Monday, August 24, 2009

Kaminey - Fortitude

Searching for that titillating sting in your movie watching experience? Then go watch Vishal Bharadwaj's latest masterpiece, KAMINEY. This latest desi gangster flick stars Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Amole Gupte. The twins Charlie and Guddu, both played by Shahid Kapoor lead their separate lives until one fateful day, when their lives intersect which sends them both on the most dreadful roller coaster rides. The story is basically a solution to the following problems:-
Problem 1: Priyanka Chopra(Sweety) is Guddu's love interest but her brother (Amole Gupte), is a politician/gangster in Maharastra, who will not agree to the marriage because Guddu is from Uttar Pradesh. But since they do get married without his consent, they are in trouble.
Problem 2: Charlie, a gangster/aspiring bookie stumbles on a guitar case with dope worth a fortune. But he cant have it that easily because there are two crooked cops working for an international smuggler.
Problem 3(exacerbation): Guddu is mistaken for the wanted Charlie by the cops. Amole Gupte finds Charlie and wants Charlie to help him find Guddu. The good cops want to pin down the nasty ones.
So, to sum it all up, everyone is after everyone else which culminates into a dramatic bloodbath at the end which results in our main three characters, Guddu, Charlie and Sweety, living happily ever after(Ha! the spoiler)

But there is more to it than just the plot. VB's (Vishal Bharadwaj, not V.Bharath), bewitching BGM. Dhan Te Nan has become a cult number and every time its played in the background, its tantalising. There is also a magical guitar tune played whenever the guitar with dope is featured, which reminds you of the BGM scores of Desperado.
VB has done well to distinct Kaminey from cliché twin stories buy not amplifying the senti scenes too much. Yes, there is quite an exuberant influence of Tarentino, Rodriguez and Guy Ritchie in his style of film making but the scenes with Guddu and Sweety, bethinks you that it is still blithely Bollywood.
There is a lot of Bengali and Marati being spoken, which i thought should have been accompanied with subtitles. So that's just going to make the Original DVD with the subtitles bring in a lot of cash. Overall i would give it an 8/10.