Kaminey

I am a fan of writer, lyricist, music composer and film director Vishal Bhardwaj. He brings in a breath of fresh air into Indian cinema especially mainstream Bollywood. He has cracked the magic formula of making movies that are aesthetically appealing and yet are commercially successful.  Never afraid to experiemnt, Vishal is gifted and gutsy. As a director, his films Maqbool (adaptation of Macbeth, made in 2004 *ing Irrfan Khan and Tabu) and Omkara (adaptation of Othello, made in 2006) have made audience sit up and take notice. Taking great stories to the masses is a challenge. To take the complexity of a Shakespearean play and adapt it to contemporary India and yet make it appeal to a broad spectrum of audience is what Vishal does best. His literary and cinematic mentor Gulzar writes songs that play at an upmarket nightclub as loudly as they do in the autorickshaws. Omkara had Saif Ali Khan and the blockbuster song Beedi Jalai Le (watch the song here if you have not) featuring a sizzling Bipasha Basu. Kaminey has Shahid Kapur. He carries the script all the way.

Kaminey takes every Bollywood cliche and makes it look different. Twin brothers (or sisters) separated at birth – one is good (usually the cop) and the other bad (usually part of the underworld) is a favorite storyline. The twins look same same but also different, lah. One will have facial hair and other won’t (ie if the twins are males, I guess). Or one will wear specs and the other won’t – so the stupid audience doesn’t need to think too hard. If the twins are girls, then one is demure and shy while the other is a kind of a free spirited tomboy (remember Seeta aur Geeta).  In Kaminey, one of them lisps (or ‘lifps’ as ‘Fahid” Kapoor’s character would say) while the other stammers.  Kaminey opens with a bang and then in the first half an hour throws eleven different characters at the audience and actually challenges you to figure out the jigsaw puzzle, if you are so smart. I love that even though I have difficulty solving jogsaw puzzles which more than two pieces

Priyanka Chopra is not allowed to look glamorous. Which is unfair because she then would be expected to act. She belongs to the typical Bollywood mainstream cinema where one scene involving crying is held up as histrionic talent. So she is a casting disaster in Kaminey. While Vishal Bhardwaj had even Kareena Kapoor excel as an actress in Omkara, Priyanka clearly is the weak link in the film.

The story is about the small time con Charlie (remember C for Charlie and C for con) and brother Guddu (remember Guddu is the Guddu boy who does no wrong except getting girlfriend pregnant). Then there are gangsters, cops turned bad, a guitar case that doubles as a cocaine carrying case, blood diamond, and a bunch of chases in Mumbai’s local trains. There are references to contemporary political issues – renaming of cities (Bombay to Mumbai, Calcutta to Kolkata, Madras to Chennai etc) and the Maharashtra state for the sons (or daughters) of the soil movement. But the satirical treatment of those is delightful. Especially brilliant is the small time politician espousing this jingoistic philosophy played by Amol Gupte (who wrote the story of the film Tare Zameen Par).

Kaminey uses snatches of Bengali and Marathi – quite like the way it would happen in India, where people effortlessly switch between different languages and expects everyone to understand it. Vishal Bhardwaj does not offer subtitles – that’s a courageous move. Surprisingly the audience still seems to not lose track of the narrative.

A great cast of talented actors  besides Shahid Kapoor and Amol Gupte, I must mention many of the side characters played by people like Deb Mukherjee, Raja Dutta, Harish Khanna, Carlos Paca and Tenzing Nima.

I especially have enjoyed the music of Kaminey. Vishal Bhardwaj is also the music director, remember?  While Dhan Tana is for the masses, don’t walk out of the movie theater until you hear the entire song called Pehli Baar Mohabbat, (lyrics: Gulzar) done in the soulful voice of Mohit Chauhan the singer of the band Silk Route. The song is the aftertaste of the film.  I give this film four stars out of five. Go watch it. Certainly a film I will recommend.

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