Dhan te naaaaan... presenting Kaminey!
Disclaimer: I am not a critic, nor am I a regular film reviewer. So my views are completely original and any resemblance to any other article or review is purely co incidental. :-)
I had the good fortune to catch the premiere of Kaminey. Since the leads (male and female) in the film are quite popular, it would be an utter waste of resources to go for the movie any time within the first month of its release, what with the shouting and whistling after each dialougue.
So when I got a chance to catch the premiere, I jumped (though I was paranoid aboutgoing to a mall during the swine flu epidemic) I didnt regret my decision one bit.
Where do I begin?...
The plot- Rumour has it that Vishal Bharadwaj bought the story of this 40 crore budget film from some writer in Africa for 4 thousand rupees. Well, all I can say is- that is 40 crores of money well spent. The not-so-unique plot is the story of 2 judwa brothers (who didnt get seperated in kumbh ka mela) but who are completely different from each other...
One is Mr goody-two-shoes and the other is smart in the ways of the world. However, the treatment is unique, interesting and completely brilliant. Giving one guy a stammer and other a lisp, saved the characters from falling into cliched slots. Probably as a thanks to the African writer, a blood diamond angle has been added to the plot.
The acting- The star cast was brilliant and I couldnt find a single flaw with any actor or role. Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra without doubt were mind blowing, but so were all the other actors. For once we had actors not faking the’bhangla akshent’ or have a ’bhai’ or ’yeda’ thrown in for the marathi feel. Though subtitles during the slightly longer bengali sentences would’ve helped non bengalis to understand the dialouges, the acting made sure that we grasped what was happening.
The music- What can I say but Dhan tenaaaaaaan... ta ta tan taan!! The music was simple superb and I hadto literally hold on to my seat for fear of jumping up and dancing.All the songs were brilliant, however one song did remind us hugely of Omkara’s title song.
The production- It didnt feel like any other hindi film. The treatment, the cinematography, the frames, the editing all felt very new and fresh. The final dishum-dishum sequence was brilliantly shot and didnt cause any confusion despite the number of groups involved. The scenes where both the Shahid Kapoors meet also have been done well, unlike most double role films where we can even see the imaginary line differentiating the 2 frames.
All in all it was an amazing film to watch, a great break after a series of unbearable mind numbing ones like Kambhakt Ishq, Luck, etc.... A definite thumbs up for this one. :-)