Aug 18, 2009 08:15 AM
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The Hindi film industry has often been criticised for making ‘fairy tale’ movies. Well then, Kaminey is the other end of the spectrum. No one is ‘good’ and every character is corrupt and selfish. But that is hardly a surprise when the makers have titled the movie as ‘Kaminey’. This is an intelligent movie, with fabulously etched out characters and a plot which perpetually keeps you guessing.
The story quickly introduces two twin brothers, Guddu and Charlie, and the many characters who people their lives. Charlie is a small time gangster who accidentally lays his hands on a cocaine filled guitar, and then has a pair of corrupt cops chasing him to reclaim the guitar for a drug lord. Guddu is the good twin, who discovers that his girlfriend is pregnant and also that she is the local politician goon’s sister. How both brothers try to resolve their situations, is what Kaminey is all about.
At a concept level, complaints of inspiration from Tarantino and Guy Ritchie’s movies are fair - but the characters, plot and the language are so completely soaked in Mumbai, that the movie comes across as originally Indian. The twins concept, the vernacular gangster, the flashbacks describing the twins childhood, the dream sequences, etc also make Kaminey uniquely Indian. One would also be hard pressed to highlight the good scenes, because there are so many of them.
Speaking of the technical departments, the screen play, art direction, cinematography and editing are all brilliant. All these departments contribute so seamlessly, that you can almost smell Mumbai in your auditorium’s seat. Charlie’s trailer home, his dream bookie window, Bhope’s chawl, etc also become memorable because of the way they look, and because of how they have been shot. The music is also a big plus, as are the movie’s dialogues - both credited to Director, Vishal Bhardwaj.
Coming to acting, the characters are so well etched and the situations they get into are also so well written - that almost all the actors are convincing. But Bhope bhau, Druglord Tashi and Inspector Lobo, are particularly memorable. Priyanka Chopra also does a good job in a deglam role, though her Marathi diction is not faultless. However, on the acting front the movie belongs completely to Shahid Kapur. Both … as the mousy Guddu, and as the hardened criminal Charlie - he is completely convincing. The speech impairments that both the twins suffer, could have become gimmicky, but Shahid keeps it very real. Even when depicting the characters’ shades of grey, he is utterly convincing. In Jab We Met, Shahid had made his initial breaks from his lover boy image - but in Kaminey he takes his acting to a completely different level.
But even more than Shahid, the real hero of Kaminey is Director, Vishal Bhardwaj. It is difficult to imagine a graph which keeps moving up after Maqbool and Omkara, but Kaminey easily scores that spike. And having rooted this movie in Mumbai, Kaminey is actually more easy to relate to than his earlier movies. Director’s sometimes move a story forward with characters, and sometimes with the plot - in a rare mix of both, Vishal sends us on a roller coaster ride, with a twisted plot and engaging characters.
If you like intelligent cinema … if you think that a roller coaster ride in an extremely violent world of gangsters and corrupt cops can be fun - then, Kaminey is a must watch. The great acting, and the memorable music are just additional bonuses.
