This one tips you over the edge

Kaminey 
Cast:  Shahid Kapur, Priyanka Chopra, Amol Gupte, Chandan Roy Sanyal 
Director: Vishal Bhardwaj 
Rating: ****

As one of the finest filmmakers in India today, Vishal Bhardwaj doesn’t disappoint with Kaminey. In fact, for the first time since Makdee, he moves away from locating his films in middle/small town India, firmly setting this gritty, dark, edgy film in the seamy streets of Mumbai.

Guddu and Charlie (Shahid Kapur) are twins, separated by mutual consent. Guddu represents the good guy, Charlie, the bad egg. They are distinguished by Guddu’s stammer and Charlie’s lisp (an under-utilised device which ends up simply being a humour tool). Charlie believes in taking ‘fortcuts’ to success, Guddu is a social worker with a gently charted out life plan which is derailed when he learns of girlfriend Sweety’s (Priyanka Chopra) true identity. Fuelled by a collection of dark characters like politician and local goon Bhope Bhau (Amol Gupte), drug lord Tashi (Tenzing Nima) and Charlie’s hedonistic Bengali buddy and gambler Mikhail (Chandan Roy Sanyal), the brothers are dramatically reunited and forced to acknowledge the truth about their lives.
In a time when actors, producers, viewers rue exciting, smart scripts, Kaminey excels in the writing. The language, idiom and characters are inspired by the filmmaking style of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie. The language naturally shifts between Hindi, English, Marathi, Bengali and even a little Portuguese without making concessions for the audience, in the hope that the mood, manner and action will convey the message. The dialogues are replete with metaphors and wordplay, like ghoda, which refers to a racehorse in one context and is gangster slang for a gun in another.

Just when you think the film is verging on a political message, it tips you over the edge and takes you down another hairpin bend. Look out for the Bhope-Tope scene in Charlie’s house (electric) and the sequence leading up to the moment before the brothers meet at last.

However several scenes are eked out beyond necessity, especially in the first half which takes its time establishing numerous characters and plots which gets rather confusing. The camera movements are jerky and often a little too tight on the frame. At other times, Tassaduq Hussain’s cinematography is exemplary, especially when capturing rain-soaked Mumbai and in the chase sequences. Bhardwaj’s music and score enhance the ambience culminating in an imaginative Mexican movie-Roberto Rodriguez type climax with an unexpected emotional tug and moment of redemption.

Shahid Kapur shakes off his Shah Rukh Khan hangover and comes into his own. Chopra does a fine job as Sweety. It is hugely refreshing to see her as a local girl and not a fashion mannequin.