Translating Across Cultures:

Abstract

The paper offers a philosophical reflection upon the film Ghajini which was directed by Ajith Rahul Murugadoss in 2008. The film is an Indian remake/translation/transcreation of Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000). Through Ghajini, I attempt to explore the reversible migration between spaces such as forgetfulness and memory, moment and sequence, inwardness (or consciousness) and externality (or the world). The paper creates an intercultural dialogue about self-identity and the materials of which it is made, a theme touched upon and developed in both movies, Ghajini and Memento, each in their own way. Special attention is given to the activity of translation, with its possibilities and impossibilities, as the breeding-ground of every dialogic encounter. In my philosophical collage I draw on classical texts such as Patañjali’s Yogasūtra as well as modern interpretations such as Luce Irigaray’s Entre Orient et Occident.