Archive for August, 2009
Movie Review: Kaminey (2009)
2 Stars (out of 4)
With every Hindi movie I watch, I expect that I’m not going understand everything. I don’t speak Hindi, so wordplay jokes go right over my head. I’ve lived in America my whole life, so references to things like Indian historical figures also go over my head. Rarely do these cultural and language differences impede my enjoyment.
But Kaminey is different. On top of a convoluted plot, Kaminey contains so many euphemisms and Indian regional references that most non-Hindi-speaking Westerners may find it more confusing than entertaining.
The plot of Kaminey (“Scoundrels”) focuses on the troubled lives of pair of identical twin brothers, both played by Shahid Kapoor. Guddu is a straight-arrow who stutters and has a cute girlfriend named Sweety (Priyanka Chopra). Charlie is a thug who works with a gang to fix horse races. He has a speech impediment which causes him to substitute the letter “f” in place of “s”.
Charlie gets his big break when he accidentally finds a huge stash of cocaine, which he intends to sell for big bucks. Meanwhile, Guddu’s life is threatened when Sweety’s brother finds out that she’s pregnant with Guddu’s child. The twins, who haven’t spoken in years, each get suspected of the other’s actions, and all hell breaks loose.
Kaminey is a great looking film. It’s dark and atmospheric; there’s nothing neon or glossy about it. And its fight scenes are gritty and believable, without being gory.
But the convoluted plot gets in the way of everything. You practically need a flow chart to keep track of who’s stolen what from whom, and who’s ultimately supposed to receive which stolen goods.
Then there are the aforementioned language differences. Charlie’s f-for-s substitutions are pretty meaningless to those who don’t understand Hindi. He occasionally utters some altered English words, like “fortcut” and “Fweety” in place of “shortcut” and “Sweety.” I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be funny, but I found it more distracting than amusing.
Also troublesome is the subplot of Sweety’s angry gangster brother, Chopper Bhope. He objects to Guddu marrying his sister because Guddu is originally from “U.P.” — and that won’t fly with the Maharashtra constituents Bhope needs to win over as he tries to become a politician.
This conflict doesn’t mean much to the average American, who probably doesn’t know that U.P. refers to Uttar Pradesh, which, as with Maharashtra, is an Indian state. (My fellow Midwesterners need not worry that Bhope holds anything against residents of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.) It’s not the movie’s fault that Americans are bad with world geography, but there were points during the film when I tuned out, resolving to visit Wikipedia when I got home, to look up references I didn’t get.
Because of these problems, it’s hard for me to say whether Kaminey is actually a good movie. It didn’t work for me, but it might be great if you understand Hindi and have a better handle on geography than I do. The best endorsement I can give is that I find director Vishal Bhardwaj’s visual style is interesting enough that I’m going to rent some of his prior movies.
Links
- Buy Kaminey on DVD
at Amazon
- Kaminey at Wikipedia
- Kaminey at IMDb
Movie Review: Love Aaj Kal (2009)
4 Stars (out of 4)
The message of Love Aaj Kal is that there have always been obstacles to true love — whether it’s 2009 or 1965 — but that it has always been worth fighting for. The movie is charming and sweet and utterly deserving of the $1.2 million it earned during its opening weekend in U.S. theaters.
Saif Ali Khan plays Jai, an ambitious architect living in London. When Jai’s sort-of girlfriend, Meera (Deepika Padukone), gets a new job in India, they decide that the practical thing to do is to break up but stay friends.
The owner of a cafe Jai and Meera frequent gets wind of their plan and essentially tells Jai that he’s stupid for letting Meera go, when they were so happy together. After all, it wasn’t easy when he was courting his beloved Harleen in Delhi in 1965.
Flashbacks throughout the rest of the movie show a younger version of the cafe owner, Veer — also played by Saif Ali Khan during the flashbacks, by Rishi Kapoor in the modern day — as he pursues demure Harleen (Brazilian model Giselle Monteiro), falling in love before he even speaks to her. Jai thinks this is quaint, but doesn’t see how it applies to his relationship with Meera.
The relationships don’t parallel each other, but they are analogous. There are obstacles in both relationships, whether imposed from the outside or generated from within. Veer recognizes that Jai has the potential for a happy future with Meera and does his best to help it happen, showing Jai that love sometimes requires grand gestures.
While both of the relationships featured in Love Aaj Kal are charming, Veer’s pursuit of Harleen might be the sweetest love story I’ve ever seen on the big screen. It’s more innocent because of the social restrictions of the time, but it’s no less believable.
Everything in this movie is done well, from the engaging story to the convincing acting, from the bright colors to the catchy music; it’s immersive from the get-go. A lesser story teller would’ve resorted to cheap dramatic twists, but director Imtiaz Ali wisely lets the romance shine through.
The little details are delightful. Separated from Jai, Meera dons a pair of his trademark Chuck Taylors and drinks straight black coffee as reminders of him. Khan and Padukone have terrific chemistry; they should be a go-to romantic duo for years to come.
My only complaint about the movie is a minor one. Twice, Ali resorts to one of my least favorite Hindi-film cliches: the spontaneous parade. How many times have we seen couples in Hindi films stumble upon a parade, complete with a band and costumed performs, only to join in? Often, it’s an excuse to shoehorn in a song that wouldn’t fit anywhere else in the movie.
I’m not sure if parades are a regular feature of Indian life, but they don’t make sense in downtown London. If directors are desperate for a way to include music in their movies, it makes more sense to use a montage.
