Kaminey- A Tantalising Journey Like Never Before
Year after year one comes across movies which bring with it a lot of expectations and as the date of release draws nearby, the excitement only keeps rising more and more. So how many of these movies go on to disappoint you? Many, I’m sure and that’s when you are irritated, upset and sometimes heartbroken. And then when the next such movie releases you still go again thinking that this time you aren’t going to be cheated. But how many times do you watch such a movie and still come out thinking all that excitement and hype was justified ?And is it often that you keep thinking so much about the movie that its 3 A.M in the morning and you are still debating whether to sleep or continue soaking in the experience of watching the movie? I’m sure such instances are far and few nowadays and so when such an occasion comes by, isn’t it time to rejoice?
Without much ado I now head on to talk about Kaminey- the movie that most of us have been waiting for. By now its common knowledge that Shahid Kapur plays the roles of Charlie (he lisps) and Guddu (he stammers), twin brothers who hate each other due to an earlier incident in their life. You also know that Guddu and Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) are in love and that Sweety happens to be the sister of Bhope Bhau ( Amole Gupte), a Jai Maharashtra swearing gangster and a wannabe politician. With this premise Vishal Bharadwaj builds up a whole host of characters which initially give you the impression that there are parallel tracks running along in the film.
But anyways what is to happen will eventually happen. So by a strange turn of circumstances all the parallel tracks converge slowly to become one cohesive track. Brothers who’ve not met for years are forced to meet again; love for the beloved gets tested, cops turn as dangerous as criminals themselves and there is blood everywhere. All this happens and what keeps the strings tied to a common knot is not a person, but an object- a guitar. The movie takes some time to hook you, but be rest assured that once you are hooked, you are hooked till the end.
Vishal Bharadwaj scores brilliantly in terms of managing the delicate balance of using so many characters and still ensuring cohesiveness. He also scores for two other reasons- music, which is vibrant, pulsating and in sync with the movie as well as the choice of actors for the movie. The cast has a curious mix of known names, debutants and people from other streams of cinema all coming together on screen here. For both Shahid and Priyanka the movie would do wonders to their filmography but I would certainly single out Amole Gupte ( he can now look at returning to acting in a big way 
) and Chandan Roy Sanyal ( who plays Mikhail ) who shine through the movie- not that the others are any tad lesser in their act.
Tassaduq Hussain’s cinematography also needs a special mention for having brought out the raw images in the movie splendidly. And aren’t movies all about those special moments- ones that you connect to and keep talking about and cry or laugh along with the memory later on? In case of Kaminey there are so many such moments that one can probably write a post on just those moments alone and I bet you that the post will look extremely lengthy. So I’ll refrain from doing so and instead allow some surprises to remain for you all.
There was a stage in life when I used to enjoy the big mainstream movies alone and frowned upon the so called “art” movies. Much later I started getting disillusioned with the bigger movies and then started looking forward to the middle of the road cinema. All this was part of my growing up in terms of cinema exposure. Now I feel that there is no need for any distinction between mainstream and middle of the road cinema (except for the scale of production). What really matters is whether the movie is ultimately good or bad. If the movie manages to keep you hooked right till the end, a major part of the director’s responsibility seems to get paid off, like it does in case of Kaminey. I will not pass any judgment on the movie by giving any grand statement but all I can say is that this is a movie which has its heart in the right place and I guess that’s what counts eventually isn’t it?
Dhan Te Nan- Go on and enjoy the journey!!!
Tags: Amol Gupte, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Tassaduq Hussain, Vishal Bhardwaj
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Thanks Sethu.Have booked my ticket for today’s evening show.
Anything you didn’t like in the movie? or found out of the order, not in place..whaever.
^ Yes, or no would be suffice to say.
@ Negi-Well nothing really that I didnt like in the movie,nothing out of place etc.So go on and enjoy the journey.do come back and say if you concur with me or not.
Thanks Boss, will defenitely let you know.Actually, I was quite apprehensive after SC hullabuloo.But it’s a VB movie, so one thing is for sure, movie kaisi bhi ho but it got to “has its heart in the right place”……Eagerly waiting for sun to go down.
dil bekarar mein bekarar bas ab ki shaam mera ye haal bas khatm ye mera intezaar ho jaaye…
Simply cant wait to catch this one. Damm the multiplex closure in Pune…!!
oh my god….i want to teleport to sunday night!
hmm, no release in either pune or mumbai. wht to do. apetite has been whetted beyond repair now. have to plan official trip outside pune pronto.
.
sethu, u know im SO jealous of u…!
Jha-
I know that you are serious.
on a more serious note I hope from sunday/monday the theatres and multiplexes in Mumbai and Pune open up.
BTW your Chennai trip is long pending, maybe you should come here if you are planning to go out of Pune
@ sethu: yes, my chennai trip has long been pending, and im gonna make sure im there coming week. no one can keep the dhan te nan out of me for too long… hope u r there in chennai next week, will confirm dates to you separately.
main bhi dekhoonga faale… tum paid preview waalon ki to… hahahaha… thanks bro, not that i was waiting for anyone to recco this movie, but still, mazaa aayega jab i will go to see this at the CineMandir this evening. am so excited… jee bhar ke kameenapan karoonga by god ki kasam… yay!
Magik mere bhai- pata hai ki aaj raat ko koi bhi faala tujhe rokega nahin ise dekhne se.so go on have fun and enjoy the journey.dhan te nan
@ Fethu: i waf talking to magik juft now, and we both were curfing fwine flu & paid previewf in general and u in particular.
.
im gonna watch kaminey with u in Fatyam next week. for fure.
Mujhe curfe kiya tum donon ne?bilkul galat kaam kiya.anyways Fatyam aur Fethu donon aapka swagat karte hain
Sethu da,
Watched the movie on Thursday evening thanks to the paid previews
Sadly, the theaters were not that full 
What I loved most was that Vishal didn’t treat the audience as idiots and spoon fed everything. Also loved Tassaduq Hussain’s cinematography and Vishal’s awesome background score.
I personally thought Sonamoni
oops Chandan Roy Sanyal was phenomenal. His role was so over the top and yet he managed put it all together. I was also really surprised by the maturity of Priyanka Chopra.
I have a couple of questions to ask though.
1. Was there a jump after the Kaminey title track. I mean I watched it in Fame, Bangalore and there it kind of jumps from the title track straight into middle of next scene with Priyanka. Is the editing done like that? Or is it the prjection at Fame?
Just wondering…
2. Isn’t the storyline a tad similar to RocknRolla? Not complaining.
Are dada the similarity with RocknRolla is certainly there.Every other review is talking about QT and Guy Ritchie so I thought- lets leave all these guys and just allow people to soak in the experience of the movie.
about the jump after the title track as far as I remember I think the sequence of scenes is the same as you said.
Sethu da, I didn’t mean RocknRolla as a Guy Ritchie comparison. I meant just as a similarly structured story/screenplay.
About the jump after the title track, I dunno why it was edited like that
I forgot to mention a similar jump at the climax. But can’t tell that now…it will be a spoiler then 
Dada I got your point no doubt.The similarity is certainly about the plot no doubt.
I’m trying to imagine the other scene now, yeah lets leave the spoilers for now
I watched the noon show. Took some time to settle down my thoughts and found it didnt blew my mind. I am a tad disappointed with the movie. Though music rocks !!!
good post… im really awaiting to watch within couple of days… already the audio tracks takes me out of the world each and every time i hear it… waiting to see it soon…
Hey!Kathiir- good to see you here.yes do watch the movie, I’m sure you’ll like it.And do let revert back if possible with your feedback after watching it.
ye Swine Flu ki toh…..********@#%!@$!@$!@$~~!!!!
All theatres in Pune closed!
Have to wait whole week!
kaminey rocks and how!!!! too good a movie to express in words… by the way, who are those people who played, tasi – the great or mikhail and his brothers or the gang of bhope… each one of them is a gem.. what a movie yaar…
@ Azad- Tashi is played by Tenzing, Mikhail is played by Chandan Roy Sanyal ( mentioned in the post above as well ) and Mikhail’s brothers are played by Rajatva Dutta and Deb Mukherjee.
yeah sure sethu!
Boss…. kaminey is a real gem, really never to be missed movie, complete 5 star. I never imagined Shahid got be so great. Also Amol Gupte and the guy playing Mikhail and Tashi were just amazingly brilliant. But I will give all the credit to Vishal Bhardwaj, this man is a genius. I watched Blue Umbrella on UTV channel on wednesday, than watched paid premiere of kaminey on thursday and man am i High on vishal bhardwaj…. pure genius
Watched kaminey.Must watch it was a great experience.Vishal never dissapoints!!!Shahid Kapoor is the man to watch out for in future as very few actors could have played the roles with such brilliance.
people are coming up with all kinds of adjectives for Kaminey & Vishal Bhardwaj but it didnt work for me..my excitement for the movie went to next level after reviews fr the movie started coming in frm Thursday night..Kaminey maybe is in the same league as Tarantino’s or Guy Ritchie’s style as far as genre is concerned but its nt even half as accomplished..it nowhere near Pulp Fiction or any other movie(s) its been compared with (I’m not a big fan of Ritchie..Snatch was ok & I hvnt been able to see Lock Stock coz everytime I try watching it I cannot survive 15-20minutes, so I think I shudnt comment on it)..Pulp Fiction,Reservoir Dogs or Kill Bill were neatly structured whereas Kaminey isnt..to me, Kaminey was meant to be an out and out Shahid Kapur vehicle, which it is – it was made-to-display his talent, but I think there is no revelation there..Shahid Kapur is more watchable in films that r not supposed to be a ‘vehicle for his talent’..he fitted much better in Jab We Met or even in films like Dil Maange More,Vaah Life Ho To Aisi,Fool n Final or for that matter, Shikhar – if u dnt believe me watch couple of them excluding JBM & u’l know wht Im saying..as for Vishal Bhardwaj – for me Maqbool remains HIS best work & Omkara HIS second best(I hvnt seen Blue Umbrella)..with Kaminey he has tried to reinvent himself, his style, but I didnt find it impressive enough..if i were to rate the film on a scale of 5, I wud give it 3 stars & the third star wud be for the attempt..good luck
Very well executed by Master. Priyanka and Mikhail guy are the picks of the lot.Will be remebered for it’s exceptional dhan te nan and some great scenes, but I don’t think it will get placed in the category of one of the greatest movie ever made.Charlie could have become a cult character….lekin afsos aisa nahi ho paaya.
Ek aur cheez mujhe sabhi character ek jaise hi lag rahe the Charlie, guddu aur sweety ko chodkar….I mean, Bhpoe, Mikhail, Tashi.. the other three important charachers of movie were quite alike.
Nice observation, there, Negi…did you notice one thing : they all were laughing too much ?
When Bhope and Mikhail meet, they laugh…when Tashi and Bhope meet, they laugh….when the three brothers are together, they are laughing like maniacs….no wonder you had the feeling that these characters seemed all alike…I get this feeling that the directors have to come up with something more than that freakish laugh to show the carefreeness of the mob bosses…that laugh has been used too many times….by the way, in this respect, Lobo and Lele were different…which is why you left them out of that list…
Yeah, gotcha.But, the scene at Charlie’s kholi between mikhail charlie and bhope was amazing.