’And then she asks me...do I look all right
...and I say...darling...you look wonderful tonight’
As the song comes to an end, a tear runs down the little girl’s cheek. She wipes it off her face, taking along with it, half the garish makeup that she has been applying with a robotic expression as she dresses herself in furs / jewellery etc. A one line message on child abuse follows and the advert ends.
This ad was featured on Tarrant on TV (I happen to be in London for some time) recently and stayed with me. Seeing Chameli’s garish get up brought me back to it. If indeed the intention was to create this impact, it sure works - at least with me. Else the make up is just that ... garish. I’m not sure if streetwalkers are always that garish. That, along with the somewhat artificial sets (I’ve seen more realistic ones on stage) that stay the same in any depiction of a red light area (PLAN and SADAK, both of which I saw recently, in theatre and video respectively, rush to mind) are the only drawbacks of Chameli according to me.
Else, the script seems to be the clear winner, tight and exploring so many aspects of the Mumbai within the Mumbai (within the Mumbai and so on) that passes so many
of us who inhabit any one (or perhaps two) of the cities within the city.
Rahul Bose seemed to be his usual unpretentious charming self...and while I tried to think if anyone else could do the role (With SRK’s powerhouse in Saathiya etc,
one is allowed the liberty of trying such options...albeit in a reverie) I realised Chameli needed to dominate...and powerhouses would upset the balance. Needless
to add, the fact that it is difficult to slot Rahul as either a commercial or a parallel cinema star blended perfectly with the way the movie seems to be positioned...bang
in the middle. ( Btw, I dont know why people call it independent cinema. Independent cinema refers to movies made by individual filmmakers, as opposed to studio productions, and can also be commercial. Ironically, PNC being a public limited company, our moive is probably not ’independent’ cinema anyways)
Kareena Kapor is visibly restrained, down to earth, and kind of lends her ’sophistication’ if I may call it, to add to the conflict in the character - between being a 100% streetwalker and someone who doesn’t fit in. Except in some scenes where her swagger is a trifle over affected, or when she does not come across as believable, but trained, when she says ’Saaaaaaaaaaala’ methinks she has done a good job and grown a lot as an actress.
The Rediff review did say ’Kareena walks the walk’ but I think she ’talks the talk’ better than she ’walks the walk’. Some of the super dialogues like ’Roj ek murga
pakdo aur khud halaal ho jaoo’ or ’Kya..wohi..roj ghar ka khana’ or ’achaa nahin laga...kata laga gaaun’ have been done full justice to. Lot of opportunities to
use only expressions in long drawn scenes like the thana (my favourite scene, long though it is) where most of the conversation is between the males, leaving
Chameli to work with expressions (see if you can catch the semi admiration, semi awe when Aman Kapoor is finally asked for chai by the cop in charge)
And can’t say too much about the screenplaywithout slipping into praise. All in all, good fun, glad its a short movie so it stays tight...stars...and ends well.
By the way, my spiel on Taran Adarsh’s review
===============================
I think Taran’s review (Taran Adarsh, https://indiafm.com/reviews/04/chameli/), rather than the movie itself, is below average.
To focus on the aspects Taran has tried to shoot down in the review, and his comments on which convince me he was probably speaking to some publisher for an
interview on the cell phone rather than concentrate on the movie, because he has obvioiusly missed the subtelities that would have answered his questions:
K. P. Singh
- has been FORCED to come to the police station because a situation has definitely arisen, and he cannot take such exceptions lightly. Survival has taught him murder,
rape , arson, kidnappings are not crisis - a fellow inspector, who seems very tense, asking him in the middle of the night to help out however smells of crisis. Though
K.P.Singh would rather be with the wife and kid he knows he is just a cop (Police ki Naukri hai bhai...) and does not have the luxuries available to a higher rankin
collector types (...Patwari..) - I READ ALL OF THIS JUST FROM KP’S CONVERSATION WITH HIS WIFE ON THE PHONE, even as Taran was probably asking about
the dress code for some launch party
- is now obliged to help Firoz who is obvioiusly a close friend. Firoz is obviously not just a good friend of KP’s but has also just explained to him on the cell
(remember..the pehle kehta hai usman se bachao, abh kehta hai usman ko bachao conversation?) that this Aman (Bose) bloke may look like a frightened, educated types
but he sure has got strings. If he has saved Firzo’s you-know-what from being whipped, he can probabl fry it too - along with KP’s
- is obviously balancing various power equations everyday in his life to stay aflotat, if not on top. He is obviously in the middle of a complex world (yes that Mumbai
within the Mumbai I bore you to death with) and he now sees an opportunity to convert what is just another bad night into a small move on his chess board
(note how he starts addressign Naik as ’sahab’ but ends with ’tu’, ’tera’.
IS HE INTERESTED IN CHAMELI/USMAN(PIMP)/AMAN(BOSE) whom Taran claims he is pointlessly mediating for? NO WAY - he just wants to get this sorted,
to the best of his intereset in mind as well, and go home to the wife!!!!
Chameli
Dude, wanting to save Usman is a knee-jerk reaction!
she has not really been plannin and plotting for ages. This situation has sprung upon her!!!!
and what a situation!!!! Someone’s death??? That’s not easy to digest especially when you know the person well and are going to be the root cause of his death
as well
- Third, this is the only man she has ever known who can get her bread?
Why then, Taran will ask me if he ever reads this, the turn of heart???
Answer, as she gets the time to think , s he probably snaps out of the reaction
OK OK she sayds, hes saved her once, but shes been repaying all her life now!!!!
Forget the moral discussion, for Christs sake, she probably thinks.If Usman doesn’t go she is going to die a miserable death due to an AIDS infected creep!!!
THAT DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND? Taran doesn’t need to ask the writer(s) for answers. He just needs to switch off his cell while watching the movie!!!
Its a lovely, very tautly written script, albeit highly relevant to Mumbaikar, more so those who refer to a police station as ’lock up’ - Taran obviously hasn’t been with
such people.