Kaminey

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 14th August, ‘09
Time : 135 minutes
Director & Music & Dialogue : Vishal Bhardwaj
Starring : Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Amole Gupte, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Tenzing Nima, Shiv Subrahmaniam, Hrishikesh Joshi, Deb Mukherjee, Rajatva Dutta, Carlos Paca

I would’ve made this film funnier. Maybe, also, a little less dark. Everyone is good. My respect for Shahid (can look innocent as well as devious quite effortlessly), Priyanka (can look hot in any dress with even less effort) and Vishal Bhardwaj (can weave a good story – well, ok, with a lot of effort…) remains intact. You want to know what happens next, there are enough mad people, yet there is something missing. Needed more moments like the ‘home science topper’…


Twins, Guddu and Charlie, are like chalk and cheese, one works for an NGO the other gambles, wants to be a bookie. One stammers, while the other lisps. And they don’t like each other and are not in touch. Both land up in trouble – Guddu with the cops and Charlie with a local politician / toughie (Amole Gupte) - because of what the other has done. Guddu, for example, has eloped with Gupte’s sister, Priyanka and someone thinks Charlie looks like him so they come get him, kind of mistaken identity. Till half time, its perfectly set-up with a variety of crazy characters – the three mad Bong brothers, none crazier than Mikhail (Chandan Roy Sanyal, wish more was made of this character….) who want to partner Charlie in his ambition to become a bookie, the drug-dealing narcotic cops (Shiv and Hrishikesh) who find a deal rapidly going sour, Tashi (Tenzing Nima) who is obsessed with acquiring certain twins. And of course, Gupte himself, along with his ‘Jai Maharashtra’ horde and his sister Sweety, who is feisty, a 'home science topper' and not entirely in agreement with her brothers ideology or plans for her. And loves Guddu. A lot. And takes several initiatives to make it happen (why dont they make more women like her ?).


The music rocks – Dhan Te Nan has a certain vibrancy and resonates with everyone who is a Hindi film watcher as a familiar, accustomed tune. Other songs tend to grow on you. And its obvious that the characters and the plot is interesting. So what doesn’t work ?


Not enough is done with the characters, for one. There are too many and we don’t really get deep down and personal with any of them. The second half wasn’t really as good as the first – the threads did all tie up but not with a ‘wow’. There was a certain degree of predictability to it. And most of all, just repeating myself, it lacked or rather didn’t have enough humour. This results in a film that is good, above average, does no harm to anyone’s reputation. But doesn’t rise to the level of greatness expected and doesn’t linger in the mind or make itself amenable to multiple viewing. On another day, I may well have rated it a 7, but its somewhere in that range…

Kaminey is in no way copied but clearly inspired by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. However, in that film, every character is forever etched in your mind due to their amazing eccentricity. The one-liners never stop coming…so even if the plot confuses you due to multiple characters and plotlines (as it does at times in Kaminey), you just never stop laughing. And the end there leaves you gasping for breath for its sheer wickedness. Kaminey also works, but only just…

PS : compared to all the other stuff we witness on the big and small screen, I don’t think the ‘A’ rating is justified at all. I wouldn’t have a problem with my kids watching the DVD.