Posts Tagged ‘chandan roy sanyal’
By Bollywood Hungama News Network, December 31, 2009 – 12:22 IST
Best Film
3 Idiots
Dev D
Kaminey
Love Aaj Kal
Paa
Best Director
Anurag Kashyap – Dev D
Imtiaz Ali – Love Aaj Kal
R Balki – Paa
Rajkumar Hirani – 3 Idiots
Vishal Bhardwaj – Kaminey
Best Actor (Male)
Aamir Khan – 3 Idiots
Amitabh Bachchan – Paa
Ranbir Kapoor – Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Ranbir Kapoor – Rocket Singh – Salesman Of The Year
Saif Ali Khan – Love Aaj Kal
Shahid Kapoor – Kaminey
Best Actor (Female)
Deepika Padukone – Love Aaj Kal
Kareena Kapoor – 3 Idiots
Katrina Kaif – New York
Priyanka Chopra – Kaminey
Priyanka Chopra – What’s Your Raashee?
Vidya Balan – Paa
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male)
Abhimanyu Singh – Gulaal
R Madhavan – 3 Idiots
Rishi Kapoor – Love Aaj Kal
Rishi Kapoor – Luck By Chance
Sharman Joshi – 3 Idiots
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female)
Arundhati Naag – Paa
Divya Dutta – Delhi-6
Gauhar Khan – Rocket Singh – Salesman Of The Year
Neha Dhupia – Raat Gayi Baat Gayi
Shahana Goswami – Firaaq
Best Actor in a Negative Role
Amole Gupte – Kaminey
Boman Irani – 3 Idiots
Kay Kay Menon – Gulaal
Mahesh Manjrekar – Wanted
Manish Choudhary – Rocket Singh – Salesman Of The Year
Best Actor in a Comic Role
D Santosh – Rocket Singh – Salesman Of The Year
Omi Vaidya – 3 Idiots
Paresh Rawal – De Dana Dan
Sanjay Mishra – All The Best
Vinay Pathak – Raat Gayi Baat Gayi
Best Background Music
Amit Trivedi – Dev D
Ilaiyaraja – Paa
Salim-Sulaiman – Rocket Singh – Salesman Of The Year
Shantanu Moitra, Atul Raninga, Sanjay Wandrekar – 3 Idiots
Vishal Bhardwaj – Kaminey
Best Music
A R Rahman – Delhi-6
Pritam – Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Pritam – Love Aaj Kal
Pritam – Tum Mile
Vishal Bhardwaj – Kaminey
Best Playback Singer Female
Kavita Seth – Iktara – Wake Up Sid
Rekha Bhardwaj – Genda Phool – Delhi-6
Shreya Ghoshal – Zoobi Doobi – 3 Idiots
Shilpa Rao – Mudi Mudi – Paa
Sunidhi Chauhan – Mere Sang – New York
Best Lyrics
Amitabh Bhattacharya – Emosanal Attyachaar – Dev D
Irshad Kamil – Chor Bazari – Love Aaj Kal
Javed Akhtar – Sapnon Se Bhare Naina – Luck By Chance
Piyush Mishra – Ranaji – Gulaal
Prasoon Joshi – Man Ko Ati Bhavey – London Dreams
Best Story
Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani – 3 Idiots
Anurag Kashyap, Aparna Malhotra, Raj Singh Chaudhary, Sanjay Maurya – Gulaal
Imtiaz Ali – Love Aaj Kal
Nandita Das, Shuchi Kothari – Firaaq
R Balki – Paa
Best Screenplay
Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra – 3 Idiots
Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane – Dev D
Imtiaz Ali – Love Aaj Kal
Pankaj Advani – Sankat City
R Balki – Paa
Best Dialogue
Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani – 3 Idiots
Imtiaz Ali – Love Aaj Kal
Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane – Dev D
R Balki – Paa
Vishal Bhardwaj – Kaminey
Best Editing
Aarti Bajaj – Dev D
Aarti Bajaj – Love Aaj Kal
Anil Naidu – Paa
Meghna Manchanda Sen, Sreekar Prasad – Kaminey
Rajkumar Hirani – 3 Idiots
Best Sound
Bishwadeep Chatterjee, Nihar Ranjan Samel – 3 Idiots
Dileep Subramaniam – Love Aaj Kal
Sanjay Maurya, Allwin Rego – Dev D
Shajith Koyeri, Subhash Sahu, P M Satheesh – Kaminey
Tapas Nayak – Paa
Best Special Effects
Charles Darby – Aladin
Prime Focus Ltd – Blue
Best Cinematography
C.K. Muraleedharan – 3 Idiots
P.C. Sreeram – Paa
Rajeev Ravi – Dev D
Shankar Raman – Frozen
Tassaduq Hussain – Kaminey
Best Art Directon
Acropolis, Rajnish Hedaa, Sumit, Snigdha Basu – 3 Idiots
Sabu Cyril – Aladin
Samir Chanda – Delhi-6
Samir Chanda – Kaminey
Sukanta Panigrahy, Helen Jones – Dev D
Best Choreography
Ahmed Khan – Prem Ki Naiiyya – Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Avit Dias – Aal Izz Well – 3 Idiots
Bosco- Caesar – Zoobi Doobi – 3 Idiots
Prasanna – Marjaani – Billu
Baawre – Vaibhavi Merchant – Luck By Chance
Best Action
James D Bomalick – Blue
Huan-Chiu Ku – Chandni Chowk To China
Shyam Kaushal – Kaminey
Tinu Verma – Acid Factory
Vijayan Master – Wanted
Most Promising Newcomer (Male)
Amole Gupte – Kaminey
Chandan Roy Sanyal – Kaminey
Navin Kaushik – Rocket Singh – Salesman Of The Year
Omi Vaidya – 3 Idiots
Most Promising Newcomer (Female)
Gauhar Khan – Rocket Singh – Salesman Of The Year
Giselle Monteiro – Love Aaj Kal
Jesse Randhawa – Gulaal
Kalki Koechlin – Dev D
Mahie Gill – Dev D
Most Promising Debut Director
Ayan Mukerji – Wake Up Sid
Nandita Das – Firaaq
Pankaj Advani – Sankat City
Shivajee Chandrabhushan – Frozen
Zoya Akhtar – Luck By Chance
Best Child Artiste
Jahan Bativala – Little Zizou
Iyanah Bativala – Little Zizou
Rahul Kumar – 3 Idiots
Parzan Dastur- Sikandar
Pratik Katare – Paa
Best Ensemble Cast
Delhi-6
Firaaq
Gulaal
Luck By Chance
Sankat City
BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COM
| When Shah Rukh Khan was still a struggler in the 1990s, Hema Malini had cast him as the lead in Dil Aashna Hai (1992). Shah Rukh has never forgotten that kindness and, when he heard that Hema was shooting near his home at Bandstand, he dropped in on the sets to pay his respects. |
Hema was naturally thrilled to see SRK and they spent quite some time reliving old memories.
Our source said, “The unit of Tell Me O Khuda was shooting at KK Manzil, next to SRK’s house with Esha Deol, Arjan Bajwa and Chandan Roy Sanyal. The entire set was abuzz as they saw SRK. He headed straight for Hemaji who was present with the director Mayur Puri, and greeted her. Hemaji was pleasantly surprised and SRK met everyone with a lot of affection. SRK stayed on the sets for close to 45 minutes and fondly recalled the experience of shooting for Dil Aashna Hai and the early years of his career.”
Another source said, “When SRK, who was relaxing at his house, learnt that there was a shoot in progress nearby, he inquired about who was shooting there. When he heard that it was Hema Malini, he immediately went to meet her. SRK still remembers his struggling days and the fact that Hemaji readily gave him a lead role in her directorial debut film, Dil Aashna Hai. It went on to become SRK’s debut as well, although he had signed Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman and Deewana earlier. He spoke at length with Hemaji, inquired about the film and even wished Esha luck for her comeback vehicle.”
 |
| Shah Rukh Khan |
Hema confirmed the news and said, “Yes, he came to see me and Esha. I was shooting next to his house and it was very sweet of him to drop in to wish me. He has always shown respect for me and it was very nice of him.”
Hema’s Best Gift To Esha!
Posted on: November 2, 2009
MEENA IYER Times News Network (BOMBAY TIMES; November 2, 2009)
‘Mikhail’s next with Hema Malini
Posted on: October 20, 2009
Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey has done a world of good to Chandan Roy Sanyal, who played Mikhail in the film. He has now signed his second big project, Tell Me Oh Khuda, produced by Hema Malini. Interestingly, Chandan had earlier refused the role when debutant director Mayur Puri had approached him. Chandan says, “I felt ki koi dost ka chhota sa role hoga. So I was rather reluctant to do it initially.” Chandan consented only when Mayur narrated the entire role. Chandan has a long and meaty role, which brings comic relief in the film. Later, Chandan met Hema at her residence. “Both Mayur and Hema had seen Kaminey and were very impressed with Chandan’s work. He starts shooting from November 2,” adds a source. Tell Me Oh Khuda also stars Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor and Esha Deol in pivotal roles. |
Insiya Amir | TNN (THE TIMES OF INDIA; September 19, 2009)
With homosexuality getting increased acceptance in the country, isn’t it time for Bollywood to get a gay, macho character? Actually, it might already have—in Charlie, the lisping ‘bad boy’ hero in this year’s hit, Kaminey.
From bloggers to critics, many have speculated about the sexuality of the character portrayed by Shahid Kapoor. To begin with, Charlie lisps—a standard gay stereotype. Apart from that, his relationship with Mikhail has distinctly homoerotic undertones. The two sing duets in a psychedelic nightclub, dance in the rain and make plans to run away—while rolling on the floor together— when Charlie tells Mikhail about the stash of cocaine he has chanced upon? And a scene where Mikhail chases Charlie in a red sports car, amid pouring rain, would have had Freud smiling in glee.
What about the ending, which shows Charlie hitched to a gorgeous gal? Blogger Ganesh Chandrashekhar argues that it’s a postdeath dream. ‘‘Charlie dreams of being a successful bookie and married to a woman. This looks like Charlie’s homosexual guilt coming through, because the addition of a female character in the end seemed rather contrived, suggesting that he hopes to be straight in a highly homophobic society.’’
Other bloggers have pointed to Charlie’s emotional breakdown when he sees Mikhail’s corpse. And they see heavy symbolism in Charlie naming his dream bookie venture ‘Mikhail & Co.’, which is set up after he steals diamonds. Which by implication means Charlie stole diamonds for Mikhail. If that isn’t true love, what is?
Chandan Roy Sanyal, who plays Mikhail, says he is aware of such arguments. ‘‘I don’t think the two are gay, they just share a brotherly relationship. I grew up like this with my brother, a lot of bonding, touching,’’ he laughs. But he welcomes the buzz about the characters. ‘‘People thinking that Charlie is gay shows they are ready to accept that gay men do not have to be overtly effeminate,’’ says Sanyal, adding that he would love to play a role like Sean Penn in the Hollywood film Milk.
But Bollywood is only taking baby steps with movies like Dostana, says film critic Anupama Chopra. ‘‘We still portray gay men with limp wrists and rainbowcoloured accessories, mostly cast as a comic relief. It is a long time till we get a gay hero who is macho enough to be the lead actor. In fact, Vishal Bhardwaj told me if a sequel is made, Charlie will have a girlfriend,’’ she says. As conspiracy theorists might say, ‘‘Fo fad”.
For the first time ever, the collections of a film in Mumbai territory will be less than other territories of the country. The reason is obvious-the film wasn’t allowed to be released during weekends in the most profitable territory of the country due to the swine flu scare. But then came Monday and one of the most awaited films of the year, Kaminey, finally hit the screens in the city. Expectations were huge and it’s pleasurable to know that the film hits the bullseye and gives complete entertainment. After New York and Love Aaj Kal, Kaminey is surely the third biggie of the year which rocks!
The story of the movie: Charlie and Guddu (both played by Shahid Kapur) are twins. Both have speech defects and live separately and can’t stand the sight of each other. One rainy night, both commit a ‘sin’ which leads to corrupt cops, wicked politician and dangerous smugglers after them. And this was the night when they also run into each other. Will they be able to get out of the mess? And what such crime did they commit that so many villains were after them? Watch Kaminey and find out for yourself.
The beginning of the film is very unconventional…actually the entire film is! The film holds you right from the beginning (more after the song Fatak) and grips you till the last scene. The situation, the set up, characters and their background…everything here is raw and rowdy.
First and foremost, what really is damn impressive about the film are its characters. Each one of them is unique, weird but very interesting. Whether it is Charlie or the good guy Guddu, his girlfriend Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) and especially the villains-all of them special and director Vishal Bharadwaj deserve special mention for treating each of them wonderfully and rightfully. Not a single character in the film is unnecessary and each one of them has a purpose in the narrative.
The situation in Kaminey somehow reminded me of Priyadarshan’s films, although both directors and their films are as different as chalk and cheese. But like Priyan’s madcap comedies, here too, the characters are many; there’s a case of mistaken identity and the climax also felt somewhat similar (I won’t reveal why). But unlike Priyan’s films, everything in Kaminey looks real and doesn’t seem illogical or nonsense.
There are several scenes which are really out of this world. The drama in the 5-star hotel was well executed and the Go Charlie Go theme played during this sequence sets your heart pumping and enhances the impact manifold! The marriage, the intermission point, Charlie, Mikhail and the evil Bhope Bhau’s confrontation were rocking scenes. The best scene of the film was without a doubt was the one shot in the local train. And such a climax was unexpected and unpredictable but it was justified and its execution is exemplary.
The only thing that fails here is the flashback of Charlie and Guddu. It just doesn’t work at all. However, it was well-shot, without a shred of doubt.
When someone like Vishal Bharadwaj is at the helm, it is obvious that we’ll get to see someone of the finest performances. And as expected, each performer in the film came up with a marvelous performance. Kaminey would surely be remembered as Shahid Kapoor’s best performance ever. Words are not enough to describe his praiseworthy act. It is evident that Shahid has worked very hard for this film and it shows, especially for the character Charlie. He plays both the part convincingly and this time, he is surely going to win the Best Actor award. The year has not yet ended and many more films are yet to come where we may get outstanding performances. But I am sure no would would manage what Shahid did in Kaminey!
Priyanka Chopra also gives a brilliant performance and manages to maintain a respectable position in the film amongst so many talented actors. She was at her best in the song Raat Ke Dhai Baje and she looked and sounded wonderful in the Maharashtrian attire and accent! After Dostana and Fashion, Priyanka’s tryst of coming up with excellent performances continue!
Amole Gupte (as Bhope Bhau) is the star of the film! He was just outstanding and played his part effectively. Watch out for the scene with Charlie in the latter’s house…his amused expressions are a treat! Another scene where he rocks was his conversation with Sweety on the phone. The way he says, “Kon aahe to mulga? Tyaacha naav kaay aahe?” (Who’s that guy? What’s his name?) rock as it was typically Maharashtrian accent and didn’t sound fake at all!
Besdies the aforementioned actors, there are many others who are unheard but they manage to impress a lot. Chandan Roy Sanyal as Mikhail was brilliant. Tenzing Nima as Tashi was outstanding. His character was cool and sexy and he played his part convincingly. Shiv Subrahmanyam and Hrishikesh Joshi as inspectors Lobo and Lele were perfect. The cop brothers in many scenes remind of Thomson and Thompson of Tintin series! Others were also great.
Vishal Bharadwaj also composed the music which is as exciting as the film. Dhan Te Nan is already a rage while the rest of the songs (Fatak, Raat Ke Dhai Baje, Kaminey) rock too. The theme music (Go Charlie Go) was outstanding! Gulzar as usual comes up with some of the best lines.
Tassaduq Hussain’s cinematography was highly superior and worked wonders in some of the scenes, esp in the climax. The production design was unique and top notch. The sets in the film looked cool and straight out of the real life. Take for instance, Guddu and Sweety’s residence and the surroundings. Then the scene where Sweety and Guddu are in a conversation and a stray dog enters the scene suddenly! And finally, Bhope Bhau’s haven seemed raw and in sync with the mood of the film.
Special mention should be made of Cajetan Boy, the African screenwriter, who gave Vishal the idea of Kaminey. Screenplay written by Vishal, Abhishek Chaubey, Supartik Sen and Sabrina Dhawan was highly effective. The four of them do a wonderful job and come up with one of the finest scripts in recent times.
Finally, Vishal Bharadwaj, the director, is a winner! He proves that he is a versatile genius! Making Kaminey was difficult but he comes out with flying colours. With this film, he also pays homage to the cultures and its people residing in Mumbai. Vishal also proves that one doesn’t need to go overseas to make a racy thriller. One can utilize the various moods, cultures and setups of the city to come up with an interesting film! Vishal, you rock!
Some of the best scenes of the film:
1. The first scene
2. The songs Fatak, Dhan Te Nan, Raat Ke Dhai Baje
3. The scene inside the 5-star Hotel
4. Sweety revealing the ‘secret’ to Guddu
5. Charlie with the Guitar
6. The marriage
7. The intermission point
8. Bhope Bhau and Mikhail at Charlie’s place
9. The scene inside the local train (best scene!)
10. The last 30 minutes and the final scene
On the whole, Kaminey is one of the finest films of the year, undoubtedly! The film takes you into a raw, gripping world and grips from the start till the end. Do watch this film. One doesn’t get such novel films every Friday! Go Charlie Go!!
My rating-**** out of 5!
P.S.: Do hear the song ‘Dhan Te Nan’ carefully when you go for the film. The line ‘Teli Ka Tel’ is edited as ‘Dilli Ka Tel’ all thanks to the controversy surrounding the word ‘Teli’! Crazy!!
Movie Review: KAMINEY by RAJA SEN
Posted on: August 13, 2009
Once in a particularly blue moon, comes a film that makes you wolf-whistle. One that then ties you to the edge of your seat and forcibly pins you there and pounces on you, eventually leaving you sitting in the dark, drained and grinning and more satisfied than a film has any business leaving you. This, ladies and gentlemen, is that kind of ride.
And way more.
Vishal Bhardwaj reinvents the filmi rollercoaster with feverish glee as he takes a wonderfully twisty plot and paces it flawlessly around a bunch of madcap, irresistible characters. It takes nearly twenty minutes to get used to things, the characters, the words they speak, they way they speak them, and the tone of the film — heck, to get used to this film’s world. Then on, the film just freakin’ flies.
Yet before getting into the breakneck chaos, it is this unapologetic figure-it-out stance that we must initially applaud. Too often are our caper films and thrillers compromised by oversimplification and spoonfeeding, by filmmakers believing audiences need things spelt out and giving them bite-sized flashbacks to easily digest each twist. No more, says Bhardwaj, throwing us a delicious jigsaw and letting things fall into place in their own sweet time. The result is startlingly clever, an innovative film with genuine surprises. Kaminey is the kind of film whose success we ought all pray for, because it’ll prove smart cinema works.
So delicious is the movie’s gradual unravelling that I refuse outright to let you in on the plot itself — an enthralling tale of drugs, deceit, dingbats and dead-ringers — because you need to discover this on your own. Go in as fresh as you can, you deserve to taste this one by yourself. Letting on what actually happens would make me one of the film’s titular knaves.
Suffice it to say that Tassaduq Hussain, who also shot Vishal’s brilliant Omkara , does it more than adequate visual justice, and the largely-handheld film emerges very stylistic indeed. It’s fast, funny and constantly rollicking, and the characters are spectacularly entertaining.
As is the cast. Shahid Kapoor plays Guddu the stutterer and Charlie with a lisp, saying f for every s, and does strongly enough to credibly seem like two different people; Priyanka Chopra’s delightfully high-strung Sweety pulls off hysterical Marathi with impressive fluency. Yet it is the ensemble of fantastic oddballs who truly make this film special: from Amole Gupte’s demented Santa Claus routine as Maharashtra-lovin’ gangster Bhope Bhau to Chandan Roy Sanyal’s lethally capricious coke-lover Mikhail, from Shiv Subrahmanyam’s helpless corrupt cop Lobo to Tenzing Nima’s ludicrously likable drug-smuggler Tashi — the film is full to the brim with splendidly unfamiliar faces, each of whom deserve a hand, not just the ones singled out here.
And Vishal generously gives each character their time in the spotlight. Guddu heartwrenchingly recounts his middle-school love, while Sweety captures beer-driven arousal with charming realism. Bhope bribes a big-eared nephew with chocolate, while Lobo coaxes the stutterer to give a police statement through song. The Bengali gangsters shoot bullets near each other for laughs, while the Marathi ones are transfixed by Guddu-Sweety screensavers on a laptop. Charlie unwraps a cellphone from plastic as he tries to placate gangsters, while — in an extraordinary moment — Mikhail sets the screen ablaze as he staggers in on the same gangsters, high on coke and unpredictable as a broken roulette wheel. There’s so much to marvel at in these characters that it isn’t funny. Oh wait, it is. Very.
What raises this rambunctious gangster movie head and shoulders above its genre is the writing. The wordplay is constant, subtle and absolutely exquisite — a tough ask when one hero trips over words and the other narrates — yes, narrates — with a lisp. And there’s a witty duality running through the film’s twin tales: a character barks into a phone, and this sound echoes later when someone pleads in front of Bhope, daring not to take his name but just calling him repeatedly big brother, “bhau-bhau”; Mikhail introduces himself to Bhope by calling himself Tope Bhau, and nearing the climax Bhope is told by another that they have ‘topein’ (cannons) too; when Mikhail wins a race, arriving just in time, he breaks into the Spiderman theme — and Charlie responds with Fpiderman-Fpiderman. When a character wants to steal a king’s ransom in drugs to help a pregnant woman, another snarls back: ‘Toh kya meri coke ujaadega?’ Ha. It’s nuanced, lovely writing, the sort we never get to see in films nowadays.
Bhardwaj has never been secretive about his Quentin Tarantino adoration, referencing the director in Blue Umbrella and doing it here again with high heels and an injection. While Tarantino exclusively uses music he already loves because he doesn’t trust anyone to create anything as good, Bhardwaj has always done it all himself, writing, directing and composing — not to mention singing, and its worth noting the slight s/f lisp he gives the film’s magnificent title track when it plays on screen. Yet here he takes a leaf from QT’s book and brings back the saucy RD Burman track ‘Duniya mein logon ko’ (from 1972’s Apna Desh) and makes it his own, giving it sassy new context out of its dated backdrop — no more Rajesh Khanna in a red suit, this song is now all Shahid.
So the film leaps through implied ultraviolence and dark humour and you hold on, exhilarated — just as you have through, say, Guy Ritchie’s Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels. And while that itself would be no mean feat, Bhardwaj ups the ante with an audacious climax, suddenly bringing emotions right to the fore.
And while films of this ilk are full of disposable-bodies and corpses-in-waiting, one discovers that Vishal has — sneakily, stealthily, surreptitiously — kept the sentiments so darned real that by the time the climax rolls around, you do actually give a damn about these characters.
Wow. Now if that isn’t kameenapan, I don’t know what is. Awefome.
(4.5/5)
By Taran Adarsh, August 12, 2009 – 21:34 IST
Dhan Te Nan. Vishal Bhardwaj pays homage to cinema of yore and that’s reason enough to go out and grab tickets for one of the most keenly anticipated films of our times.
A few monsoons ago, Farah Khan paid homage to the cinema of 1970s with OM SHANTI OM. Now Bhardwaj picks up characters that we have witnessed on the Hindi screen before, but executes it like Tarantino and Guy Ritchie do. He creates a film that’s so different from movies we’ve witnessed thus far.
| BY BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COM |
Let’s say, KAMINEY is bold, stark, funny and unpredictable and that’s what works in its favour. There’re two more reasons: Shahid Kapoor and of course, ‘Dhan Te Nan’. Okay, we’ve seen Shahid pitching in a sincere act in his earlier films, but KAMINEY should catapult him to superstardom. His double role in KAMINEY is exemplary.
There’s another star in KAMINEY and that’s ‘Dhan Te Nan’. Your heart starts beating faster every time you hear this in the background or also when Shahid breaks into the song. The track is as big a craze as ‘Jumma Chumma’ [HUM], ‘Ek Do Teen’ [TEZAAB] and ‘Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai’ [KHAL-NAYAK] and will contribute enormously in attracting viewers in hordes.
Having said that, I wish to add that KAMINEY is not the usual masala film. Sure, it’s a well-made film, but there’s no spoon feeding here. One has to be attentive, very attentive to grasp the goings-on and also the twists in the tale. It’s not one of those lock-your-brains-at-home types, for sure. And that might not be too appealing a thought for those who swear by candyfloss or meaningless ha-ha-thons.
To cut it short, KAMINEY is a film with an attitude. Like it or leave it, but you’d never be able to ignore it. Word from the wise: Go for this hatke experience!
KAMINEY is about a pair of twin brothers, Charlie and Guddu [Shahid Kapoor]. Charlie lisps, while Guddu stammers. They are as different as chalk and cheese. And they can’t stand the sight of each other. Till one fateful rainy night, their lives cross.
Charlie gets mixed up in a deathly get-rich-quick scheme, while Guddu realizes that the love of his life, Sweety [Priyanka Chopra], has unwittingly put a price on his head. The brothers are sucked into a world of drugs, guns and money. Their lives collide head on with the lives of gangsters, rebel soldiers, rogue politicians and crooked cops.
The brothers have to run to protect themselves, their dreams, their love. And most importantly, realize that all they have is each other.
It takes time to get used to the world Vishal Bhardwaj wants us to enter. The characters, the relationships, the lingo, the tone and the setting… frankly, you don’t take to KAMINEY instantly. But twenty minutes into the film and things start falling in place. From thereon, you’re drawn into a different world completely.
The interval point raises the bar and also the expectations. The story takes a dramatic turn at this juncture, but minutes before that, ‘Dhan Te Nan’ makes the proceedings exhilarating and stimulating.
Right from the sequence after the interval to the finale, Vishal Bhardwaj peels off layer after layer, which erupts like a volcano towards the end. The end is long drawn and with so many characters in the film, it only takes time to give a culmination to each of those characters. And that gets tedious. The violent end might not find universal acceptance. Vishal Bhardwaj proves that he’s a master storyteller. KAMINEY is a damn difficult film to conceptualize and execute and Vishal does it with gusto. Besides the soundtrack [‘Dhan Te Nan’], the effectual background score only enhances the impact. The dialogues, also penned by Vishal, are super. At places, clapworthy. Tassaduq Hussain’s cinematography is top notch.
Shahid takes a really big leap with KAMINEY. Note how he handles the two characters, Guddu and Charlie, brilliantly. This film is a step to superstardom and also which will open new doors and vistas for him as an actor. Priyanka is first-rate. She’s so much in sync with her character. Also, she gets the Maharashtrian accent perfect. Amole Gupte is outstanding. An incredible actor! Tenzing Nima and Chandan Roy Sanyal leave a solid impression. Shiv Subrahmanyam and Hrishikesh Joshi are perfect.
On the whole, KAMINEY lives up to the hype associated with it. The film has three stars — Vishal Bhardwaj [a name that’s immensely respected by moviegoers], Shahid Kapoor and ‘Dhan Te Nan’ — and this combo as also the crooked characters and a genuinely hatke subject should guarantee ample footfalls in cineplexes even after its initial weekend. The weekend business should be huge due to the holidays all through the weekend: Friday [Janmashtami], Saturday [Independence Day] and Sunday. Of course, the business is bound to be affected in parts of Mumbai territory due to Swine Flu, but the film should take off in a big way when theatres re-open.
Fenil and Bollywood 