Kaminey Movie Review
Hmmm , where do I start ?? …Some films are not easy to review because an experience has to be experienced , it is actually hard to put it on paper . This is exactly what Kaminey is , an experience . Lets start from the beginning . The film doesn’t take time out for introducing the characters one by one , they get introduced by themselves , by default . By the time titles would begin you would get engrossed in the film and the people who generally make noise during the beginning of the film in the cinema hall would get silent by the end of it .
Kaminey begins on a comic cum thrilling note . The comic side belonging to Guddu (the stuttering Shahid) and the thrilling side belonging to Charlie (the F ko F bolne waala Shahid – the lisping one) . Priyanka aka Sweety , the marathi mulgi , does her job well in the begining itself and director Vishal manages to give film an almost perfect start (have to say almost perfect bcoz there is no such thing as perfect 
) . The lisping and stuttering would make you laugh at the characters but still establish that connect with them . One by one all the characters come into play and start getting connected with one another through a Guitar and a Girl . The girl beingPriyanka Chopra .
Making life what it is(Kamini) around Guddu , Sweety and Charlie are characters like Bhope Bhau , Tashi , Mikhail , Lobo and Lele . All of them unique and all entangled in a complex world of chrime, money and power . The cultural diversity in the film is one thing to watch where Mikhail and his brothers are Bengali , Tashi and Lobo are Christians , Guddu who is actually Sanjay Sharma is a Hindu and Bhope Bhau and Sweety being Marathi .There are also some foreigners in the film .Bhope Bhau who is a true Marathi Manus and against all north indians has been briliantly played by Amol Gupte . He has done full justice to the character and has played the part of an aspiring politician who uses this “Marathi Manus Ideology” for getting a ticket to contest in the elections . His character has maximum weightage in the film apart from Shahid and Priyanka . The film is made up of these so many different Characters and it completely belongs to them . All characters are important and everyone of them has a mean(kamini) side . The director has even gone ahead and shown the mean side of a small Kid who also plays a very small and comic part in the film . Every character has been perfectly casted and it is these characters that make the film so strong .
Kaminey for its maximum length belongs to Shahid and it won’t be wrong to say that it is completely his film . It is his best and most mature performance till date and his hard work comes across on the screen . He has worked really hard for both of the characters and has put up a fabulous performance . The two characters being completely different , Shahid has got a rare opportunity to express all different shades of a personality on-screen . His is the toughest part and to act that well shows his progress as an actor . He has already become the new superstar and now his acting skills would also get appreciated which would further increase his stardom for sure . Pankaj sir will be so proud of him after watching the film . Vishal has given him ample space to perform and he has delivered according to his expectations . Though Priyanka’s part in the film was small but certainly a very important one and one that required great efforts from her too . She also has equally worked hard and given her best . She is just fabulous in the film and her chemistry with Shahid is something to watch out for . She plays this part of a crazy marathi girl effortlessly and would certainly make you smile . She is adorable and for that matter both Shahid-Priyanka as a couple are also adorable and look cute . They both are stars and of the type who can also act . Chandan Roy is also good as Mikhail .
I am trying to avoid myself from letting out the plot details because it is pretty exciting to watch them unfold one by one . The comic caper genre thatVishal has attempted in the film has worked like wonders . It is officially now first of its kind , opening the gates for many other Directors to attempt this genre also . The story is different to an extent but what is best is the treatment thatVishal has given to the story . The screenplay is great and there are several memorable sequences in the film . Some of them that come immediately to my mind is the sequence between Bhope and Mikhail(Charlie’s Friend) , then there is one with the kid , the interrogation sequence and last but certainly not the least the climax sequence . The climax of the film is what you call ‘climax’ exactly and it is this part which decides the fate of the film . It is this part that will please the majority of theaudience and would make it a sure shot hit .
Techinically also its a very strong film and the cinematography by Tassaduq Hussain is top notch . Several locations of mumbai have been shown in a never before manner and the sequences with Rains have also been shot perfectly . I have a thing for shots in the heavy rain and I just loved them in the film .The steady-cam shots which are on the move have also been done in a beautiful manner and are technically sound . The film’s story spans just within a complete day and hence it moves at a rapid pace which is another plus point about the film .The editing department has done a great job in this respect . The music of the film is no doubt great and it also adds a lot to the film . Its a dark film but still is not that dark and suits the taste of Indian audience . The dialogues of the film are just great and have been written very well . The actors have very well delivered them too in the way they should have been .
I am trying my best not miss out any of the positive points from the film because there are just so many and this is also the reason that from the release of Omkara till date I have not written anything about the film because its tough . Regarding the negatives from the film , the only negative that I thought was that why very less time was given to fabulous characters like lobo, lele , tashi and mikhail . They were such interesting characters and the actors were also brilliant and could have given so much to the characters . The only explanation to this would possibly be the length of the film which had to be kept minimal for the general audience . One request to the producers and director , please release a Director’s Cut of the film(at least on DVD) so that I can enjoy these characters at a full length .
Lastly comes Vishal Bhardwaj , the captain of the ship . Absolutely fabulous job ! kudos to him ! This one is a completely different film from Omkara and he has again done a great job . Omkara is a classic and it is hard to get over such a film . But he has not only managed to do that but also given this film a completely fresh feel , the only common thing being the characters which are so real and so on ground .Vishal Sir , please don’t ever think of the censor certificate and keep making films as real as possible and let the censor board change itself . He has managed to do something that many have tried to attempt before but havemessed up somewhere . He is an actor’s dream director now for sure . Please continue working like this and bring such good and entertaining stories for us on celluloid . By the way the film also qualifies for the “Paisa Vasool” kinda audience and they will also love it .
Go watch it . Forget the swine for some time !!!
One personal opinion that I want to put forward in this review is that Omkara was more of Vishal’s film than Kaminey is . It had so much more on the psychological level that had to be handled by him only and he did that in a way that actually bowls me over every time I watch that film . But I don’t want to take anything away from him andKaminey beacause the two are completely different kind of films .
Movie Rating : Four and Half Stars out of Five ; don’t even think of missing it and Mumbaikars and Poonawaalas please wait and don’t resort to piracy .
Tags: Amol Gupte, Kaminey Movie Review, Priyanka Chopra, Shahid Kapoor, 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
Good Job Saurabh ! I have also written a review of Kaminey…hoping to see it published here. Just one stupid question, are there any changes in the way u submit a review to PFC or is it still the same. Also, how do u add images in your articles ? Thanks in advance.
Thanx dude … I hope yours also gets published .. the procedure is still the same and regarding images ..I don’t put it in there .. the editors do that job …cheers!!
please dont compare kaminey with omkara…the latter does stand at that position
I hav not compared it with omkara ..how can the two comletely different films and that too of different genres be compared ..
Seriously I don’t know where to start, a year ago when I knew that Shahid and Priyanka was going to work together I was really excited and thrilled. This film was a phenomenon, Vishal Bhardwaj did it again with this movie he surely did an impact on everybody. I totally love the concept of the two twins it was really cliché but in a good way. Shahid Kapoor had to play two roles in here Charlie the bad one & Guddu the sweet and innocent one, but like always Vishal did a little twist for us whom I wont say because I’ll spoil you people. Shahid’s performance was absolutely stunning he manages to be the dark side perfectly and the good side sweetly hats off to him. Priyanka Chopra the diva of 2008 since her achievement last year this woman is growing-up real fast in this movie. Her character is Sweety she is an really un-glamed and carefree college girl she is innocent but not stupid, she is fast but not hasty she is someone who can be your biggest friend and someone who can hate you till death, she is someone determined and really frank. I don’t need to say how good her performance was she was so instantaneous The thing I love about the story is that it doesn’t really show the dark sides of the movie that much and people were overreacting because the title of the movie was a swear. Like frankly I went to see the movie and I didn’t even know why the board of India went literally mad and give this movie an “A” mark. I mean they haven’t see Kambakkth Ishq or what, this movie was the pure definition of vulgarism anyway i am only saying that because, that you people don’t judge this masterpiece only because of its title mean i saw random peoples in the theatre to went like this movie is going to be bad look at the title, i was so angry. Anyway i didn’t listen those peoples and i had a great time watching this well made movie the wait was worth it. The songs were really romantic and catchy i was really sad when is listen to Pehli Bhar Mohabat this song was probably the best of the whole movie, you want to get entertained Kaminey is the right movie to watch and don’t forget Priyanka Chopra is winning the next Best Actress awards for her performance according to me
I also agree that why doesn’t a film like kambakht ishq doesn’t get an Adults only certificate ….
I am agree with u pooja ,Kaminey is a fantastic film.
Everybody have done a wonderful job. Priyanka was fabulous in this , definetely she is goin to win Best actress award at all award functions for year 2009.
A local hindi daily at my place carried a review giving it only two out of five and the reasons given by her , the reviewer ,were so stupid that i got really pissed off when i read the review … i agree that though the newspaper is just a local one still a lot many people won’t go to watch it bcoz of that shitty review … I hate such lame reviews and review writers who can cause such a negative effect on the business of a deserving hit …
Please list down the reasons given by her. One should give a reviewer a chance before bashing him/her. But, just one chance.
These were the lame reasons given by her :
* a cliche Judwa bhai Story .
* The first half was slow
* according to her a lot of violence was there
* the movement of camera was so fast that one can’t even recognise faces during the climax (clearly she knows very less abt film-making)…. this was in my view one of the positives that i didn’t mention in the review .
*nothing new in the film apart from picturisation and promos
* its an average film ..
Do i need to say anything else .. on top of it the same paper carried a review of Life Partner which also had a two star rating but the review was done by someone else .
I guess you need intelligence to understand movies like Kaminey. U need to be fast and intelligent to appreciate a movie like this.She must be a bimbo tat’s why she gave only 2 stars.
Its quite evident its not Omkara or Maqbool. Vishal shows his craft in these two more than Kaminey and I dare to say both those movies were made by Vishal for Vishal first, then for audience. On the other hand Kaminey is an experiment, a successful one, a fairytale ending, main protaganist coming unscathed in the end, a brain-wash for Charlie. These outcomes do suggest its a movie for audience, a larger base.
Vishal does it perfectly, cast has done justice, music rocks.
I agree that this had more commercial appeal than his earlier films but i don’t think he would have compromised on certain sections of the film just to get a better audience response … he has himself confessed that this is the most commercial film he has ever made ..in my opinion its commercial but still not commercial
it is pure entertainment …
Absolutely loved the film but saw something very strange. I went for the 10:30pm show on Sunday (16 aug) at PVR PRIYA in delhi but half the theatre was empty…Isn’t it very surprising that inspite of great reviews & good promotion the audi is not filled to its capacity on just the 3rd day of its release..
Mazaa aa gaya hichaayla, Fun Finemaf Andheri Monday morning 10.30 am,kya fexy film banaayi Vishal Bharadwaj fab ke baap ne!
there’s a song in the movie climax “Rasta Hai jo Zindagi ka Phanda Hai Jo Katana Nahi”…it’s an awesome song…why is it not in the movie’s soundtrack…..sad
even i liked the track but i don’t think it was worth putting on the soundtrack .. its good to have certain surprise elements ..
Great Movie. Full paisa vasool…
please watch it in theaters for the excelling sound experience
It’s ok Kaminey is good and great. But why to take credit away from Waisa bhi hota hai Part-2 for being the first?
Totally agree on the Omkara and Kaminey aspect & comparison. Good analysis.
thanks
cheers !!
In total contrast to all the enthusiastic cineastes who have showered their praises on Vishal’s Kaminey i would venture out to say that if i go by the responses that i witnessed in the first two days’ house full shows in a single screen theatre in Delhi the film is a “flop” and “no paisa vasool”. In the first half itself the experimental out of focus un-steady cam and the dark texture put the average cinegoer off. Kaminey’s trailer that we had seen during the screening of Love Aaj Kal had shot up general expectations but the film fell too short. I could see some people leaving the hall in the first half itself. Some headed for the gates as the INTERVAL flashed on the screen. Those who managed to watch the full film were all attention in some scenes of the second half. As we were coming out of the hall i could hear somebody say “its a Kameenee movie, all hype.” The much highlighted song “Dhan-te-Nan” fell far short of expectations, the zing couldn’t be matched with the cinematographic aspect. It could have been filmed much better. Vishal got too much carried away by the experimental aspect at many places i should say. A small town reviewer who has been “bashed” by you all is a representative of an average single screen cinema goer and has her reasons to pan the film. It’s a different matter whether she knows about filmmaking or not but she sure has her finger over the pulse of the people she reviews the film for. Film audience is heterogenous in its composition and the titles GOOD and BAD can have multiple meanings. Though in the times of multiplexes these small town single screen theatres do not matter any more and Vishal can very well earn his profit from the sale of only popcorns yet the fact should not be ignored that a vast “chunk” of inconsequential cinegoers haven’t liked the film. Moreover, it’s not easy to blast a film by Vishal if one were to write a review on PFC with simultaneously having eyes on his her share of pie in the filmdom!
I agree with some of your points but you’ve not said that how much you liked the film ?? and even i also got surprised when i heard from some people who didn’t like the film .. i don’t know what do they want ?? i mean its sheer apathy if people even don’t like such good cinema .. And you are right that GOOD or BAD is all a relative thing…. for some a bhojpuri cinema would always be much better and i am not despising their choice bcoz thats what they want and they have a right to have an opinion and also a right to free choice .. And I’ve expressed what i’ve liked giving its pros and cons .. no one can ever please everybody ,right?
Vishal very much wanted to move from “structure” to “texture” but his overenthusiasm has pulled off an average film. Brilliant cinematography at places but jarring note is set by the same overdone brilliance at many places.Texture is structure and vice versa: you realize this when you come to learn as to how to restrain yourself from giving in to the temptation of indulging yourself more.For me the story didn’t have the depth i expected and here i side with that small-town reviewer who trashed it without much ado. Vishal certainly lost touch with that legendary and mythical Indian talent of story-and-telling in this film. But i am sure gems greater than Omkara are up his sleeves…its just a matter of time…
Great movie Vishal. Whole Kaminey unit has done a fabulous job.
Comparing Kaminey with Omkara is not a good idea. both of these are 2 entirely different movies set on completely different plots and era.
But one thing i found funny was never saw a Maharashtrian gal aka wid name Sweety. Maybe thats my perception
The song “Rasta Hai Jo Zindagi Ka Phanda Hai Jo Katana Nahi” is not part of the soundtrack list, probably since it was added to the last fight sequence by Vishal a week before the release. Replacing the original background track, as this new song gave meaning to the end, as per Vishal. (as stated by couple of movie websites).
But does anyone know from where we can get that, as its not part of the OST album. It was nice.