Shahid Kapoor on 16th Aug 2009.

Since its promos were out with Delhi-6, Vishal Bharadwaj’s Kaminey immediately caught the attention of the cine goers with its highly infectious Dhan Te Nan number and the crazy character introductions. The curiosity and hype began building up rapidly and the wait seemed unending. So till the time I stepped in the trial show of Kaminey my expectations were sky high. Thankfully, Vishal has delivered what he has promised.

Kaminey: Is a modern day masterpiece
Film: Kaminey (2009)
Rating: 4/5
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Amole Gupte, Shiv Subramaniam, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Tenzing Nima, Hrishikesh Joshi and Deb Mukherjee.
Director: Vishal Bharadwaj

The film narrates the tale of twins Charlie (Shahid) and Guddu (Shahid again) who are poles apart in behaviour and lifestyle. While Guddu the good boy works for a NGO and aims to rise the corporate ladder, Charlie believes in taking shortcuts and ‘chota shortcuts’ to achieve his get rich quick dream. Though they haven’t met each other in years, their lives get entangled as both get ended up in major screw up in their personal lives. What happens then on and how many misunderstanding lead to further chaos forms the rest of the plot.

Hereon, revealing anything more about Kaminey would be spoiling a major part of your fun. There are plenty of sequences which will remain forever etched in your cinematic memory right from Guddu and Charlie’s face off to almost every scene featuring Bhope Bhau (Gupte) and Tashi (Tenzing) to the Dhan Te Nan song and the crazy finale. However, the climax appears to long with the endless shooting going on and on between the multiple gangs. And the songs don’t really appear well placed. But these are minor flaws.

Shahid Kapoor delivers a knock out performance in a double role. Most importantly he succeeds in making us believe his two characters are completely different persons. With his dual act he has emerged as the strongest contender of the Best Actor trophy for 2009. Priyanka Chopra outshines all her previous best performances. Her Marathi dialogue delivery is excellent as she has also managed to catch the small nuances perfectly.

Playing Charlie’s idol, Mikhail, Chandan Roy Sanyal’s doped out act is instantly likeable. Marathi stage and cinema actor Hrishikesh Joshi as corrupt cop Lele is good and so is Shiv Subramaniam playing his associate. Back after a long hiatus veteran actor Deb Mukherjee is menacing. Tenzing Nima as Nepali don, Tashi is a hoot. Amongst the crowd of the huge ensemble cast, Amole Gupte manages to create a huge impression with his chilled out Bhau act. His one-liners will have you rolling on the floor laughing.

Kaminey is also an excellent team effort with superb camerawork by Tassaduq Hussein, razor sharp editing by Meghna Manchanda Sen and gritty action by Shyam Kaushal. Vishal Bharadwaj has managed to strike a sixer donning multiple hats as a director, producer, singer, music director, screenplay and dialogue writer. His treatment of Kaminey may be on the lines of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Richie’s caper movies but the stamp of a Vishal Bharadwaj movie seen all over in Omkara is yet again on full display here.

Kaminey is a must watch at any cost. It redefines the rules of Hindi filmmaking and most importantly delivers what it promises. Chances are it may well turn out to be your favourite caper movie ever and wanna watch it again and again.

Also Read:
Shahid, Priyanka at Kaminey press meet
Kaminey is a clean film- Vishal Bhardwwaj
Why ‘Kaminey‘ got an ‘A’ certificate and not ‘Ghajini’?
According to numbers ‘KAMINEY‘ is already Number 1
Vishal Bhardwaj changes Priyanka Chopra for ‘Kaminey‘

Shahid and Priyanka starrer ‘Kaminey’ was to release all over the country coming Friday. Alas Vishal’s ambitious film will be restricted to Mumbai audience. After ‘Kismat Konnection’ falling flat on the box office, Shahid too was looking forward to the film.

“We respect the government’s decision to shut down multiplexes. We are releasing Kaminey in other parts of the country this Friday itself, as we have received very positive advances for it. And we hope that by Sunday everything will be back to normal in Mumbai and Pune as well,” Says Shahid Kapoor.

Scare of Swine Flu is so intense that it will barely disappoint Shahid-Priyanka fans, who would rather wait for the slick flick.

Shahid Kapoor at radio mirchi on 10th Aug 2009.

Shahid Kapoor unveils Hi Blitz cover in Crossword, Juhu, Mumbai on 11th Aug 2009 .

Till one fateful rainy night, their lives cross. Charlie gets mixed up in a deathly get rich quick scheme, while Guddu realizes that the love of his life, Sweety, has unwittingly put a price on his head. It’s a dark comic ride there on 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.
In the middle of this crazy adventure, the brothers have to run to protect themselves, their dreams, their love….
And most importantly, realize that all they have is each other.

Our source present there revealed, “Shahid was not aware that media persons were present there in the FM Station campus in Mumbai’s Lower Parel area. The media had assembled to cover Fardeen Khan and Genelia D’Souza’s promotions for their upcoming release Life Partner at the radio station. When Shahid was walking down the stairs the present photographers therefore caught him off guard. But instead of waiting even for one second to pose he dashed off to his waiting car, keeping his head down and avoiding giving a front angle look to any photographer present.”

Interestingly, Shahid Kapoor’s one of the characters (He is playing a twin in Kaminey) Charlie really looks up to the character of Chandan, named Mikhail. “Charlie aspires to be a big time bookie, who wants to earn big bucks. My character is that of an established bookie who has an accomplished name in this arena. Thus, Charlie has great regards for me, and I am a metaphor of success for him,” says Chandan.

Well, this is an interesting case of real-life prankster Shahid becoming reel-life Chela and real-life victim Chandan a reel-life Guru.

Shahid Kapoor, Vishal Bharadwaj, Priyanka Chopra, Amole Gupte at Kaminey press meet in Cinemax on 6th Aug 2009.

Obvious reasons for Shahid watching the film were figured out as to be- first, he trying to judge whether Imtiaz Ali had managed to recreate the Jab We Met magic, where he was opposite Kareena Kapoor and the second reason was to check out how well Kareena’s boyfriend Saif has performed in his home production.

All said and done this confused couple who are still unaware of their relationship status seem to have always ended up having a good time together.

According to sources Shahid had been looking up for new houses for quite some time and wanted something more spacious than his current apartment. But as tongues keep wagging many say that his only reason to move out of Raj Classic was to get away from Priyanka, who also happened to stay there. A classic attempt of burying the past and moving on in life!

Apparently, it’s only Shahid’s dog and his staff that will be staying with him, so the need for a bigger house seems to surprise everyone.

Currently Shahid’s dad Pankaj Kapoor happens to reside a floor below him and that was one of the main reasons for him to move in Raj Classic. But of-late all the noise created about the Shahid–Priyanka link up has made Shahid take the decision of moving away, and moving on. It seems even Kareena was a regular visitor in this house so finally Shahid wants to start fresh and get away from the past.

Interior designer Twinkle Khanna happened to do the interiors of his Raj Classic apartment and there’s a possibility of her doing up his new place as well.

Says a source close to Vishal, “He is really upset about the trouble that he has got into because of the attitude of Censor board folks. They have been arguing that the film is violent par film mein violence toh hai hi nahi There aren’t any gory scenes or the kinds that would make you look the other way. It’s all ‘implied violence’ where you get a feel that something wrong has happened or would happen. But then nothing untoward actually happens onscreen.”

Next few days are extremely important for the film since post ‘Love Aaj Kal’ euphoria (which incidentally stars Shahid’s ex-girlfriend Kareena Kapoor’s current boyfriend Saif Ali Khan), ‘Kaminey’ is the next BIG film of the season. No wonder, the makers of ‘Kaminey’ and the film’s cast and crew have to work extra hard and go the whole hog to make ‘Kaminey’ as the only film visible to audiences once it hits the screens on 14th August.

“Yes, this is an important movie for everyone, whether it is Shahid, Priyanka or Vishal. It’s a unique competition and there is so much of widespread curiosity around the film. The last thing that each of them would want is worry about whether the film would be allowed for youngsters or not. Shahid especially is so popular amongst the younger generation and it would be a huge loss for him as well as his fans if the film gets an adults certificate,” the source adds.

So what’s the team of ‘Kaminey’ planning to do now?

“We should get to know about it in a couple of days or so,” he says, “Right now they are just assessing the situation. However, one thing one fails to understand is the entire double standard game. On one side a hardcore action movie like ‘Ghajini’, which has so much visible violence, is allowed for all age groups. On the other hand ‘Kaminey’, which is much lighter when it comes to violence, is meted such treatment. It’s unfair. The film in fact doesn’t even have expletives as was in the case of Vishal’s last release ‘Omkara’.”

This director of the surprise-hit film of last year might not have thought about this in the wildest of his dreams.

Anjum’s film did great business at the box office last year and had brought him overnight success.

But surprisingly of late he is finding it difficult to sign up stars for his next venture, as of now known as Fast Forward.

Shahid Kapoor has supposedly refused the director as he was said to be confused about the storyline, while Super star Mithun Chakraborty and his son Mimoh Chakraborty had earlier agreed but suddenly backed out. Finally Anjum was said to have approached Shekhar Suman and his son Adhyayan Suman and they too have chickened out by showing inconvenience of dates.

Little do we know what’s really wrong with Anjum’s new venture but we wish him all luck and hope that he signs up the stars of his choice

Elaborating on how his dream girl should be, the actor briefs, “She should be able to connect with me emotionally and on a day to day life. The girl should be different, but not to the extent that things doesn’t work out. Last but not the least, I know I would accept her the way she is.”

When asked about, would he tell his girlfriend to turn vegetarian, the actor quickly replies, “If she tells me to eat non vegetarian, I would not like it. Similarly, I would not tell her to leave non veg if she likes to eat that. Anyways this is a personal decision,” he adds.

Shahid has become very shy to media when it comes to talk about his personal life. “I had a public break-up, but now I am very private about my personal life. It became too public and difficult to handle. When there is something substantial, people will come to know about it,” he concludes.

With the list of linkups, it seems the journey of Shahid is going to be a long one.

Shahid Kapur, Aditi Govitrikar, Vishal Bharadwaj at a documentary movie screening at MET college in Bandra, Mumbai. Shahid Kapur graced an event to promote his movie Kaminay and watch a small documentary film made by Amole Gupte with help of underprivileged childrens of an NGO in Mumbai. The childrens also acted in the movie. Amole Gupte was the Writer for Popular movie Taare Zameen Pe and is playing a Villian in Movie Kaminay. pic taken 25th july evening.

“Priyanka has always been fascinated of piercing her belly and even had it done during her initial days in Bollywood,” says the source.

Not many people know that she had to sacrifice her belly piercing for the movies. “She was told to take off her belly button, as it cannot be shown in the films and unfortunately she had no option. But now she is all happy and planning to pierce her belly all over again,” adds the source.

A source close to Piggy Chops said, “The diamond studded belly button given by her parents is very beautiful. It stands out of all the gifts given to her, and she has been declaring about it to her friends all over.”

Hmm. Desi girl turns Videsi- Aarre we mean a diamond belly button needs a bare midriff for a dazzling show off. Isn’t it so Piggy Chops!

Priyanka had to ride the scooter and Shahid was to sit behind her. The shot was simple enough; they just had to ride till about 15 meters. However, it got complicated when Priyanka could not manage the balance of the two-wheeler. They did a couple of takes but the scooter seemed to not be in her grip, and as a result both she and Shahid went down with a thud on the mucky road.

Neither of them was hurt, as the speed of the scooter was slow. The unit hands came rushing to help them both, but this got difficult as both Shahid and Priyanka had, by then, burst into a fit of spontaneous laughter, much to the units chagrin. Everyone joined in once they were sure that both the stars were safe and unhurt. However, the wet mud and dirt on the road didn’t go so easily and shooting had to be stopped for nearly an hour, while both the stars wiped themselves clean.

Amazingly enough, the next take of the shot was Ok. Shahid still teases Priyanka about his fall, as this is the only time in his life that he had ever fallen off a scooter.

How did you landed up with Kaminey?

When I met Vishal he said- Shahid I want to do my version of a commercial film. He made me hear 2-3 concepts and finally, he said about his favourite concept- twin brothers with speech defects. One stammers while the other one has lisp. I found this concept to be very exciting, as two actors talking in such a manner can be very interesting and at the same time, it can win them sympathy. Vishal said that he is trying to attend to the genre, which is of a caper, or a pulp film, that has never been touched in Indian cinemas.

Why the title Kaminey?

Even I asked him (Vishal) the same question. He felt that this title represents each and every character in the film. Everyone is fast and naughty. There is a bit of negativity in each one of us in the film.Nobody is totally innocent.

What is the USP of the film?

The speciality of this genre is that, on one side, it’s very real, but at the same time it’s high on glamour and entertainment. There is a story which has been incorporated in the film, the experience of Guddu that is shared with Sweety in the movie. This happened due to some situation during his childhood and for more you need to wait and watch the film. Some part of it is taken from real life, which was narrated to me and Vishal. We were so moved by the story. We have tried our best.

How important is this film for you, and what kind of expectation you have from it?

I am very hopeful that audience do appreciate this film, because this is a very different film for me and Hindi Cinema too. This film is very important for me because it took lots of gut for me to do this. Though it is in commercial format but the presentation, music, the look of Charlie, etc… I have never worked on that space.

Do you think audience will accept you in this avatar?

Audience have seen me in Jab We Met, Vivaah, Kissmat Konnection and they are used to see me like that, a romantic boy kind. A new door will open for me if people accept this film and my character. Also, this will give a new format of entertainment to the Indian audience.

There are movies like Lagaan, Chak De India, which are based on different subject and we do need to have such kind of films. Personally I feel our creative space is very limited, and the more we can open-up, the better it will be for our industry. I feel inspired to do such films. This builds the confidence in us that audience is ready to accept different kind of movies, but only when it is presented well and can connect with them.

Is it risky to play such character after Jab We met?

Yes, it has a flip side to it. If it goes wrong it will be considered a mistake, and if it goes right it will be a huge success. Audience like being surprised, but if you surprise them in a very terrible way then they will not enjoy it. It was a challenge but we are happy with the response the promos are getting. It was obvious that the first promo will decide the fate of the film, and fortunately it did get a good response. The struggle was to do it in a way which can convince the audience.

What kind of preparations you have done for your characters? How easy or difficult it was for you to switch from one to another character?

For this I had to work a lot especially on my body for a year. The stammering of Guddu is very difficult and we wanted to make it look real, not a caricature. As you all know Vishal is very particular about such details and thus together we met many ENT specialists, speech therapist to know how a stammer talks, what is the process, technically and mentally. We also met some people who have problem of stammering in the special club made for them at Bandra. Alongside I had to work on my body a lot for a year and so, had to sacrifice on food too.

Talking about switching between the characters- both the character we shot simultaneously at the same place. To go from one character to another was very difficult as, one would say Fa while, other would stammer.

How was it to work with Priyanka?

On one hand I felt that she is a good actor before doing the film, but after it, I discovered- she is an excellent actor. I feel she is right now at a creative high with doing the best performances of her career. It was challenging for both of us. I applaud her for that because she had a new character to play, as she plays a Maharashtrian character. The experience of working with her was very accelerating and she brings lot of positivity on the sets. She is a team player which is very important for an actor. You can make out that she is there to do a good film, not just to do roles.

There had been talks about you seeing Priyanka and then later it was reported that you broke up?

Ahh! Why can’t you people stop talking about it… I just know one thing that I don’t need to clarify what it was and what it is, as I have been linked up with all my co-actors; but that doesn’t mean that I am seeing all of them.

It was heard that Vishal has approached Saif Ali Khan for this role?

That’s something you should ask Vishal, as I am not here to clarify anything on his behalf. Its fantastic role and I don’t believe that anyone can say no to it.

In Kaminey he has build a well-toned body and dons a macho man look. On the other hand, in his next flick with Yash Raj and Anushka Sharma, the actor has slimmed down and is looking very young.

“I work according to my scripts and the character that I am portraying. In Kaminey I needed a good physique for which I have worked for almost a year and sacrifice on my liking of food. Where as, in my next film with Anushka, I need to look much younger so I have done sacrifices over there too,” rues the young lad.

Elaborating on adapting himself according to the script, the actor chirps, “You can find good directors, producers and actors but not a good script. And if my script demands me to change, then I would do so gladly.”

“For this new look I had to cut down on my muscular body and get a thin shape, which I have attained. I also liked my look for this film and am ready to take all kinds of challenge. Even if my next venture demands me to go out of the way for physical or mental challenge I would go ahead with it,” he concludes.

Well definitely we can say for Shahid ki success ke liye kuch bhi karega.

“I was pleasantly surprised to get the news about my being chosen for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi award. I’m only 28 years old and it’s really early in my career. I feel humbled and honored to be chosen by the jury.” Said Shahid.

The earlier recipients for this award have been Sunita Williams, Sachin Tendulkar, Mukesh Ambani and Amitabh Bachchan among others. The award function will be held in the second week of august, just around the release of Shahid’s most anticipated film till date – Kaminey.