Kaminey Movie review

NDTV Reviews

Movie Review: Kaminey; Star Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Amole Gupte, Shiv Subramaniam, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Tenzing Nima, Hrishikesh Joshi and Deb Mukherjee; Director: Vishal Bharadwaj; Rating: **** - Is a modern day masterpiece.

Since its promos were out with Delhi-6, Vishal Bharadwaj’s Kaminey immediately caught the attention of the cine goers with its highly infectious Dhan Te Nan number and the crazy character introductions. The curiosity and hype began building up rapidly and the wait seemed unending. So till the time I stepped in the trial show of Kaminey my expectations were sky high. Thankfully, Vishal has delivered what he has promised.

The film narrates the tale of twins Charlie (Shahid) and Guddu (Shahid again) who are poles apart in behaviour and lifestyle. While Guddu the good boy works for a NGO and aims to rise the corporate ladder, Charlie believes in taking shortcuts and ‘chota shortcuts’ to achieve his get rich quick dream. Though they haven’t met each other in years, their lives get entangled as both get ended up in major screw up in their personal lives. What happens then on and how many misunderstanding lead to further chaos forms the rest of the plot.

Hereon, revealing anything more about Kaminey would be spoiling a major part of your fun. There are plenty of sequences which will remain forever etched in your cinematic memory right from Guddu and Charlie’s face off to almost every scene featuring Bhope Bhau (Gupte) and Tashi (Tenzing) to the Dhan Te Nan song and the crazy finale. However, the climax appears to long with the endless shooting going on and on between the multiple gangs. And the songs don’t really appear well placed. But these are minor flaws.

Shahid Kapoor delivers a knock out performance in a double role. Most importantly he succeeds in making us believe his two characters are completely different persons. With his dual act he has emerged as the strongest contender of the Best Actor trophy for 2009. Priyanka Chopra outshines all her previous best performances. Her Marathi dialogue delivery is excellent as she has also managed to catch the small nuances perfectly. Playing Charlie’s idol, Mikhail, Chandan Roy Sanyal’s doped out act is instantly likeable. Marathi stage and cinema actor Hrishikesh Joshi as corrupt cop Lele is good and so is Shiv Subramaniam playing his associate. Back after a long hiatus veteran actor Deb Mukherjee is menacing. Tenzing Nima as Nepali don, Tashi is a hoot. Amongst the crowd of the huge ensemble cast, Amole Gupte manages to create a huge impression with his chilled out Bhau act. His one-liners will have you rolling on the floor laughing.
Kaminey is also an excellent team effort with superb camerawork by Tassaduq Hussein, razor sharp editing by Meghna Manchanda Sen and gritty action by Shyam Kaushal. Vishal Bharadwaj has managed to strike a sixer donning multiple hats as a director, producer, singer, music director, screenplay and dialogue writer. His treatment of Kaminey may be on the lines of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Richie’s caper movies but the stamp of a Vishal Bharadwaj movie seen all over in Omkara is yet again on full display here.

Kaminey is a must watch at any cost. It redefines the rules of Hindi filmmaking and most importantly delivers what it promises. Chances are it may well turn out to be your favourite caper movie ever and wanna watch it again and again.