The concept of both movies is similar wherein the male protagonist suffers a head injury and falls into this dreaded medical condition. In both movies, this central character has lost his loved one and is avenging the murder ... 15 minutes is the maximum time, he can remember anything and need to write it down somewhere to retain any memorable information. He tattoos his body to remember key things about the murders and facts that revolves around his revenge.
No doubt, there is striking similarity in the concept but the storyline and direction are well apart. Ghajini (also the Villain's name in the movie), is a typical Indian masala movie (apart from the concept) and portrays all the characters in great amount of detail using the flashback technique whereas Memento presents the events and the history in bits as two different stories, one part being in reverse chronology, to provide a deep curiosity right till the end. Also, Ghajini, Unlike Memento, provides no insight of how the protagonist developed the technique of remembering stuff in spite of suffering from this condition and remembering nothing apart from revenge to start with.
GHAJINI:
The movie starts with a medical student being interested in taking on the project of a subject having the "Short term memory loss" but is denied by her professor on account of the complexity and police involvement in the case. Then, the protagonist (Amir Khan) is shown brutally attacking and killing a man (an accomplice in his wife murder).
The diaries of the protagonist serves the purpose of presenting the visualization of what happened in the past and presents his emotional side. Two movie characters read his diaries, in part, in between the present developments of Protagonist's revenge, which gives a flashback and the reason of his present brutality. So, there is always a sense of suspense till the later half. By the end of movie, all the viewers want him to take revenge and eliminate Ghajini (the Villain) which he finally succeeds in.
The most interesting scene to me in the whole movie was right at the end when the protagonist is running after Ghajini and thrashing multiple gang men whoever came in his way. But then, at one moment his condition creeps in and he forgets why is he there. People with broken arms and legs and what not are lying around him and he is giving a blank look. This do affect him and he gets seriously injured in the process but eventually gets his revenge.
The movie does drive emotions, sympathy and awe with the events unfolding. Overall, a good masala movie if you are not very picky about the nitty-gritties.
MEMENTO:
This movie starts with the protagonist killing a man. Then it's followed with an event that led to this kill. Then many events are picturized in the reverse chronological order. In between these events (picturized in color), there are some other events in black and white. These are actually the historical events that depicts the history of the protagonist and his investigations of a case that equipped him to deal with "short term memory loss" situation. Both these different narratives converge in the end and lead to a single colored sequence.
With the events unfolding at the end, you actually get the full context as how the protagonist have not only taken his revenge a long ago but now is using his medical condition to kill the other man who was taking his advantage. Whole movie, we are forced to think that the person he killed in the 1st event must be the villain (who must have killed his (hero's) wife) OR a he must be a cop helping the protagonist to find the murderer. But, it's only in the end we know that the deceased, a cop, who actually helped the protagonist kill the murderer a long time ago, himself was a scoundrel and used the protagonist to kill other people. So, after knowing this fact, the protagonist plans his murder and tattoos his body with the cop's vehicle number and later uses it to kill him (as he thinks the cop is the murderer of his wife).
The movie flows with confusing narratives linking the alternative events and keeps you on your toes... It knocks on your detective skills and in the end make a mockery of it. This is a kind of movie that will elicit awe right at the end stimulating your thought process. All in all, great direction and a great movie.
