Kaminey: India’s Pulp Fiction

A non-linear narrative meanders along a heady cocktail of inopportune satire and violence, noir seduces pastiche, genres go hand in glove yet celebrate their explicit irony, mafia machinations that fuel a redemption and then there is a chase for a mysterious object; either a briefcase or a guitar case. In any case, what have you here; India’s answer toPulp Fiction. Kaminey opens with a greenish tinge caressing a speeding train while Charlie stands by the edge of the track unmoved. Only his hair brushes off with the wind but not his dogged spirit for money and power. Rail tracks, a superior metaphor for paths that life makes you choose. Kaminey opens the narrative’s harbinger; it’s not the path you take that makes the difference but the path you choose not to tread. So he follows the serpentine thousand rupee note, spotlighted in dark, alone and then suddenly with a whip, he is brought to light; power, fame and money blows up as confetti.  Everybody is mean here.

Kaminey is a story of twin brothers separated by hatred towards each other. Charlie (Shahid Kapoor) wants to get rich by taking shortcuts and his delectable defect of saying the “f” letter for “s”. Guddu is the naïve stutterer who chalks out his career path from Polytechnic course to marriage in 2014. He is in love with Sweety ( Priyanka Chopra) , the gritty woman in his life. Guddu needs to save his hurried marriage with Sweety, thanks to an unplanned rubber accident.Sweety’s menacing mafia brother Bhope ( Amole Gupte) is out to get him. Charlie is on the run as he discovers a stash of cocaine in a guitar case.  He is chased by a bevy of Mafioso men out to make money out of the cache. Gudduand Charlie cross paths at the joints of time and there begins a story of redemption.

Chapter 1: Paradoxes of the narrative:Guddu works for an NGO that educates the use of condoms in order to avoid AIDS. His introduction has him dancing around brothels educating the usage of condoms and his scarf impeccably resembles the AIDS red ribbon symbol. While he is shown to preach about the usage of Condom; in haste he doesn’t wear a condom and impregnates Sweety. Comic irony forms a strong hold of the film. Bhope is reading his sister’s pregnancy certificate in fitting rage while a little boy yells at him “Mala chocolate paijee” ( I want a chocolate). The stutter and the lisp are accentuated when the viewer is craving for an explanation; it should create a sense of quest but is blatantly broken by comic tones. This is a technique used by Vishal to heighten the effect of the narrative.  Imagine the pregnancy scene without the kid interrupting him for a chocolate. This technique is used in Dev.D too with sudden quirky moments breaking the aggression of a powerful scene.

Chapter 2: Pastiche and postmodern referencing:A shootout in a hotel has Charlie shooting a gang while on the TV you can hear the famous R.D. Burman song “Do lafzon ki hai dil ki kahani”. Note that the song is echoed when the lines go: “Is zindagi ke din kitne kam hai” and in that exact instant, you see killings on the screen.  Likewise there are other songs by R.D. Burman that are used as a backdrop.  The film borrows from classic Bollywood clichés and then completely alters them to a taste of its own flavor: the twin brothers separated, the zero-defect hero or even the dramatic over-the-top entry of the heroine in our Bollywood films, all are completely contrasted in Kaminey;  both the heroes with speech impediments, Priyanka’s de-glam entry or even the subtle self-referencing: Bhope doing a version of Pankaj Kapoor’s Abbaji act from Vishal’s Maqbool.

The director also pays homage to Quentin Tarantino. Taking from his small “Saanp bill me ghus ke Kill Bill Kill Bill kar raha tha” in The blue umbrella, Vishal goes full throttle in his exploration of Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction here. Kaminey has a non-linear narrative. Some scenes make sense only when you view the subsequent scenes in detail. Pulp Fictionhas seven primarily storylines which are deliberately not shown in chronology. A viewer appreciates when the narrative challenges the intelligence like a puzzle; you find satisfaction in solving it. So it is no casual viewing. You really need to concentrate. Pulp Fiction is about the redemption (Remember Samuel.L.Jackson’s Biblical monologue?; I will strike upon thee…”)of a man entangled in a bloody mafia brawl that involves a briefcase. Here you have Charlie caught in the same maze except that, it’s a guitar case this time. The most overt reference is Sweetyholding a rifle and shooting at people, reminds you of “Honey bunny” during the classic hold-up scene in Pulp Fiction.  And yes both films start and end at the same point.

There is homage to various cultures form Marathi, Lucknowi, Bengali to even Angolan cultures. Some pastiche lead impressions are prominent like the “Apna haath jagnaath” perched right above a Mallika Sherawat poster on a wash room. Fiderman fiderman and then faying alive, faying alive!

Chapter 3: Cinematography, music and the bitches: Tassaduq Hussein deserves a bear hug for his camerawork. His clouds are perfect; dark, brooding and announce the oncoming hell. I was reminded of clouds from Nuri Blige Ceylan’sfilms immediately. The urban war set is made with astute detail that you will mistake it for real. The camera angles are innovative: extreme close shots to long shots, hand-held imagery with hand crafted magic of deliberate out-of-focus camerawork. Crisp editing aids the film immensely. In the start of the film, you see Charlie conversing with his friendMikhail about a loot that went kaput. In parallel, a scene is shown where Bengali mafia men are calibrating a gun’s aperture angle. Though there is  a shot of the lamp through the sniper’s view, we realize that both scenes are happening in the same room only when the lampshade is blown out by the gun. Simply outstanding! Vishal creates the best score, ranging from the garrulous Dhan Te Nan to the demure piano playing ironically at a killing scene. There is music from silence too. Some part of the film has no background score. The scene where Guddu is explaining his career path to Sweety,  is interspersed with sounds from kids playing in the street and there is no background score. I found the peculiar referencing to dogs quite innovative; taking the logical extension of Kaminey to kutte ( Thanks Dharam paaji). Charlie quips “life baddi kutti cheez hai” in the opening act, Guddu and Sweety are cuddling in love while a stray dog wags its tail around them, Bhau bhau is everywhere and last but not the least Tashi, the uber don says “I don’t like dogs, I like bitches”

Chapter 4: Breathtaking Ensemble cast: Honey Tehran is spot on with her casting and Vishal has churned out outstanding performances from all the actors. Shahid’s Guddu and Charlie are pathbreaking, Priyanka’s fiestyMaharashtrian Sweety act; she is the revelation of the film, Amole’s Bhope is only seen to be believed, Tenzing Nima’s  Tashi is cool as cucumber; watch him say “Business is business” in darkness, power comes back on and he immediately appends his earlier line “And power is power” . The characters Lobo, Lele, Mikhail are perfectly cast and  even the little kid in his two scenes shows brilliance. Above all it’s a director’s film. Vishal Bhardwaj is without a doubt the biggest star of the film. Kaminey is India’s proud answer to Pulp Fiction

PS: This post was initially posted at PassionForCinema.