Kaminey – Dhan Te Nan Crime Thriller!

Being monotonous can be really boring. Some days, suddenly you would like to break free, and look for something different; like a dieting person craves for junk food.  

Amidst these art, serious movies the same thing happened to me; the result is, this week’s movie suggestion/review, bollywood masala entertainer- Kaminey!

We were all born and brought up in a masala rich society, which is being reflected everywhere from birth to death; the kind of food we eat, the way we celebrate marriage, functions, even our funeral ceremony is different. Thus, no movie satisfies us as our local masala flavored movie does.

However, this crime thriller differs from other clichéd formula based bollywood/kollywood films. Sets a perfect example, for an ideal entertainment movie.

More importantly it is an original film, not copied from any international movies (as far as I know/heard!).

Vishal Bharadwaj, is one of the two Indian contemporary film makers, I respect a lot (the other one is Anurag Kashyap).

He is one among the rare directors, who started his carrier as a music composer.

During script writing work shop conducted by Meera nair, he met a Kenyan writer- Cajetan Boy, who had this story -idea. He bought the story, and developed it to suit Indian audience (Indianised it).

This film was released in 2009, and was well received by both critics and public.

Story

One liner…

Twin orphans growing up in Mumbai slum , choose different paths to achieve their respective dreams and destiny- mistaken identity  makes them cross each other; in the end do they reach their goal?

Detailed…

Born to a UP migrant, identical twins, Charlie and Guddu are growing up in Mumbai slum, after his father’s death. That death separates and creates bitterness among them. They never want to see each other again.

 Both have a speech problem. Charlie is a lisp (says ‘F’ instead of ‘S’) and Guddu stammers. Both choose different routes to achieve their dreams; Charlie selects an illicit path, becomes a horse race betting gambler. Guddu, just opposite, prefers education and works part time for an NGO.

The movie starts with both of them facing a problem. For Charlie, a jockey double crosses and he loses all his savings. Guddu’s girlfriend becomes pregnant and wants him to marry her the same day; and she is a sister of Maharashtra’s local political leader who has high political ambitions.

Charlie finds the bookie, goes to the hotel where he stays to recover the lost money. In same hotel, narcotic cops who work for underworld smuggles 10 crore worth cocaine kept in a Guitar. Accidently Charlie gets the car which has that guitar and realizes the amount of money, tries to trade it.

The politician who comes to Charlie in search of his brother finds about the guitar and cocaine.

Guddu lands up in jail because of mistaken identity.

Cops and politician make a deal to exchange them.

Everyone desperately tries to get what they want, which results in a bloodbath in the climax.

Finally Guddu and Sweety marry; Sweety delivers twins. Charlie becomes a bookie and gets a girlfriend as he often dreams.

There are enough turns and twists to keep you on the tenterhooks, till the end of the film.

This is a stylishly made crime thriller of international standards with all Indian ingredients. And, this movie completely belongs to Vishal Bhardwaj. Story, screenplay, Direction, Music and Production - all handled by him.

Even though he is dealing with a masala entertainer, he takes care of minor details (story, characterization and dialogues in particular), respects the intelligence of the audience, rather sometimes overestimates, challenges which is rare to see and refreshing.

The scenes are conveyed in a nonlinear, subtle way, without caring about whether the audience would understand it or not. The screen play is so crisp, if you lapse concentration you lose the plot – story. By doing so he raises the bar for the audience taste. These kind of movies perhaps, would take audience to next level.

Dialogues are sharp and witty (if you understand Hindi/Marathi would enjoy more).

Music is a big highlight of the movie. Dhan Te Nan… the title music races with horses, Shahid and the story. All the songs are good. Gulzar’s lyrics are, as usual poetic and meaningful.

The director, boldly casted Shahid Kapoor first time in his carrier, as a rough gambler, in spite of his chocolate boy image. Both the twins look similar; hence, Shahid Kapoor has to show the difference in acting to display the contrasting characters. He does it wonderfully well as both Charlie and Guddu; he nicely, delivers small details like pronouncing “F’’ for ‘’S’’, throughout the movie.

Priyanka as sweety, tom boyish bold Marathi girl shows all kinds of expressions love, anger and helplessness effortlessly.

Political leader Bhope (Amole Gupte), scores very high with his cunning laugh and truly reflects a merciless cotemporary politician.

While dealing with a stylish crime story with fantastic music, the danger is, you might end up celebrating crime; which would mislead young- immature audience (to take up that as a profession); many movies fail on this aspect (Jigardanda fails miserably here). However, in this movie the tone of the background-dark grayish color, cloudy monsoon days without much sunlight, background music and lyrics make sure that does not happen.

As a responsible filmmaker, even in a masala entertainer he uses political satire – how Maharashtra groups divide people for their own benefit; without fearing backlash while movie is released (not only in Maharashtra it happens in every state).

By doing so, he succeeds in both the aspects as an entertainer and as a responsible film maker.

With so many baddies in every part of the corrupt system, we finally know whom the director is describing as Kaminey(scoundrels)!!!

Perfect entertainer. Have a blast!

Cheers!

30-08-14,

7:30 pm.