Kaminey (Scoundrels)'

Plot Outline:
Kaminey is about a pair of twin brothers, Charlie & Guddu (Shahid Kapoor & Shahid Kapoor, respectively). Charlie lisps fumbling his 's' pronounfing them with an 'f' while Guddu has a stut-tu-tu-tering problem. They are as different as chalk and cheese and they can't stand the sight of each other. In fact, they haven't seen each other in over 3 years.

As Charlie gets mixed up in a deathly get-rich-quick fcheme, Guddu incidentally finds himself realising that the love of his life, Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) has kept a thing or two about herself from him. Such as, being the sister of an over-protective gangster politician. When the brothers have it grim, this fateful night, their lives cross again.

As the brothers are sucked into a world of drugs, guns and money, their lives collide head on with the lives of gangsters, rebel soldiers, rogue politicians and crooked cops. The brothers have to run to protect their dreams, their love and most importantly, realize that all they have is each other, themselves & their scoundrel ways.

Review:
Going back to my spiel about 'inspiration', though the story is novel & new, I think it can safely be said that there were some inspirations here from Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez & Guy Ritchie: Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (Precious objects & the colourful parties after said objects), Desperado (The Guitar Case), Pulp Fiction (Dhan Te Nan) & to a degree even Revolver (The "Charlie's Dream" sequences) do seem to form some part of the ingredients to this daal, but much like home-cooking, the taste here in the end is lavish & totally Desi.

I mean I can't imagine any of these inspirations doing a double-role flick .. It's a very Desi thing to do: It's our specialty. If you don't believe me, look these up & tell me how many Western films you can find doing it: Ram aur Shyam, Seeta aur Geeta, Angoor, Muqabla, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Don, Kishen-Kanhaiya, Jai-Kishan, Paheli, Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, Gopi-Kishan, Aflatoon, Judwaa, Satte Pe Satta, Duplicate, Om Shanti Om, Chandni Chowk to China, even the recent Love Aaj Kal, amongst many many others .. we do them often & we do them best & coming to the point this one is no exception.

So, what works for it? Well, above everything else, it has to be the writing, whether it be the sense of humour that all this mayhem carries within it, or the well fleshed out characters beyond just the principal cast. They are all Kaminey. They all have an angle that is their primary motivation & they're all pretty focussed on their goals, whether they be money, revenge, winning over their loved one, all of them. Even the brothers are seeing to themselves first & that was novel.

Even the use of the speech impediments is used wisely. I thought it would just be a gimmick to make the brothers more distinguishable, but if you look at the scene where Guddu talks about his days in the 6th grade, you can't help but empathise with him.

Often you expect scenes to pan out a certain way, but it takes a different tangent entirely, again referring to the 6th grade scene which he begins saying the both of us used to sit together, you assume he'll be talking of his brother, but he's not. All pretty smart writing, the editing matches this too.

Something in the editing in particular that stood out to me was how there were a lot of scenes that set up what is going to happen & then swiftly cut to another scene, allowing you to fill in the gaps in your head. I had read a few reviews that mentioned there was very little spoon-feeding in this film & though I wouldn't actually say that, I can see what they meant.

The attention to detail is noticeable. From the battered empty train coach in the today that in the flashback is one of many pristine coaches, to them ripping off Priyanka Chopra's face from a film poster in the background of Aap Ki Khatir. The devil's in the details. It all counts.

As said prior, we expect a fantastic background score & that we get. Quite like Robert Rodriguez, Vishal Bhardwaj just doesn't count on other people to music for his films, he does it all himself. It makes sense, after all its the background he comes from too. How this helps? Well, in particular what stood out to me was the amount of tension that is built. There are a number of scenes in which very little is actually happening beyond simple dialogue, but the music makes you on-edge, you know that something can happen here at any moment.

So, it's flawless? Of course not. Dhan Te Nan!
They've used this Dhan Te Nan factor wisely in the promotion of the film, but in the film, perhaps slightly less so. Taking away from the actual song which I'll talk about below, the Go Charlie Go theme that plays frequently in the 1st half gets the adrenaline pumping & you cheering Charlie to run, but sometimes it's a little forced. Now perhaps they realised this & decided to stop, ut my next complaint is, once the song is played (just before interval), you don't hear it 'at all' in the second half & this was a little disappointing.

Another slight issue I had was the backstory. Somethings aren't explained in here which is fine, but it's some of the things that are explained badly that stood out to me, such as why these brothers haven't seen each other in 3 years. There are things that don't add up here. I won't go into spoiler territory, but it could have either been explained better or omitted, either of which would have been more excusable.

My largest issue with the film is that the climax, though pretty large & amazing felt like a bit of a cop-out to me. I found myself disappointed a little (the 1st viewing anyway). In hindsight I can see that it's intentionally that way, but the lead-up seems so perfect that the expectations of what can happen in the climax are almost 'too' high.

Music:
The music is used as a device for the plot, just as I like to see, they have even shortened the tracks & practically blended them into a score rather than place them as 5 minute breaks as we often see. The only exception is the pre-interval song, had they shortened that one, people would have cried.

So, the opening after Charlie's dark introduction, required a sharp contrast. Fatak was precisely that. It actually reminded me in it's picturisation a little bit of Maurya from Don but appropriately on a smaller scale. As the credits are done, if you're following the meaning of the song, the 1st line uttered by Priyanka will show you that even this contrast song was a lead-up.

Raat ke Dhai Baje is a situational number, if the shehnai in the song doesn't give it away, it's a wedding song, it's so real though. It's probably the most de-glamoured wedding I've seen on-screen ever. I was impressed. Again, the song is cut short to ensure the situation gets priority.

Dhan Te Nan being the most Pulp Fiction / James Bond inspired song you could possibly get is totally catchy & the lead-up pieces used in the score in the 1st half (also on the soundtrack as "Go Charlie Go" is much like a character of it's own in the film. This said the picturisation of the song is extremely disappointing. At intermission I tweeted: "Pretty pleased with it so far.. funnily enough the only disappointment was the epileptic fit that was Dhan Te Nan!"

The title song sung by writer/director/composer is a pre-climax life-turning event for one of the brothers & goes well with his background & the themes built around him.

There is a fantastic song clearly written just for the climax of this film that isn't on the soundtrack. I can understand it, it would perhaps give away too much & take away from the impact if heard before. This said: I want it!! Anybody that has it please get in touch.

Lastly, the end credits shows us Pehli Baar Mohabbat Ki Hai, it's a mellow number & though perhaps unnecessary, it works better than the MTV style remixes that are forced uponn us often these day in the end-credits of flicks.

Performances:
I think it would be unfair to give anyone more credit than the next, even all the smaller characters were flawless in their roles, but to me hands down the principal cast nailed it. The pair work very well together.

Whether it be the lifp or the stammer, Shahid pulled it off to the tee. Both his characters are genuinely like chalk & cheese, you never see one of them on-screen & have a moment to process which character you are watching, you just know, they are genuinely 'that' different.

Priyanka Chopra has never had such little make-up but still looks absolutely gorgeous. As well as this, she plays her part so perfectly it's hard to say this is the same woman as the Dostana Desi girl. Her cute yet conniving ways will certainly win you over here.

Defpite minor flaws, and definite over-hype, it's without a doubt, one of the best films I've seen this year. A definite must-watch. It will certainly also make my DVD collection. (I've only bought 2 Hindi flicks this year, this will be the 3rd)