Since the film has already released after all the hooplah and everything - I guess it deserves another review from me.
To begin with am I glad that I haven’t seen the original inspiration of the film - Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs made sometime in the 80s. Cause once you have seen the original the copy is well, a copy.
Kaante is the story of six guys who are Indian and live in the US of A. All of them have some kind of criminal record and are bugged by the police every now and then. On one such pick-up, they decide that they are going to teach the Pandus (cops) a lesson by robbing the bank in which they have their personal accounts.
The plan is put into action but not before delving into each one’s personal affairs. So they all have problems in their lives - hey, who doesn’t.
They loot the bank and are successful until they step out and a slow climax builds up to the interval. This by far is my favourite scene in the film - one really does not know what to expect at the other end of the interval.
The most obvious would be to expect cops. And there they are. These guys pull out guns, shoot a few rounds and since the American cops have such bad aims, they all survive - except for Lucky Ali who gets shot in the shoulder.
Back at their meeting joint, they come to the conclusion that there is a rat amongst them who was responsible to leak the information to the cops. But the cop - who Sanjay Dutt has kidnapped - reveals that there isn’t an informant but an undercover cop. Who is the cop and what happens to these guys is the climax of the film.
Although I am highly tempted - I won’t tell you. You must watch it for yourself.
The best thing about the film is not the story or the content but the stylization of the film. WHich begins with the styling of each actor to camera shots to movements to locations to bikes and cars. Everything under the sun.
Since the film is shot by a foreign crew you expect something different and that is exactly what you get. A stylish film.
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OLD REVIEW
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Amitabh Bachchan
Sanjay Dutt
Sunil Shetty
Mahesh Manjrekar
Kumar Gaurav
Lucky Ali
With a cast like that one knows for sure that the film is an adventure film with lots of action.
It promises that and more.
Directed by Sanjay Gupta (who has earlier directed films like Hamesha and Aatish) this film is produced by Sanjay Dutt and Gupta under the banner of White Feather Films.
The film has been shot in Los Angeles from start-to-finish with an international crew.
The plot of the film is about these six men who meet in the prison and get together for the solo motive of looting a bank. But they are unaware that one of them is about to turn against the other five.
A film that has been in the planning for more than two years will soon hit the theatres. The music of the film was launched at the IIFA awards this month in Malaysia.
The film also stars Mallaika Arora, Tabu and Raveena Tandon adding the glamour bit. And all the male leads in the film have a different and definite loook especially for the film (a trend started by Dil Chahta Hai).
Kaante also has not one but two music albums. One being the original soundtrack and the other, songs inspired by the motion picture. Defying convention, the film has as many as seven music directors scoring the music. Viju Shah, Lucky Ali, Shiamak Davar, Adnan Sami, Sulaiman and Salim Merchant and A R Rahman.
A book on the making of the film (on the lines of Asoka and K3G) will also be released alongwith the film. The author of the same is Indian Express jounalist, Rajeev Masand.
The story of the film is said to be inspired from the hollywood flick Reservoir Dogs. Shot and directed in hollywood ishtyle this film is keenly awaited.
A little trivia:
The cast of Kaante was in America when the September 11 tragedy took place. In fact Amitabh Bachchan was stuck in London and couldn’t board a flight to the States for a couple of days, since they had stopped all air service.
And Sunil Shetty who was shooting in his get-up (a french beard and head-gear) was almost mugged by some locals cause they thought he was an Afghani.