Space
OpenAL / DirectX* 9.0c compliant Audio
* Compatible with Windows Vista
** Compatible with Intel Integrated Graphics Chipset G965 and above (may require additional RAM for Shared Video Memory)

Price: Rs. 199

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Aamir Khan has just found himself another fan among filmmakers. The softspoken and gentle Tamil-Telugu director A.R Murugadoss who has made what is unarguably one of the most violent films of our times, is completely enamoured of Aamir’s creative faculties.

In fact the simple and honest director who has earlier made four highly successful films in Tamil and Telugu openly acknowledges that Aamir re-constructed the entire climax of Ghajini to make it more contemporary and palatable to a cosmopolitan audience.

"We didn’t make too many changes in the rest of the film. Every time I’d suggest a change in Ghajini from the original, Aamir would firmly cut it down saying we should stick to the Tamil script.

But he decided we should rewrite the entire climax. The entire location, incidents and dialogues for the Climax were re-written by Aamir. I think the Hindi version is far better than the Tamil Ghajini because of the changes that Aamir made."

Whatever Murugadoss makes next (and the offer will crystallize after the year-ending week) Murugadoss has only one wish.

"I want Aamir to be my consultant. Ghajini in Hindi would’ve been impossible without him. What he did to the climax was amazing. Now whatever I make I want Aamir’s guidance. I don’t know Hindi at all.

But I knew the meaning of the Tamil words and groped my way through the Hindi dialogues in Ghajini. Every time I was stuck on a word or line I’d call up Aamir. I’ve learnt so much from him, " says the litterateur-turned-filmmaker who has several short -story anthologies in Tamil to his credit.

Though many people in Mumbai feel the title role of the villain in Ghajini should have been played by a better-known actor Murugadoss is happy with Pradeep Rawat. "He is not entirely unknown in Hindi cinema. He played the the Sardarji in Lagaan."

Murugadoss admits he felt a little out of place in Mumbai initially. "But today a filmmaker is not restricted to any one region. Ghajini has gone so smoothly from Tamil to Hindi. Now I want to take a break, visit my native town Kallakurichi near Chennai and come back to sign my second Hindi film."

Next Murugadoss wants to direct a totally non-violent film in Hindi. "My next Hindi film will be an out-and-out love story. There won’t be even a slap in the narrative. I’ve acquired the reputation of being a violent director. But apart from Ghajini all my films are soft and gentle."

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Numerologist Sanjay B Jumaani predicts what 2009 holds for our top Bollywood stars and how their movies will work at the box-office.Check what he has to say about them:

Shah Rukh Khan
The Badshah of Bollywood may not have a great year health-wise. He’s in his 44th year, which adds up to 8, representing Saturn (Shani). Unfortunately, it doesn’t augur well for King Khan as 8 has not worked well for him in the past.

Hrithik Roshan
Hrithik is in his 35th year and will soon be 36. However, 9 is not one of his best numbers. In fact, 9 of Mars can make a person impulsive and accident-prone, so he better watch out instead of playing superhero! A very potent combination rules him, so he should avoid multi-starrers and take up work that has him in the lead. He and his father should make more films together as all their three films were huge hits.

Salman Khan
He is governed by number 9, the fiery Mars (Mangal), the planet of energy, which makes a person impetuous, accident-prone, stubborn and inflexible. His comeback vehicles – Tere Naam and Partner – add up to 9. His girlfriend Katrina’s destiny number is 9. She’s a water sign (Cancerian) and he’s an Earth sign, and these signs usually go well together. So, he should lie low this year as he could be subject to defamation, scandal and false accusations. In 2010, he’ll be 45, one of his best years, and marriage could be on the cards. But if he marries Katrina, she should brace against his fiery outbursts.

Saif Ali Khan
Saif is in his 39th year, adding to 3, which is Jupiter, planet of wealth. Though his girlfriend Kareena (a number 3) hasn’t married him yet, Saif can still expect to have a fortunate year, especially after his 40th birthday as 4 is one of his luckier numbers.

Akshay Kumar
The Khiladi will remain in his 42nd year till September 9 next year and it will be an eventful year. His name as well as the year 2008 adds to 28, which was also why it was so good for him. Chandni Chowk To China is expected to do well too, along with 8+10, which gives us 9 again.

Abhishek Bachchan
Junior AB is currently in his 33rd year and 6 is among his favoured numbers. However, on February 5, he’ll enter his 34th year (7), which is neither good nor bad for him. Delhi 6 is spelt so instead of Dilli 6 on our behest and adds to 6 too, so it should do him well. We’d always maintained that ABCL won’t do well under Big B as his numbers are not conducive to business; however, it stands a better chance under Abhishek.

Katrina Kaif
Katrina is a number 7, ruled by Neptune and the Moon, planets that endow imagination and creativity. She is doubly influenced by these planets as they govern Cancerians. The flipside is they can make her restless and moody. She’s now in her 25th year (7). So, this could be one of her best years.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
Her name adds to 50 or 5, which is the same as AB Baby’s. So, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that she rules him! In Mani Ratnam’s Raavan, she can expect to get rave reviews, and maybe even outdo Abhishek. She can make a good brand ambassador for India. After she turns 37, her entry into politics could also not be ruled out. Aishwarya should try to focus on doing foreign films; Hollywood is a good option too.

Boney Kapoor had to arrange a special chartered plane for Salman to help him get back to Mumbai from Greece for the shoot of Veer. Salman along with Ayesha Takia had been shooting in Greece for three song numbers for Boney’s Wanted Dead And Alive.

Our source tells us, "Director of the film, Prabhu Deva had headed back home after shooting one song on the film’s lead pair, Salman and Ayesha as his son that time was seriously ill.

He had given the responsibility of shooting two more songs to his elder brother, choreographer Raju Sundaram. They were being shot on three beautiful islands of Greece – Rhodos, Santorini and Paros. After the final song was shot in Paros, the weather suddenly became very inclement and threw the aircraft and sea schedules in a complete disarray.

Salman was in a hurry to head back to Athens from Paros but just could because of the heavy backlog traffic. Sets of Salman’s Veer had been put up in Mumbai’s Filmcity and Miss Universe UK Liza Lazarus too had arrived to shoot for a song number with him.

Salman was losing his nerve every single passing hour. Boney then came to his help and got a chartered flight booked for him on the morning of December 5th.

Boney’s son, Arjun gave Salman company as they went to Athens and from their caught a connecting flight for Mumbai. But Boney and his rest unit left Paros on the evening of 5th."

An industry insider quips, "Despite all this, Salman is in no mood to shoot for his remaining portions in Boney’s much delayed Kareena-Shahid starrer, Milenge Milenge.

Salman was to play a cameo part in the film and after his spat with Shahid during the Rockstars tour in 2006, Salman expressed his unwillingness to shoot for that film."

‘Aamir Khan’ is the name we hear very often these days. Be it the promotions of his forthcoming film- Ghajini or direct and indirect remarks on his rival Shah Rukh Khan- the hot actor with 8 packs has made news with everything he has done.

Get ready for yet another piece of news about Mr. Perfectionist and SRK. After being two hours late at the Van Heusen fashion show, Aamir Khan had a gala time answering the questions by media. In fact, it looked like it was the best opportunity for him to reply to Shah Rukh’s overflowing superiority complex, witnessed at the cover page inauguration function of Filmfare magazine recently. Apart from that, Aamir was seen complimenting and appreciating the hot hunk Salman Khan to the fullest.

Though the actor gave it back to SRK with his witty answer, we still think that Aamir is a mere follower of trends set by the top actors of Bollywood. Watch the video to know how.

They say, “Movies are the mirrors of society” and with Indian society so torn with the issue of terrorism, it is but natural that the subject of terrorism find its’ way into the themes and plots of Bollywood movies. Terrorism emerged as a subject with prominence in the Hindi films with Subhash Ghai’s ‘Karma’ which was able to contextualize the issue of terrorism in and around Kashmir with a candor.Then came the movies which delved into the psychology of terrorists with the likes of Santosh Sivan’s ‘The Terrorist’ and yet again, the silver screen showed the joint operations of army and police to combat terrorism in films like ‘Zameen’ and ‘Tango Charlie’.

Now, our new bunch of directors view terrorism with a different scale focusing on how the individual and the civil society adjusts and walks on with the life after being stopped at by bomb blast or attacks with films like ‘Mumbai Meri Jaan’, Wednesday’ and the likes.Films reach wider rather than other forms of arts and this is one reason behind the appeal of such movies. With the absence of political or diplomatic angles in these films but having human angle to counter such incidents in a more civilized way certainly help across the societies who face and suffer frequently.To pick up certain movies which best deal with the sensitive issue of terrorism is a Herculean task, yet there are some movies which can be regarded as the masterpieces in Bollywood movies dealing with terrorism. Some of them are:

Sarfarosh

The movie revolves around Assistant Chief of Police, Ajay Singh Rathod (Aamir Khan) and his struggle against organized terrorism from across border. Ajay comes from an upright, middle-class family whose lives have been traumatized by a terrorist attack. Ajay battles against a band of hidden criminals smuggling arms into the country from Pakistan, via the Rajasthani border assisted by his devoted Muslim including Inspector Salim (Mukesh Rishi) and lover Seema (Sonali Bendre).

The movie has great characterizations and performances. Aamir Khan is far beyond competent. The film is a 100 percent as an absolute entertainer, crime drama and attack on terrorism.

Roja

Roja explores the Kashmir problem and portrays it from the common man’s point of view. Directed by Mani Ratnam, it went on to win the National Award for best film on national integration. Roja stars Arvind Swamy and Madhubala in the lead roles. It also marked the successful debut of A.R.Rehman in Bollywood.

The film shows how a cryptologist Rishi (Arvind Swamy) gets abducted by militants in Kashmir who ask for the release of Kashmir militant, Wasim Khan, in return. What follows is a heart renting struggle of a wife, the helplessness of the system and finally, the transformation of the terrorist packed with some excellent performances.

Bombay

Yet another brilliant one from director Mani Ratnam, ‘Bombay’ is set amidst the savage communal strife that ravaged parts of India in the early 1990s following the demolition of the disputed Muslim shrine Babri Masjid by Hindu extremists.

The movie revolves around the love story of a Hindu youth Shekhar (Arvind Swamy) and a Muslim girl Sheila Banu (Manisha Koirala) from Malampur village who are caught in a senseless communal bloodshed but emerge united and safe.

The movie is an expert handling of an extremely sensitive subject giving it a wide commercial appeal loaded with superb on-screen performances and an evergreen music from maestro A.R. Rehman.

Dil Se

Amar (Shahrukh Khan) is on a terrorist interview assignment for All-India Radio somewhere in a northern territory, where he keeps bumping into Meghna (Manisha Koirala), and is charmed by the mystery around her. Then comes his engagement to the frank and outspoken Preity (Preity Zinta) and the fact that Meghna is a terrorist.

What makes the film a gem is superb performances from Shahrukh Khan and more so, the brilliant performance from Manisha as a brainwashed terrorist who seems torn between love and her so-called mission, her humane side and her terrorist cause. Added to this, is the direction from Mani Ratnam and excellent scores from A.R.Rehman.

Maachis

The film deals with the tale of wronged Punjabi youth who takes to arms to avenge the injustices heaped onto him by the corrupt political set up.

The movie is different in the sense that it looks inside the emotions, the joys and the insecurity and grievances of the terrorists. They are shown as a mixture of opposites – compassionate and caring at one time, insensitive and brutal at the other. The film is set against the backdrop of the Bluestar Operation and the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Newcomers like Chandrachur Singh, Raj Zutshi, Jasjit Shergill, Ravi Gosain star along with veterans like Om Puri, Kanwaljeet, Kulbushan Karbanda besides Tabu who provides the female interest.

Fiza

FIZA is the story of a young girl (Karisma Kapoor) in search of her brother (Hrithik Roshan) who disappeared during the communal riots of 1992-93 in Mumbai.

After making every effort to trace him, Fiza sets out in the first half of the film to determine whether Amaan is dead or alive. Using various methods – be it through the media, politicians or the law enforcement agencies – Fiza embarks on her mission that brings her into contact with various characters and situations. The second half of the film takes a turn and focuses on Amaan’s difficulty in coping with re-integration back into his old world.

Mission Kashmir

The story of the film is about Altaaf (Hrithik Roshan), an orphan of war who has been adopted by a policeman, Inayat Khan (Sanjay Dutt), and his wife, Neelima (Sonali Kulkarni). The day Altaaf discovers that Inayat Khan was the one who killed his parents, a terrorist is born within him. Ten years later, he re-appears for a highly secret mission code, named ‘Mission Kashmir’, a closely guarded plan that will change the map of the subcontinent forever. He fights for Hilal Kohistani, but he is also obsessed with his own private mission: he wants to, he must kill Inayat Khan. In Srinagar, Altaaf meets his childhood sweetheart, Sufi (Preity Zinta), in whom he rediscovers love and hope.

The Hero

Director Anil Sharma’s film is based on the Indo-Pak tensions and terrorism, and has Sunny Deol playing an army intelligence officer Arun Khanna, who is deputed by the Indian Secret Service Agency RAW at the Kashmir. His aim is to get information regarding terrorist activities across the border. He sends Reshma (Preity Zinta) across the border to Pakistan as a maidservant in Colonel Hidayatulla’s (Deep Dhillon) house. How her identity is exposed, how she escapes, how the major finds out the ISI head in Canada are all roped in with gritty action sequences and chilling pyrotechnics.

A Wednesday

One of those rare variety films, ‘A Wednesday’ deals with terrorism is an all new and different perspective from the eyes of a common man. The film stars as a basic edge-of-the-seat action-thriller, where an anonymous individual (Naseeruddin Shah) makes a call to the Commissioner of Police Rathod (Anupam Kher) and warns him of six bombs being planted in the city of Mumbai. In return, he asks for the emancipation of four hardcore anti-national terrorists. The film takes turn when he kills these four terrorists. Blessed with performances from Naseeruddin Shan & Anupam Kher, the film reminds of the prohibited path that the common man has to opt for to revolt against the system.

Black Friday

Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday is a hard-hitting movie that revisits the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in which more than three hundred people died and many were injured. Probing into the reasons behind this attack, it goes into the lives of key players like Tiger Memon (played by Pawan Malhotra ), his henchman Badshah Khan (Aditya Srivastava) and ACP Rakesh Maria ( Kay Kay Menon ), who investigated the case. Alongside the bomb blasts, the film also documents the journey of an angry, revenge seeking Muslim youth, Badshah Khan, from Delhi to Rajasthan and still further.

One thing that casts fear and sends shivers down Vidya’s spine is the feline creature. Vidya’s somehow allergic to them.

A unit member revealed, ’A presence of a cat on the sets and Vidya drives the whole unit crazy. She sees to it that it chased out of the sets. Vidya is so petrified of cats.’

But the extreme measures used by the unit members saddens her. She can’t bear to see stones being hurled to get rid of the cat.

’Why don’t you just shoo it away,’ Vidya often says. The unit members then explain, ’M’am we do it because we have no choice!’

Now we know why Vidya cannot be catty even if she tried!

Crooner Adnan Sami, who has given hits like "Bheegi bheegi raton mein", refuses to believe that Indian ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh criticised him by saying "he can’t sing and should go back to Pakistan".

"I can’t believe Jagjit saab would talk like this about me. And why would he accuse me of sending my money to Pakistan? I’m his biggest fan. And why would he say I came to India to become an actor?

"When I came here, I weighed three times more than what I am. I earn and pay taxes in Mumbai, I can show you my PAN card, " Adnan told.

Singh, who openly acknowledges Mehdi Hassan as his main inspiration, told a website in an interview that Adnan can’t sing and should go back home.

"He (Adnan) became a singer by mistake. He had come here to become an actor and by mistake he became a singer. He can’t even sing. People like him should be sent back to work there (Pakistan) because they make money in India and send it to Pakistan, " Singh was quoted as saying by website.

A source from the music industry who knows both the parties spilled the beans behind Jagjit Singh’s rancorous outburst.

"There’s more to Jagjit saab’s outburst against Adnan than a spirit of patriotism. Recently, when Adnan was doing the score for Vikram Bhatt’s ’1920’, he wanted all the stalwarts of the classical world to contribute a track.

He approached Jagjit saab for the song. And he even had the tune ready. But a section of the film’s production team vetoed Jagjit saab’s presence in the album.

And Kailash Kher sang the song meant for Jagjit Singh. That’s when Jagjit Singh decided who the enemy was, " said the source.

Adnan doesn’t deny the incident during the recording of the "1920" songs.

"I did approach Jagjit saab for a song in ’1920’. He couldn’t sing it for some reason. So what? I refuse to believe he’d act so petty. He has always said Mehdi Hassan was his greatest inspiration. Why would he now make these uncharitable remarks against all Pakistani artists?"

Jiah Khan, who thinks in English, got into trouble when she was asked to deliver lengthy emotional Urdu dialogues for "Ghajini" in sync sound, but says that her co-star Aamir Khan bailed her out.

"I must admit it was a bit of a problem. Aamir and the director got me an Urdu dialogue coach, Athar Nawaz who guided me. And each time I’d be stuck with a line Aamir helped me out," Jiah told IANS.

"My mom, who lives in London, flew down during the shooting. She speaks Urdu fluently. She ran through the dialogues with me over and over again. I think I’ve done my lines very well. To have my lines dubbed would have taken away from my performance. I think I managed my lines well," she added.

Other than speaking Hindi, Jiah, who debuted with Ram Gopal Varma’s "Nishabd", has also learned Bollywood style dancing.

"Like the Urdu-Hindi, I’ve mastered the dancing to a large extent," she said.

Jiah has also shot a song titled "Lattoo" in "Ghajini" with choreographer Gita Kapoor. Ad filmmaker Ravi Udyawar has directed it.

"I realised how hard it is to do a sizzling song. The song is a very Jennifer Lopez kind of number. It’s very stylish and chic. In a week’s time, it goes on air. That should answer the question why I’m not seen in the publicity," she said.

Puma Launched Ocean Racing Collection at famous fashion joint of Mumbai at Vie Lounge. Dino Morea was the star attraction of the show. Wearing Puma hat he cat walked along models on the ramp. Puma being a participant in Volvo’s Ocean Race 2008-2009, a nine-month yacht race across four continents, released the new collection to coincide with the race.

Other than him, Model and television host, Nina Emanuel walked on the ramp. The range in new collection comprised collection as involved from the bright red colors, reminiscent of ocean rescue teams to crisp whites with hints of red.

Dino Morea though had tough time with movies yet he has acclaimed immense popularity being as model and socialite. Recently he was spotted in a VIP box at the game with Jack Nicholson and Andy Garcia!