Kaminey

Vishal Bhardwaj’s evocatively titled Kaminey is a gangster flick on the lines of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Translation – it’s a really good movie about a bunch of thugs and bandits all running after the same big prize – and each of them are nuttier than the other !! Unfortunately, revealing any more about the prize is or the characters would take away the fun of watching the movie itself. I will attempt to tell you about the movie without giving away much …

Central to the plot are two identical twins – Guddu and Charlie, both played by Shahid Kapoor in a career-defining performance. Now as hindi movies teach us, the twins are as different as chalk and cheese – one is a small-time gangster with bookie dreams and the other does social work with an NGO. And ofcourse, as we all know by now, one lisps and the other one stammers. They hate each other and haven’t seen each other for 3 years. Yet in the course of the movie, both of them land up in trouble – and the wrong twin gets caught by the wrong people.

The ‘wrong people’ above are actually the lifeline of the movie – the three Bengali brothers, Bhope Bhau, Inspector Lobo (and his brother) and Tashi the Great. They make the movie quirky, fun and unpredictable – which gives this movie its flavour. Amol Gupte as Bhope Bhau is especially a revelation, given than he is the writer and co-director of Taare Zameen Par. The other revelation is Priyanka Chopra as Sweety – the Home Science topper. She plays a spunky Maharashtrian girl in love with Guddu and their scenes are rather refreshing

I don’t think I need to highlight the soundtrack of this movie – Dhan Te Nan plays throughout the movie and sounds just fabulous. The other songs of the movie are pretty good as well

So a superb followup to the brilliant Omkara by Vishal Bhardwaj ? Well almost !

Whats missing in the movie is a “WOW” moment – a memorable sequence which either blows your mind or which you remember for a long time. Because such gangster capers have become common in the recent past – Ek Chalis Ki Last Local, 99 and Sankat City - and Kaminey will give you a déjà vu from some of these movies. Basically, I kept waiting to be surprised, and it never happened.

So if you haven’t watched any of the above listed movies, then go right ahead and watch Kaminey – you will find it awesome. The others – go watch it anyway because its a movie worth watching and see if you agree with my rating ..

PS – Are you curious where I managed to watch Kaminey yesterday ??