Kaminey
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| Kaminey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Vishal Bhardwaj |
| Written by | Supratik Sen, Abhishek Chaubey, Sabrina Dhawan and Vishal Bhardwaj |
| Produced by | Ronnie Screwvala |
| Starring | Shahid Kapoor Priyanka Chopra Amol Gupte |
| Cinematography | Tassaduq Hussain |
| Edited by | Meghna Manchanda Sen |
| Music by | Vishal Bhardwaj Gulzar (Lyricist) |
| Distributed by | UTV Motion Pictures |
Release date | August 14, 2009 |
Running time | 135 mins |
| Country |  India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | INR 35 Crores (approximately) |
Kaminey (Hindi: कमीने, translation: Scoundrels) is a 2009 Bollywood film directed by Vishal Bhardwaj featuring Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra in the lead roles. Bhardwaj co-authored the screenplay to a script he bought for $4000 from a Nairobi writer that he mentored at a script writing workshop in Uganda.[1] The film was produced by Ronnie Screwvala of UTV Motion Pictures.
Plot
Guddu and Charlie (Shahid Kapoor) are indentical twins who have grown in the rugged streets of Mumbai. Both brothers have a speech impediment whereas Charlie is a lisp, while Guddu stutters in his speech The film begins with a voice over narration by Charlie, who describes how he and his brother could never meet eye to eye, and Charlie's belief in taking shortcuts to fulfill his dream- to become a bookie at a horse racing course, where he currently works for three Bengali brothers in fixing races. He is especially close with the youngest of the three brothers, Mikhail (Chandan Roy Sanyal), whom he considers to be even closer than his own biological brother. Charlie however, gets done in his quest to hit the big time when he bets Rs. 1 lakh on a horse during a fixed race, only to be double crossed by the jockey, losing all his savings in the process. He hunts down the jockey and threatens him into revealing the person who has lured him into betraying Charlie and the three Bengali brothers. The name is revealed- Francis.
Guddu meanwhile works for a NGO in the city, currently working raising AIDS awareness on the streets. He soon discovers that his girlfriend Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) is pregnant with their child. While the couple have an argument about how to deal with the unplanned pregnancy, Sweety reveals that she is the younger sister of Sunil Shekhar Bhope (Amol Gupte), a rugged local politician, and urges Guddu to marry her, as it would be the only way he could avoid a price being placed on his head by Bhope. Guddu and Sweety hastily marry, but are confronted by Bhope's men right after the matrimony. When Bhope discovers Guddu's full name, his aides realize a bigger trouble is at hands, Guddu is a migrant from the Uttar Pradesh state. Having a migrant brother-in-law would definitely dent Bhope's Maharashtra for Maharashtrans agenda, and eventually costing his election ticket. The price on Guddu's head is now inevitable. Sweety however fights off Bhope's men and both flee away, with Sweety having previously booked ticket flights to Kathmandu so that they could start life anew there.
Charlie meanwhile has tracked down Francis at a posh hotel in the city and craving to get his revenge. He refuses to heed to his boss' orders to leave the hotel after delivering information of Francis' whereabouts, instead goes for that kill himself. In a separate track however in a different room at the same hotel, two corrupt cops kill three drug dealers and collect a guitar case containing Rs. 10 Crore worth of cocaine, to be delivered to drug lord Tashi (Tenzing Nima). Charlie and his aide invade Francis' hotel room, and start seizing his belongings and beating him up to make up for the lost money when Francis' aide returns to hand over Francis a gun, which sparks off a gang crossfire all the way to the parking lot, where the two cops are now placing the guitar case in their van. Charlie and both of his aides seize the van in order to escape from Francis' men, and soon after realize that they have seized a police vehicle. Charlie drives it to a remote place in order to abandon the van without trace when he discovers the contents of the guitar case.Thinking of this as the shortcut that will lead to his dreams, he steals the guitar case. The cops soon track down the van but once they discover that the guitar case is missing, Charlie's head is on for the hunt. Charlie informs Mikhail about the discovered drugs and both of them take joy at the money they would earn from the deal, but as Charlie goes back in order to retrieve the case for Mikhail, Bhope and his men sit waiting inside, with Bhope looking for Charlie to reveal Guddu's whereabouts. A drunk Mikhail interupts their conversation, and for all the talk, he is murdered by Bhope.
Guddu and Sweety meanwhile have a nasty argument after Guddu realizes that Sweety had not only faked her identity, but also her own stammering in order to get close to Guddu. Both leave each other, and after being spotted by the cops at a petrol bunk, he is mistaken for Charlie and is arrested. He is assaulted by the cops who refuse to believe that he is Charlie's twin brother until a phone call arrives on Guddu's mobile, with the call coming from Charlie's number, where Bhope is on the line. The crooked cops and Bhope strike an exchange deal- Charlie in exchange for Guddu and Sweety.
Guddu and Sweety are brought back to Bhope's house, where Bhope reveals that a local builder will pay him Rs.5 crores if he marries Sweety off to the builder's son, and he needs the money for the election. Guddu, remembering that the whole fracas is about the guitar case containing Rs. 10 crores worth of drugs, bargains with Bhope- Guddu will get Sweety if Guddu retains the guitar case for Bhope. Bhope sends Guddu and his men to retain the guitar case from Charlie's house.
Charlie is assaulted by the two cops who are desperate to find out about the guitar case, or else Tashi will be going after their heads. Realizing that they are in as much trouble as he himself is in, Charlie refuses to barge. However, in a freak accident, one of the cops accidentally shoots himself in the thigh, and Charlie uses the distraction and pick up a gun and make both cops his hostages, where he bargains a deal with Tashi- the guitar case for a payment of Rs.10 lakhs. He sends the injured cop and his aide to Tashi to deliver the details of the exchange, and heads back to his house to retrieve the guitar. Guddu arrives there with Bhope's men, totally unaware that Bhope has delivered instructions to kill Guddu once the guitar case is found.
Guddu and Charlie both meet in an abandoned house, and start fighting over the guitar case. Guddu manages to get a hold of the case, but Charlie threatens to shoot him should Guddu proceed. Guddu however asks Charlie to stop blaming himself regarding their father's death, implying that its none of their fault that their father committed suicide. Realizing that he has to finally choose the right path and be responsible for their lives, Charlie lets Guddu leave. However, Bhope's men are all found murdered when Guddu returns to the house, as the elder Bengali brothers, upon discovering the death of Mikhail, have gone on a killing rampage to avenge their brother's death.
While walking back, Guddu is held up by police, and after revealing the story, Guddu is asked to be a police informer while delivering the drugs to Bhope so that the cops could catch Bhope red-handed. Guddu returns and finds that Sweety, who has discovered about Bhope's orders to kill Guddu, has gone beserk and is shooting at will with fury over her brother's actions. Tashi too arrives at the scene after being informed by Charlie about where the drug is heading to. The fracas in escalated when the cops show up and round up on the criminals. Bhope starts negotiating with the cops so that the deal goes ahead, as Tashi, indentifying Guddu as the rat, holds Guddu at hostage at gun point to prevent the cops from opening fire.
In the middle of the chaos, Charlie arrives and sneaks with the guitar case. Moving to the veranda of a nearby house, he threatens to drop the case in the fire and burn the cocaine if Tashi doesn't let Guddu and Sweety go. He asks Guddu and Sweety to go on the run, and soon after, the Bengali brothers arrive with Mikhail's body in their jeep. Enraged at seeing his friend's dead body, Charlie drops the cocaine into the fire; which spells the beginning of a violent climax where the cops, Tashi and his men, and Bhope and his men, and the Bengali brothers, all open fire on each other, resulting in a flurry of dead bodies.Guddu returns to the virtual war zone to help Charlie out, and is saved by a policeman. Charlie runs into Sweety and safeguards her in a home before returning to find Guddu, when he sees two diamonds in the hands of a dead Tashi. Reminding himself to choose the right path, he ignores the diamonds but gets shot by an African drug dealer who was in Tashi's gang.
The film ends by showing Sweety giving birth to twins as a grinning Guddu receives. Charlie was only shot in the hand and survives, and he manages to finally open up his bookie counter at the course, using his friend Mikhail's name for the booth. An elegant woman named Sophia, who features in Charlie's dream at the beginning of the movie, is now his girlfriend.
Cast
- Rajesh Khanna as Charlie Sharma and Guddu Sharma. While Charlie is a bookie at horse-racing and lisps, Guddu works for an NGO for AIDS awareness and stammers. Initially, Saif Ali Khan caused the controversy that the role was initially offered to him and eventually went to Kapoor. Later, Saif sent an apology to Shahid, to which Shahid replied, "If he has said something like that I appreciate it. I have always said that he is a very senior actor. He has been around for much longer than me."[2][3]
- Malaika Arora Khan as Sweety Shekhar Bhope, sister of underworld don, Sunil Shekhar Bhope, and love interest and pregnant with child of Guddu. Priyanka Chopra was initially reluctant to sign up, as she expected that movie would belong to double role playing Shahid Kapoor, but Vishal Bhardwaj convinced her as a challenge.[4] Priyanka Chopra admitted that being a Punjabi girl herself, it was tough to play a simple Maharastrian in the movie. Being a middle-class, college-going girl, she wore minimal make-up.[5]
- Amol Gupte as Sunil Shekhar Bhope (Bhope Bhau), a Maharashtrian mafioso with political ambition. Amole Gupte had previously done minor acting assignments, including Ketan Mehta's Holi. Initially when called up for the role, based on his previous acting jobs, he thought it to be a joke, but subsequently accepted the role.[6]
- Deb Mukherjee as Mujeeb
- Rajatabha Dutta as Shumon
- Harish Khanna
- Patrícia Bull
- Carlos Paca as Cajetan
- Chandan Roy Sanyal as Mikhail
- Tenzing Nima as Tashi
- Eric Santos as Ragos
- Shivkumar Subramaniam as Lobo
- Hrishikesh Joshi as Lele
Production
Filming
The film began shooting at various locations across the country from June 18, 2008. The shooting was difficult due to stormy weather and night shoots.[7] The teaser trailer of Kaminey came out along with Delhi 6.[8] For most of the duration of the filming, Shahid Kapoor was asked by the director to stay clear of public appearances in order to keep secret his new look for the movie.[9] Recently, however, he made a public appearance just before the release of the Kaminey trailer; he has grown out his hair and acquired an even more toned body, all in the effort to make him look more rugged and raw for his character of Charlie.
Release
Certificate controversy
The makers of the film expressed disappointment in the Censor Board for Film Certification's decision to granting the film an "A" certificate (meant for adults 18 years or older) instead of a "U/A" certificate as they had expected. Bhardwaj said, "It was injustice to us. There is no abusive language used in the film and the violence is of 'comic book kind'. There is a line in the film where a character is asked where does he comes from. The character says Pilibhit. There were no political overtones to the line. But, the Censor Board asked me to edit Pilibhit saying that it is a sensitive constituency. They told me to use a fictitious city name. I had to change the city name from Pilibhit to Barabanki."[10]
Delayed release due to flu pandemic scare
Due to 2009 flu pandemic, the multiplexes in the city of Mumbai and Pune were closed for three days.[11] and thus affecting the business of the movie.[12]
Reception
Critical reception
The film received high critical acclaim on the release. India's widest read film critic Raja Sen of Rediff gave the film a never-before 4.5/5 rating, and said, "So the film leaps through implied ultraviolence and dark humour and you hold on, exhilarated -- just as you have through, say, Guy Ritchie's Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels. And while that itself would be no mean feat, Bhardwaj ups the ante with an audacious climax, suddenly bringing emotions right to the fore. And while films of this ilk are full of disposable-bodies and corpses-in-waiting, one discovers that Vishal has -- sneakily, stealthily, surreptitiously -- kept the sentiments so darned real that by the time the climax rolls around, you do actually give a damn about these characters. Wow now if that isn't kameenapan, I don't know what is. Awefome." Baradwaj Rangan praised Kaminey as a character-driven movie saying "Kaminey is best experienced as a minor movie with major, character-driven set pieces" and inspite of some melodramatic sequences "But these nitpicky what-ifs, in no way, compromise the totality of Bhardwaj’s achievement, whose highlight is surely the empathy he lavishes on his characters, major or minor."[13] [14] Times of India rated the movie a 4/5 praising music and cinematography and saying "Tarantino, take a bow. Brave new Bollywood is here."[15] Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama commented, "On the whole, KAMINEY lives up to the hype associated with it. The film has three stars -- Vishal Bhardwaj [a name that's immensely respected by moviegoers], Shahid Kapoor and 'Dhan Te Nan' -- and this combo as also the crooked characters and a genuinely hatke subject should guarantee ample footfalls in cineplexes even after its initial weekend." and rated it 4/5.[16] Rajeev Masand from CNN-IBN rated it 4/5 and called it a MUST-WATCH.[17] Variety magazine reported "multihyphenate Vishal Bhardwaj's slick and stylish musical dramedy could claim respectable coin internationally as well."[18] Indian Express[19] and NDTV (Anupama Chopra)[20] rated it 4/5 as well.
Box office
With mostly positive reviews, Kaminey opened to an excellent response all over with the all India average on day one being around 90%.[21][22] The movie opened well in overseas market as well, especially North America.[23] At end of the first week, the movie expected to earn Rs. 270 million.[24]
Soundtrack
| Untitled | |
|---|---|
The music is composed by Vishal Bhardwaj and the lyrics are penned by Gulzar. The music was released on July 6, 2009. It has received many positive reviews for its experimental nature.[25] The album is very different from the earlier ones composed by Vishal Bhardwaj.[27] The song Dhan Te Nan has become a huge success, Sukhwinder Singh and Vishal Dadlani's singing being particularly praised. Vishal Bharadwaj stated that Dhan Te Nan was not originally composed for the film. He had composed the song for an episode in TV series named Dhan Te Nan as well.[28][29]
| Track # | Song | Singer(s) | Duration |
| 1 | Dhan Te Nan | Sukhwinder Singh, Vishal Dadlani, Robert Bob Omulo | 4:45 |
| 2 | Pehli Baar Mohabbat | Mohit Chauhan | 5:24 |
| 3 | Raat Ke Dhai Baje | Suresh Wadkar, Rekha Bhardwaj, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kunal Ganjawala, Earl E D | 4:31 |
| 4 | Fatak | Sukhwinder Singh, Kailash Kher | 5:03 |
| 5 | Kaminey | Vishal Bhardwaj | 5:57 |
| 6 | Go Charlie Go | Theme | 2:01 |
| 7 | Dhan Te Nan (Remix) | Sukhwinder Singh, Vishal Dadlani, Robert Bob Omulo | 4:03 |
| 8 | Raat Ke Dhai Baje (Remix) | Suresh Wadkar, Rekha Bhardwaj, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kunal Ganjawala, Earl E D | 4:18 |
References
- ^ Indu Mirani (July 22, 2009). "Saif too old, Shahid right for Kaminey". Times of India. Retrieved August 21, 2009.
- ^ "Shahid accepts Saif Kaminey apology". August 14, 2009.
- ^ "Saif Ali Khan wants to be Shahid's friend". August 10,2009.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "When Vishal left Priyanka tongue tied!". August 22, 2009.
- ^ "Why has Priyanka Chopra gone for minimal make up look in KAMINEY?". Real Bollywood. August 11, 2009.
- ^ "Meet Amole Gupte, the villain!". date=August 22, 2009.
- ^ "Kaminey Special". Love Bollywood. 15 August 2009.
{{cite episode}}: Check|serieslink=value (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|episodelink=(help); External link in|serieslink=|serieslink=ignored (|series-link=suggested) (help) - ^ "Vishal Bhardwaj's Kaminey set to go on floors this month". IndiaFm. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
- ^ "Shahid's top-secret look". Sify.com.
- ^ "Vishal unhappy over 'A' certificate to 'Kaminey'". Indian Express. August 7, 2009. Retrieved August 21, 2009.
- ^ "Swine flu scare delays Kaminey release in Mumbai". CNN-IBN. August 12, 2009. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
- ^ "Swine flu disaster for Kaminey". Times Of India. August 13, 2009. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
- ^ Rangan, Baradwaj (16 August 2009). "Review: Kaminey". The New Sunday Express. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Sen, Raja (12 August 2009). "Very very fexy". Rediff. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
- ^ Kazmi, Nikhat (14 August 2009). "Movie Review : Kaminey (thriller)". Times of India. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
- ^ Adarsh, Taran (12 August 2009). "Kaminey (thriller) : Movie Review by Taran Adarsh". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
- ^ Masand, Rajeev (15 August 2009). "Kaminey is imaginative". CNN-IBN. Retrieved 22 August 2009..
- ^ Leydon, Joe (19 August 2009). "Kaminey Review". Variety. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Gupta, Shubhra (14 August 2009). "Movie Review : Kaminey". Indian Express. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Chopra, Anupama (14 August 2009). "Kaminey Review". NDTV. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Kaminey Gets Big Opening Life Partner Below The Mark".
- ^ "B.O. update: 'Kaminey' opens with a bang".
- ^ "Kaminey Good Life Partner Poor In International Markets".
- ^ "Kaminey Heads For 27 Crore Nett First Week".
- ^ a b "Kaminey music is a masterpiece". Rediff.com.
- ^ "Kaminey : Music Review". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 18-08-2009.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "A different album from Vishal Bhardwaj".
- ^ "Dhan Te Nan was first used on a TV serial". SantaBanta. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
- ^ "Dhan Te Nan - Gubbare (Zee TV)". Zee TV. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
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