Samstag, 14. August 2010

Happy 1st Anniversary, KAMINEY!!!


I watched Kaminey for the third time in as many months, to celebrate its one year anniversary.

 

Kaminey wasn’t the first Bollywood movie I watched, but it was one of the earlier ones. In May this year I was still newbie enough to Bollywood that I thought all Mumbai produced movies were masala-movies. Thus Kaminey confused me not only because it IS confusing in the beginning, but also because I couldn’t help thinking “how come Quentin Tarantino made a Bollywood movie?"

I freely admit I didn’t have a clue what was going on for a good half hour of the movie. Despite that I enjoyed watching, because unlike the much famed Inception, Kaminey managed to make me trust that everything would eventually come together – which it beautifully did when the various characters’ journeys culminated in a riveting shoot-out in the end. I didn’t long for instant gratification, because I knew from the start I would eventually be satisfied in the end. I like Kaminey much better than Inception, because it isn’t confusing just for the sake of being confusing. Thus I didn’t mind the slow pace of the first part at all.


Also Kaminey was the very first Bollywood movie where the songs really made an impact on me, namely Dhan Te Nan and Kaminey.



All the songs are well incorporated into the storytelling, without unnecessarily disrupting the flow of the film.


The whole movie is laced with wit and irony.
 

 Karma Sutra condoms? Does that brand exist?   

Guddu and Sweety’s fight and Shahid’s face when he says “nahi” after Sweety rhetorically asked him if he didn’t want to have sex with her. 



Charlie romancing the guitar Bollywood song&dance style.

Guddu assuring Sweety that it was because of her that he went to therapy and now doesn’t get stuck on “S” anymore.

Guddu telling Bhope migrants were the sugar added to the milk and one of the minions answering “Very thoughtful. The boss has diabetes”.

 And my fave line of them all: “Even we have guns. Who wants a war? We are not America”   

 How did Shahid manage to look ruggedly handsome and super-cute in the same movie?  








Not only are the 2 main characters superbly brought to life in an amazing performance by a smoking hot looking Shahid Kapoor, the supporting characters are also well flashed out and if not exactly likable the viewers can’t help but being interested in their story.


While it makes for great fun on twitter (awefome – doubly funny for a Supernatural fan like myself) I wouldn’t have needed the respective speech impairments to further the distinction between Charlie and Guddu (however for someone who understands the language it made probably a lot more impact, I barely even noticed Charlie’s f for s), since Shahid’s acting and their distinct looks serve the purpose of making them instantly identifiable for the audience very well. Even in the seldom instances Guddu and Charlie are in the same frame it’s difficult to believe they’re actually played by only one person. However as a defining trait for Charlie and Guddu, as something they have been made fun of for and have to overcome, it works really well.



When asked the question which one I prefer, Charlie or Guddu, it isn’t as hard a decision to make like some people might think
. While normally I’d take the bad guy over the good guy any day (I’ve always been a Han Solo kind of girl!) and while Charlie looks smoldering compared to Guddu’s cuteness I would choose Guddu in a second. And here’s why: Underneath the nice guy exterior Guddu has a core of true steel. He didn’t immediately lower his eyes when Bhope told him to, he stood up to Bhope, he brought the guitar to the police and agreed to go back in undercover.

I have a feeling there is a lot more to Guddu than Kaminey showed us – which is certainly more than enough reason to give us a Kaminey 2!


Kaminey 1 gets an ecstatic 9 out of 10 from me.