Kaminey: A Ballad Darkly
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Priyanka Chopra, Shahid Kapoor and the rainbow
For me there will be always a difference in experience between watching a film on big screen, on the immediate weekend after its release compared to watching it after reading many reviews, seeing it on DVD. Because of my lack of knowledge, experience and panache to observe the nuances and minutiae of this medium of art and expression. Unfailingly, I tend to form an opinion from others viewpoint, build-up expectations or more detrimentally, become biased.
Thus, I normally try to avoid reading many reviews before watching a movie just to keep my mind free from any bias or expectations. However, for Kaminey it was entirely a different trip. I have never had the privilege to access any Director’s perspective on his movie before watching it, leave alone a discussion between two Directors, who have imprinted their style in contemporary Indian cinema. So, when the two directors started discussing the film in animated excitement, I gulped it down like a greedy pig. Because, having missed the discussion, I would have now been writing the script of Flashbacks of a Fool- Part Deux.
Evolution of ‘Hindi movie’ has always been based on certain modus operandi, saving a handful of exception, which rather proved the norm. Movies which were not formula based were a copy/ lift/ inspiration or termed as ‘Art film’. So Commercial Hindi cinema, also known as ‘Mainstream Bollywood’ or ‘Escapist Entertainment’, always typified the certain formula, albeit modernized with time.
The formulae broadly delved on love story, family drama, twin siblings/ reincarnations, political drama, cop/ gangster/ terrorist, horror/ comedy (of late it’s difficult to distinguish between them). With the winning formula combined with muscular hunks, foreign locations, underdressed zeroines, numerous song and dance sequences, they were sure to entertain a section of the audience. The other kind of audience drooled over Tarantino, Ritiche and Rodriguezor, to satisfy their appetite for dark wit and flamboyant violence. Then happened Kaminey and things are not the same anymore.
Kaminey to me is an absolutely desi and dark director’s cut of our times, which does justice to the medium of art/expression as well as makes commercial sense. Vishal Bharadwaj uses elements of the time tested formula and imbues them in the film in his unique way. The story is a not so subtle statement on Indian politics and corruption at the metropolis underbelly, under the subtext of classical vulnerable romance. What is subtle is how he interweaves dream like sequences within harsh reality and creates a ballad, wrinkle free and acid washed.
The aspects of Kaminey which made me see the movie once again-
Political undertone- The statements on politics, corruption and exploitation may not be new in intent but surely in presentation. In a necropolis, neither the criminals are glorified nor are the cops. At the end of the day the people are constituent of a symbiotic scum, corroding the moral values to the core and celebrating it with vada pao and modak. When values are traded and negotiated like vegetables, it’s the kaminey who walks up the victory stand.
Childhood memoirs- The guns in the hands of Bhope Bhau and Mikhail seemed like toys, when they play the game of death with innocent ‘dhishkaon’ to each other. The mention of Bela-Bahadur and champak immediately took me to my days of Indrajaal Comics. Violence was a child, once upon a time. That’s why the eccentric Bengali dadas not only refuse to grow up, but chose their lethal weapons with childish ecstasy.
Black Humour- Now this is not everyone’s glass of blood. How violence becomes comic and death brings a smile, are illustrated in this movie. Picking up the humorous killing scenes and describing them would be a criminal offence and killing of the humour itself, so I refrain. Those who love comic books may get the drift.
Dialouges- Each and every sentence uttered by the characters reflected the idiosyncrasy, humour and the strata of the society the characters represent. Usage of original mother tounge by the characters further makes it a treat for the audience, who understands it. I can vouch that the Bengali dialogues were one of the best in the movie, not just because it’s in Bengali but the contextual sarcasm in which they work. For your information, ‘Sonamoni’, mukhta ektu kholo dekhini’ [ o my sweetpie, open your mouth please] and ‘O amar Sontumunu pushuta’ are the sweet nothings a Bengali mother affectionately uses to nurse and cuddle her baby.
Influences- Some of us, who are little overdosed with international films, tend to seek the ‘inspiration’ or ‘tribute’ to a context, or a scene, and then analyze it so deeply, which probably even the Director never had any clue of. Just because a film is structured as non-linear narrative and talks about a wristwatch doesn’t mean a simile with Pulp Fiction, similarly to El mariachi because of a Guitar and Guy Ritchie because of multiple gangsters chasing a large booty moving. However, I must confess, some of the elements used, did remind me some films of foreign origin. For example the masked figures in the song Fatak reminded me the death procession on Once Upon A Time in Mexico., the climax shootout reminded me of Desparado, Mikhail’s long hair and sniffing style reminded me of Banderas of El Mariachi.
Symbolism and Surrealism- The delirium of Charlie and the jump cuts to his childhood and Mikhails deadbody in his father’s place was subconscious acceptance of guilt, which was in most probability was intentional. But Guddu’s walk along the railway track over the corpses while half-dead people are trying to grab his feet was surreal to me- I was simultaneously surprised, shocked and disturbed, but ‘felt’ the scene in my psyche. Quite an anarchist poetry in celluloid.
Characters performances- Priyanka Chopra , Amole Gupte, Chandan Roy’s performances are etched in stone. Rajatava Datta and Deb Mukherjee as the Bengali dadas are brilliant too. I liked Tenzing Lama as Tashi too, he had the right attitude to like bitches over dogs.
Overall, a superior and entertaining cinema with masala plot, great music, fabulous casting, cult characters, brilliant cinematography and a new flavour which sets the Hindi film standards up there, that would change the meaning of ‘average’.
However, I did have my feeling of discontent with Kaminey, even being aware of the director’s thought behind certain elements.
Dilution/ comic reliefs- The high standard of twisted humour, though fairly consistent does degrade a bit at places, especially with that Lele character at the climax.
Make up- looking at it from pure practical point of view there should have been some marked difference between the twin brothers, representing their upbringing. Atleast, Guddu would have been given a shorter hair cut.
Climax- The climax was a big letdown and it was clear that it’s been brutally edited to fit the film into a time limit. Such climax, panned with wide angle camera, rendered with the number Rasta Hai Jo Sasta Hai Wo would have been a masterpiece, a metaphoric epic like end. The silhouette against the setting sun and the gunfire sparks looked like a painter’s canvas and I wanted more. But, it ended like a rushed up 80’s potboiler, with a clichéd message – Alls well that ends well. The ending clearly disappointed me. It was like the fragile David of art was defeated by the commercial Goliath. The ballad gets asphyxiated.
Censor Certification- Was that A certification some kind of joke? Some contemporary movies get released with an U certification which feature cleavages as deep as ATM slots, display human flesh like PETA adverts, item numbers that would enable premature ejaculation to coma patients, leave alone the Sulabh Sauchalay grade innuendos, while I cringe into my seat, as my 9 year old son doesn’t even find them funny. But Kaminey gets a bif A, because our respected censor board does not want to talk about condom and thinks Kaminey is a bad word, so is Pilibhit.
I sincerely request the film fraternity to give censor board another chance, by making Ch*tiye.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Rahul Dholakia
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Varma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Sachin Kundalkar
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
I was waiting for you to explain the allusion of Ingmar Bergman with the pun on glass darkly. Nevertheless, good analysis bro! Even I was damn pissed at the censor board playing Edward Scissorhands ( Sorry it’s Burton mania ) For fuck’s sake they even gave Ghajini and Kambhakkt Ishq a U/A Certificate. U/A could have made this film an even bigger hit than it already is.
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Neeraj ,
It was a pun on Scanner Darkly- Richard Linklater’s comic book look film . I have not seen Bergan’s Through a Glass Darkly.
This film should have been U/A. Even my son is pissed with censor board now and he is just 9.
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Oops my bad! I really need to catch up on the long pending books to read.
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I have not read the book, I saw the film ! What I meant was the movie is made in comic book illustration style. :glasses:
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They actually shot the whole film and drew over each shot frame by frame to give it the comic look! The technique’s called rotoscoping, often used in videogames earlier.
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Why Chandan is being praised. He was hardly present in a few scenes and to me he didnt do anything exceptional. Why thers is such a hugh cry ?
: (
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For me, he was one of the key character in the movie, even after he was dead. Those ‘few’ scenes were killers.
I liked what Chandan Roy Sanyal did as Mikhail.
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The review is good and balanced…but uh , intially it states ‘things are not anymore the same’ and towards the end you, intentionally or not, tend give out the feeling that nothing has changed much…which I should agree more to…
Kaminey is not changing Hindi cinema anyway…what Satya did years ago, we are in the same level now also…Black Friday/ H K Aisi did up it a bit…so did OLLO…Kaminey does keeps hindi cinema where it is, if not bowing down to commercial expectation…
As we know, this magic art is a fine balance between creativity and money-making…in Kaminey we know where the balance tilted comfortably well, and compromises made to the gritty art shows up on the screen…
VB is a great talent, but this film is bleak…
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Hey Ram,
I partially agree with you.
You are right saying that my expectation was building up and the ending disappointed me a lot. At the end of it all I had is Hindi cinema, to make the majority of audience happy. I would have loved to see a dark ending. Btw, VB has an extended climax in store and the DVD would probably have it as special feature.
I disagree that Kaminey may not change Hindi cinema.Other than the ending, it has showcased superior aspects of filmmaking. It doesn’t insult the audience intelligence for most of the duration, but involves them into the movie. It would definitely encourage new writers, directors and actors to experiment with characters. That’s how characters like Mikhail will be born, die and stay immortal.
Satya will remain a milestone and i don’t think there’s any discussion required on that.
HKA and OLLO are both my favorites so is Ek Hasina Thi.Though, I wish Being Cyrus was made in Hindi.
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Difference between Satya, OLLO, Black Friday et al and Kaminey is that Kaminey is a big budget film with top commercial actors. So it brings grindhouse cinema (is there such a term?) to the masses.
This will lead more actors like Hritik, Shahrukh, Kareena etc and big producers to put big money on creative projects (and directors) like Kaminey rather than just catering to the masses with a Ghajini, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Koi Mil Gaya or Wanted.
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Touche’.
Hope this movie breaks the typical ‘Hero- heroine’ mode of hindi cinema and give equal importance to characters artists.
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great movie by a genius director!!
Even though one cannot like all scenes but I can feel the kind of detailing and thought which has gone behind each and every scene. Tremendous
However why no mention of Shahid? or did I miss something?
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My bad, i missed the obvious. I will add this lines in the review-
Shahid Kapoor’s dual role as Guddu and Charlie gives us some hope, that stars may not need to build up a image of romantic or action hero but can excel in character roles (like Pankaj Kapur did and now done by people like Irfan, Kay Kay and the likes). Our cinema needs characters, we have seen enough heroism.
Thanks Contra, for pointing it out.
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I think we should give credit to shahid kapoor for playing dual role in kaminey.It’s not always easy to play dual role.
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Agreed. If only their contracting look would have made little starker.
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All the fan reviews on passion for cinema had me very excited about K, notwithstanding the fact that V Bhardwaj’s past work had me waiting for this one. Though a brilliantly made film I was rather disappointed by it. Not only the climax sequence, which takes away so much from such a well begun film but also its inability to rise above the ‘hindi film formula’ that it was both emulating and critiquing. For most ‘average’ audience who have not joined the V Bhardwaj fan club it was 70s-80s style formula film, just shot in a lot rain and and darkness. Of course truly creative directors like V Bharadwaj need not be concerned about what the ‘average’ moviegoer thinks but since we are so talking about this so-called straddling of commercial and art cinema… maybe that perspective also needs to be considered. This V Baradwaj’s failed film but it is good to ‘fail’ in this way. If more directors had the courage to fail the way he has in this film, Hinid cinema would be more enriched
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You summed it up nicely Vyuti. Atleast VB showed some way forward. Thanks for the comment.
I personally would look towards more surrealistic and abstract films from VB.
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overhyped !! kaminey for me was like any other 80’s bollywood flick in the garb of intelligent cinema. infact so cleaverly packaged packaged tht the media and the industry is going gaga over this mediocre fare that anyone speaking against it is panned as being low on intelligence or is said to have not acquired the taste for such cinema.
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Disagree- there’s no intelligent garb, rather complete desi treatment to everything- characters,language, sets, outdoors, dresses, props. Very genuinely original. Also there were local trains instead of helicopters and water scooters.
It’s far from a mediocre fare, but you are entitled to your views.
However, the taste part is agreeable, but it develops from exposure, assuming all audience is equally intelligent.
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intelligent garb doesnt mean u shud have international locales and helicopters .. I liked the way kaminey was shot, it was the age old clched story and climax that was a big let down.
yea, I agree with the taste bit, it has to be acquired .. alas no amount of tarantino cud help me with kaminey. to each his own.
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We are now talking the same thing.
It’s may to tough to separate Kaminey & Tarantino, the tribute and influence is obvious.
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Got to watch kaminey last night. It was way too dis-emotional to be the kind of revolutionary movie I was expecting. I’ll have to agree with some of the reviewers who said none of the characters in kaminey were kaminey enough. And that got me thinking. Whether VB intended this or not, I believe we as society are the real kaminey. We look at dirty cops, corrupt politicians, greedy gangsters and we aren’t surprised. We have accepted and taken for granted ‘yes we know there are cops and politicians who are dirty in reality and so what’s so kaminey about that?!’ Its our disenchanted, disinterested gulping of the ‘yes… they are dirty, so what’s new’ that makes us passive audience the real kaminey… and that’s the real pun and the black humour the movie does on us. Which is only furthered by the fact that Charlie despite everything reaffirms this pun when he chooses to pick up the diamonds and take the fhortcut.
The movie is very violent in convincing us with fantastic artifices that one “has to be” a kaminey for making one’s dreams come true – whether its the variegated characters, or charlie taking the fhortcut, or even Guddu ready to bargain money for marrying fweety… The movie’s instigating brilliance lies in almost convincing us of this… now, I would say, it deserves to be called a fiction-noir and our age’s new siren-song…
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Kaminey is no masterpiece and if we leave aside comparisons I think its a well shot movie balancing art and commercial aspects. And we need more such movies so that it paves way for producers to experiment at least.
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Right. It was balancing the art and commercial well, but at the end it was clearly dictated by the commercial sense.
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Quite innovative analysis… as you always does… and fully agree that end was a bit disappointing.. amy be some commercial reasons behind… bit i can’t say much about it.. :notsure:
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The end was filmy……simply said.
Lets see the if the DVD special features offer us some of the uncut portions.
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Satya was a masterpiece.Kaminey with its box office success will be influential in its own way.
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Definitely. This movie would reach a cult status.
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I have read many article on Kaminey but i none answered some question came to my mind while watching movie.So just to get my ans and satisfy my curiosity i m posting this. Please tell me why Bhopu bhau who is shown as anti north indian(may be due to political ambition) and marathi himself was speaking hindi 99% time considering that V.B showing Bengali bro’s speaking Bengali.
Guddu has reason to be angry with charlie in movie,but why charlie hates guddu and always says guddu is manhoos?
Consider my lack of tech knowledge ,why is V.B using shaky camera movement, means what does that add to a scene?
P.S: I like movie not doubt and i love V.B
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Bhope Bhau’s character was sketched on the head-strong SS/ MNS leaders. he was speaking Hindi only when non-Marathi speaking people were around him. If you notice with Sweety almost all of his dialogues are in Marathi.
The childhood rift part is deliberately kept slightly unclear.But I guess Charlie thought Guddu could have saved their dad, as he was with him.
Shaky camera movement in one way of adds interest in a chase scene as the audience tend to feel the commotion. But in films like Run Lola Run, it has been used for simple conversations as well.
ps: The above comment is from an audiences perspective, I don’t know ABCD of film-making.
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Be it violence or any risque content, I feel Kaminey deserved at least a U/A.
I sense personal bias behind this decision of the Censor Board.
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Of course it should have been only U/A. There was nothing objectionable in my opinion, the drug use was also not shown explicitly.
Ghajini was U/A, Race & Jhoom Barabar Jhoom had more obscene material, if we are talking about kids viewing.
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Does anyone know why the end song ‘Rasta Hai Jo Sasta Hai Wo’ is not on the CD? I thought it was fantastic.
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Nitin- In an interview given by VB somewhere he had mentioned that this song was composed quite late and hence couldnt be included in the CD and was straight away added in the movie.They might now come up with a new CD which would include the same.
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Thanks, I was guessing the same. The chorus singers whose names I saw in the end credits are the best in the industry.
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@ SETHU,
I guess you are one of the more recognised and frequent person around…so thought you ‘d be the best person to do this, in case you would be interested… PFC I believe is one of the huge forums that a lot of film makers who are not recognised or don’t get a chance to speak out… and would urge if you can even put up two lines..
A 2007 movie, “Partition” starring Jimi Mistry … is a direct remake of “GADAR”, the Sunny Deol one. A little bit of changes, however its the same cinema… at a platform where we talk of plagarisms, no due credit to original writers, hollywood flicks being copied into India…. I guess this is a significant post that needs to be brought in…
The biggest grosser in Indian Cinema (ratios… considering ticket prices then and not as much of overseas distibution) was remade in hollywood, was nominated for quite a few awards, and guess nobody knows much about it in India… if it was remade, then we do need to recognise this movie (Indian partition story that was sold to west) and make some noise, and ensure that the makers of this movie (anil sharma, who may never again be able to repeat this feat ever) cherish their success..
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@PS – ‘Partition’ is at best a cheap copy. And always remember, they did not have Sunny Deol!
It was a Canadian movie.
There should definitely be an uproar about it nevertheless.
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@ Tejas… it was indeed a 30paisa xerox sold for $3 in US markets, but still yaar, at a forum where we talk of upcoming film makers with big ideas … showcasing our movies to the world…. Plagarisms in our industry… we should actually celebrate the movies being remade even in the condition that it is … not shouted on top of walls like SRK episode, but maybe a respectable mention of things..
“AFTER TYPING IT ALL REALISED… IS THERE JUST AN OPEN FORUM TO THROW THOUGHTS, WONT TAKE AWAY SPACE FROM THE RESPONES TO OTHER SUBJECTS… IF THERE IS, DO LET ME KNOW… MY TEETHING DAYS WITH PFC SITE CONTINUES”
This also opens up another frame of things… just the way a lot of us look up to a lot of world cinema and feel that we want and should make movies like this and cause we have been devoid of such intricacies… “Gadar” being remade, “Jai Ho” (A lot of us Indians definately feel that there are a lot better compositions by ARR) winning oscar proves another fact that Indian cinema is probably also being noticed for all the masala, zing, spice that our movies carry, which are devoid in a lot of other industries… the collaboration of a man’s desperation along with a crazy imagination of beating up a whole army of a country with a hand pump, while the hero’s face is all serious conviction, doesnt even break a smile at the silliness while this is being shot (but then so are the matrix stunts unrealistic) … maybe thats something they do stay in minds of people, as wow, havent seen this happen before, and of course my belief for (even a movie like Agyaat/Darna Zaroori Hai)…. out of every million (okay thousand!) people who watch Agyaat, there will at least be 2 who would like to remake it the right way … that in itself becomes a more realistic breeding ground for upcoming movie makers than tons of super successful movies which people watch carry home and then forget… It maybe the same case with Gadar…and a case with a lot of our flicks which can make some more people watch, remake and edit the movie in their style and make it brilliantly …. (PFC would kill me if I even name the movie that I think is a brilliant flick but we have tackily made so many of such movies in Hindi cinema much before this one happened… )
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Your point is definitely in the right direction. The fact with Partition though, is that it is hardly even noticed. Also, it was made by another Indian called Vic Sarin sans all the good things that Gadar had like the action. You can like Gadar, you can hate it, and laugh at the action scenes a few days, months or years later. What you cannot deny is the absolute pleasure ride it was while watching in the theater.
I take your opinion about something about our films attracting people. There are lot of other films which were rejected by our crowd and liked by non-Indians but they are far and few between. If we think hard enough, there are movies out there which we didn’t like at all, then someone remade them brilliantly and now we go back loving it; not realizing in the process that it was our own movie in the first place. Unfortunately for me, I cannot recall anything from the back of my mind right away, but sure there are such flicks.
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PS- you’ve pointed out something interesting no doubt.Will look into the same and try to come up with something in due time.BTW The Partition has an interesting star cast for sure.
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Sethu, I saw the movie once again for the climax and the Song !
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uh-Yes even I saw it again ( with Jha actually ) and was completely glued to the movie.
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Not able to get over this film. Was initially feeling that there is too much of kaminey here at pfc. After watching 3 shows bak2bak last sunday, i realized that you sure will love it or hold it against VB, but yes, you cant escape the euphoria it has created. Each show told me more about the movie than the previous time… jus like onions layers coming off… bro uh, liked your post & appreciate the distinct voice that you bring along, especially the photo-captions of yours are great. i am really hoping this movie makes way for more such attempts a pushing the envelope, story-telling per se. Have had enough of comparisons with QT/GR… but for me this film stands on its own. VB rocks!
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Sorry Magik.
Give yorself a break!! There is no euphoria in the movie.
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Thanks dude for noticing the captions. Expected that from a copywriter
Am eager for VB’s forthcoming ones now, hope he proves more of his mettle.
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Yeah man, KAMINEY easily stands on its own. Vishal is the best director v have.5 films down, most of them good to excellent, not 1 bad film!KAMINEY is his most commercial film 2 date so of course there were going to be some hardcore commercial elemnts in it but still look at what the man has done in a 42 crore film!!
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Having heard the Kaminey music many times over, I remain unconvinced that the lyrics have been penned by Gulzar. They seem to have been ghost written by Piyush Shah. There are huge linguistic similarities between these lyrics and the work Piyush has done till date.
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Sorry – Piyush Shah should read as Piyush Mishra
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Idris miya – I urge you to write a post on intricacies of poetry and lyricism. I have read your few comments on Gulzar and Piyush Mishra’s lyrics, and you don’t have high opinion on them (or was that someone else commenting on Piyush Mishra? Never mind, then). The thing is you evaluate them technically and we fail to understand those technicalities due to lack of knowledge. Then it becomes a tug of war.
Let’s see your point of view in detail in a post. I am really interested to read your take on this.
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Biradar Tejas, yaar mein mein hun mujhe koyi aur na banaao. Darasl I have a very high opinion of Gulzar’s poetry – at least till recently I used to have such an opinion. But kaminey – the language and its use of phrase – doesn’t sound like Gulzar Sa’ab. ‘Dil nichoren’, ‘matki toren’, ‘good luck nikalen’ ‘good luck ko phoren’, ‘yaaro kyi chaal aisi chalo’, ’sheher ho kadmon tale’, ‘pehli baar akhiri baar ishq’… I mean this is not Gulzar at all. It has uncanny similarity to Piyush Mishra type of rhyme-scheme.
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Sorry about my mistake then. But we had someone posting before who had low opinion about any and every lyricist. And he used to use technical poetry-literature jargon to make his point which used to go way above our heads! Cheers!
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