Vishal Bharadwaj takes a break from Shakeshpeare and decides to give the Bollywood audience a break from candy-floss films (read that as K-Jo, YRF and their lookalikes!). He gives us a taster session of Tarantino & Guy Ritchie, famed for their distinct style of film-making. Unique (and loony) characters, tension-building scenes, unexpected turn of events, razor-sharp lines, strong background score - you name it "Kaminey" has all the ingredients. There is no "Once upon a time....." business here, the audience find themselves thrown into the middle of quagmire owing to which in the first few reels you find find yourself gasping to comprehend. Not being funny, but only the smart & intelligent stay with the proceedings.
Brilliant performances from all actors, including the host of new faces.
۩ Shahid Kapur:: Guddu & Charlie - not exactly "chalk-and-cheese" there, as you would normally expect in a storyline of identical twins. Let's say one is slightly more deceitful. Divide the stutter and lisp between them and Shahid gets a role of his lifetime which he delivers with utmost perfection.
۩ Priyanka Chopra:: Just about completing her home-run and needless to say her performance as the Maharashtrian girl is a feather in the cap.
۩ Amol Gupte:: Another Mahesh Manjrekar in the making.
۩ Deb Mukherjee:: Nice to see him after a long sabbatical, though short- role.
"Dhan Te Nan" is an obvious scene-stealer while the rest of the numbers would take sometime to catch up. Gulzar's lyrics as usual is mystical.
Crap was the word that first came to my mind when I watched "Pulp Fiction" but it took a couple of years of maturity to retrace my steps and appreciate the body of work. It goes without saying "Kaminey" deserves a second-time watch to get the gist and perhaps a few more to notice the grammar of fine film-making.
