Kaminey Review

[Jude Petkus]

KamineyEnglish: Scoundrels) is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language action film[4][5] written and directed by Vishal Bhardwaj and produced by Ronnie Screwvala under UTV Motion Pictures, featuring Shahid Kapoor in a dual role, alongside Priyanka Chopra and Amole Gupte in the lead roles. Set against the backdrop of the Mumbai underworld, Kaminey follows a rivalry between a pair of twins, one with a lisp and the other with a stutter, over the course of a single day.

At the same hotel, policemen Lobo and Lele kill three drug dealers and collect a guitar case containing cocaine, which they must deliver to drug lord Tashi. Charlie and his men invade the jockey's hotel room and take all his possessions. The ensuing chase leads to the hotel car park where Lobo and Lele are placing the guitar case in their van. Charlie and his men seize the van to escape from the jockey's men and realise they have stolen a police vehicle, whilst also discovering the cocaine, which Charlie steals to sell. The policemen, upon returning, discover that the cocaine is missing and set out to find Charlie.

Meanwhile, Guddu's lover Sweety, sister of the politician Sunil Shekhar Bhope, reveals that she is pregnant with Guddu's child and expresses her wish to marry Guddu. They marry later that night. Bhope hears about his sister's actions and sends his men to apprehend the lovers. Bhope's men gatecrash Guddu's wedding and beat him, only to realise that he is a migrant from Uttar Pradesh. This enrages Bhope, who orders his men to kill Guddu and return Sweety to his house so he can arrange a marriage for her. Sweety fights off her brother's henchmen and escapes with Guddu.

Charlie tells Mikhail about the cocaine, who is delighted. When Charlie returns to retrieve the case, Bhope and his men are waiting inside the van. One of Bhope's men recognises Guddu as Charlie's twin and Bhope demands that Charlie reveal Guddu's whereabouts. An inebriated Mikhail interrupts their conversation and is killed by Bhope.

During a scriptwriting workshop held by Mira Nair in 2005,[8] Cajetan Boy, a Kenyan writer from Nairobi, showed Vishal Bhardwaj a script about twin brothers from the city's slums and the events that occur in their lives during a 24-hour period.[8][9] Bhardwaj liked Boy's approach to the script; Nair and Bhardwaj discussed it and thought it was a typical Bollywood masala film.[8] Boy sent Bhardwaj another draft of his script. Three years later, Bhardwaj asked Boy to sell him the idea, and he later bought the script for US$4,000.[8] Bhardwaj revisited the idea and added some Bollywood elements and a dark, serious side to the script.[8] He worked on the original idea with writers Sabrina Dhawan, Abhishek Chaubey and Supratik Sen.[9][10] He included Dhawan in writing the screenplay as he thought she would give it a "solid structure".[10] Bhardwaj said that during the writing of the screenplay, most of the original ideas were changed and the climax was "Indianized".[10] His re-worked version now included one brother with a stammer and the other with a lisp.[8] Bhardwaj said that despite the complicated structure, Kaminey is "anything but arty" and could not alienate audiences in any part of India, and that it is a simple story but with a complicated structure.[10] Dhawan said that the film's script was complex and has multiple stories which required excessive writing and rewriting to make each character sound distinct.[9]

The media showed concern over the film's title, deeming it "odd", and some people were shocked because of the title, which can be translated into English as "mean".[11][12] However, the makers said that is not a negative term and is actually a term of endearment.[11] According to Bhardwaj, the idea for the title came from a scene from Gulzar's Ijaazat (1987), in which the lead actor (Naseeruddin Shah) refers to the actress in a loving manner; it was the first time that he heard the word used that way.[12] Bhardwaj told Rediff, "when the script of this film was written, it was like discovering your own mean side. The format of the film is of a caper and all the characters in this film, excluding one, has an agenda. So I thought it was an apt title for the film".[12]

Shahid Kapoor was cast in the film's lead role. Several media outlets reported that Bhardwaj considered many actors before casting Kapoor in the role, which he refused.[8] Bhardwaj refuted the claims, saying, "There is a huge difference between discussing and narrating and offering someone a film and I would like to clear up the rumour by saying that Kaminey was never offered to anyone else and so no one rejected it."[8] Kapoor said that he accepted the role after reading the script. Priyanka Chopra was cast to play Sweety, the lead female role. She initially turned down the role, saying she felt it was a boys' film and her eight-scene part did not seem good enough. However, Bhardwaj persuaded her to accept the role.[13]

Bhardwaj instructed the film's entire cast and crew to watch caper classics such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Snatch (2000), Pulp Fiction (1994) and True Romance (1993) to study the nuances and become familiar with the genre.[17] Shahid Kapoor played both Charlie and Guddu, twin brothers with speech impediments; Charlie has a lisp and Guddu stammers. The producers did not want them to look like caricatures, so Kapoor prepared for both roles by meeting and interacting with speech therapists and people with these impediments. According to Kapoor, the producers wanted to find out about the medical reasons for the impediments and their mental effects. They met specialists and thoroughly researched stammering and lisping. Kapoor said that each role had its own challenges. Charlie's physique was very different from Kapoor's and it took him nearly a year to change the look of his body. He found changing from one character to the other difficult.[18]

Chopra described her character Sweety as "feisty and vivacious".[19] She said, "Sweety is very busy, and does not have time to take care of her looks and apply make up. Her only aim in life is to bunk her lectures and visit her boyfriend's college or stay in his hotel, and eventually marry him." Chopra described both her character and herself as being "outspoken and fun-loving" as well as honest and unable to "hide something that is wrong". She said she had a different cultural background to Sweety, and found it challenging to convincingly portray a Maharashtrian Marathi girl.[20] She had to adopt body language and a Maharashtrian accent to suit the character. She learnt the Marathi Language to make the character as authentic as possible, which she found difficult. Chopra said: "I am speaking a lot of Marathi in the film. It was difficult for me because it's a difficult language and I am not good at Marathi. But I think it's my luck that through Kaminey I got to learn one more language."[21]

Principal photography commenced in mid-2008, and the film was mostly shot in Mumbai.[23] During a late night shoot for a scene in Pune, Chopra received minor injuries. Chopra was supposed to ride a motorcycle with Kapoor seated on the pillion seat. Both fell off the motorcycle as it skidded on mud. Kapoor was unhurt but Chopra received scratch marks and bruises.[24] It was reported that Kapoor suffered from several injuries while shooting.[25] During filming, Chopra became hoarse because she had to scream her lines; an essential part of her role as an "extremely vocal Maharashtrian girl."[26] Some important railway sequences were shot at Wadi Bunder Yard near Sandhurst Road.[27] Kapoor found filming for both of his characters at nearly the same time very difficult; he would shoot them on alternate days.[28]

Vishal Bhardwaj composed the music soundtrack for Kaminey and Gulzar wrote the lyrics. The album contains five original songs, two remixes and one theme song; it was released on 6 July 2009. The song "Dhan Te Nan" is a rehashed version of a song originally composed by Vishal Bhardwaj for an episode of the Zee TV series Gubbare.[37] The soundtrack album was commercially successful after its release, especially "Dhan Te Nan", which topped the charts across various platforms.[38][39]

The teaser poster of Kaminey was received positively by critics.[40] The trailer, which introduces four characters; one lisping, one stuttering, a woman yelling about having raped a man and one jeering at the lisper, received positive reviews.[41] Critics kept their expectations high due to Bhardwaj's previous films, and said the trailer was like a comic book which introduces the characters of Kapoor and Chopra differently.[41] The theatrical trailers and the music generated interest for the film.[28] The film's marketing also involved public appearances by Chopra and Kapoor.[42]

Film director Shekhar Kapur praised the film, saying, "Kaminey catapults Indian Cinema in modernity beyond Tarantino".[71] He said that Kaminey would be able to compete with any film in the world in terms of its design, performances, inherent narratives, editing and pace.[31] Filmmaker Karan Johar labelled it a cult film, describing it as "edgy ... cult and geniusely performed and executed! Go get a shot of new age cinema and cinematic bravery!"[72] The film became the most widely debated and dissected Bollywood film after Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's 2006 film Rang De Basanti.[13] Rajeev Masand, and Rediff.com rated it as the best film of the year.[73][74] Raja Sen said the performances were among the best performances of 2009. Gupte, Roy Sanyal and Kapoor were placed at numbers six, three and one respectively as the best performances of 2009 by a Hindi actor by Rediff.[75]

Rediff.com placed Chopra at number one as the best performance of 2009 by a Hindi actress.[76] Chopra said, "[y]ou don't get to work in a fantastic movie like Kaminey and play someone like Sweety every day".[46] Hindi Film News said Kaminey was the best Bollywood film of the decade.[77] It ranked Shahid Kapoor's performance at number four for the finest performance by a Bollywood actor for the decade, and in a public poll the song "Dhan Te Nan" was voted the thirteenth-best Bollywood song of the decade.[78][79] Rediff.com also included the film on its list of "Top 25 Hindi Action Films of all Time".[80] Since its release, the film has gained a cult following and is regarded as a cult film of the 2000s decade of Bollywood.[81]

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