Kaminey

Kaminey is about Charlie and Guddu, twin brothers played by Shahid Kapoor, both of whom suffer from speech impediments and who can’t stand the sight of each other. Charlie, who pronounces S as F, is a small time gangster. Guddu, who stammers, is a mousy NGO worker. Guddu’s life plans, chalked out until 2014 on a chart stuck in his cupboard, are wrecked when he impregnates Sweety, his fiery girlfriend who until now has neglected to tell him that she is the sister of a powerful gangster-politician, Bhope, played by Amol Gupte.
Meanwhile Charlie has come to possess a guitar containing cocaine worth 10 crore. The quintessential gambler thinks he’s finally hit the big score. What follows is a frantic, convoluted journey through Mumbai’s mean streets which are of course populated by many Kamineys: corrupt cops, nasty drug dealers, gun wielding henchmen.
Eventually, the brothers’ determinedly separate narratives collide and they are forced to come together.

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 simply OUTSTANDING.

‘Kaminey’ is not a path-breaking film. Nor is it too cerebral or thought-provoking. It is a heady cocktail of art-house realism and Bollywood masala with a distinct Tarantino tang. It is pure entertainment like never presented before in Bollywood.

The film’s breath is its imaginative screenplay which is full of humour-laced situations flicked straight out of life. Rather than opening all the cards at once, the story unravels in a way that keeps the curiosity alive. Though one can foresee the outcome of the story, it’s hard to predict the path it will take to reach that outcome. That’s what keeps you glued to the screen. Bharadwaj’s compositions, particularly the ‘Dhan Te Nan’ song and riff (used as leitmotif) and cinematography by Tassaduq Hussain are the strengths of ‘Kaminey’. But nothing holds the film together stronger than the performances by actors.

We haven’t seen Shahid Kapur act as good as he does in ‘Kaminey’. Not only does he master the speech defects, he puts on a different body language for the twin characters. It’s most apparent in a scene where the two brothers Guddu and Charlie have a fight. Priyanka Chopra too internalizes her character of a feisty, love-struck Maharashtrian girl impeccably. Note her in a scene where she squabbles with Shahid at the beginning of the film.

It’s hard to believe that no filmmaker in Bollywood yet utilized the talent of writer-painter-actor Amole Gupte (the writer and creative director of Taare Zameen Par). As a diabetic goon with political ambition, Gupte delivers the finest performance in the film. Don’t miss the mock gunplay between Gupte and the promising newcomer Chandan Roy (who plays Shahid’s sidekick) before one of them guns down the other at the start of the second half.

Bharadwaj has conceived many such interesting sequences in ‘Kaminey’. Take for instance that scene when Shahid and his partners in crime realize that the car they’ve stolen to get away from their chasers is actually a police car. Or the finale when all the baddies descend on the same hot spot and the guns are drawn. What follows is a funny bargain to divide the drug money.

Such gems apart, there are some weak links as well in ‘Kaminey’. The flashback story about the past of Guddu and Charlie and revealing why they hate each other is just not convincing. Or take that scene when an emotional Guddu begins to tell Sweety about his childhood crush. It’s embarrassingly cheesy.

Don’t go expecting the moon from ‘Kaminey’. It’s a bit violent, a bit funny, a bit emotional film that leaves you entertained but not wiser.