Wednesday, August 26, 2009
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Kaminey (translation: Scoundrels) is a 2009 Bollywood film directed by Vishal Bhardwaj featuring Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra in the lead roles. Bhardwaj co-authored the screenplay to a script he bought for $4000 from a Nairobi writer that he mentored at a script writing workshop in Uganda. The film was produced by Ronnie Screwvala of UTV Motion Pictures.Starring:
Shahid Kapoor
Priyanka Chopra
Amol Gupte
Full Story:
Guddu and Charlie (Shahid Kapoor) are identical twins who have grown in the rugged streets of Mumbai. Both brothers have a speech impediment whereas Charlie is a lisp, while Guddu stutters in his speech The film begins with a voice over narration by Charlie, who describes how he and his brother could never meet eye to eye, and Charlie's belief in taking shortcuts to fulfill his dream- to become a bookie at a horse racing course, where he currently works for three Bengali brothers in fixing races. He is especially close with the youngest of the three brothers, Mikhail (Chandan Roy Sanyal), whom he considers to be even closer than his own biological brother. Charlie however, gets done in his quest to hit the big time when he bets Rs. 1 lakh on a horse during a fixed race, only to be double crossed by the jockey, losing all his savings in the process. He hunts down the jockey and threatens him into revealing the person who has lured him into betraying Charlie and the three Bengali brothers. The name is revealed- Francis.Guddu meanwhile works for a NGO in the city, currently working raising AIDS awareness on the streets. He soon discovers that his girlfriend Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) is pregnant with their child. While the couple have an argument about how to deal with the unplanned pregnancy, Sweety reveals that she is the younger sister of Sunil Shekhar Bhope (Amol Gupte), a rugged local politician, and urges Guddu to marry her, as it would be the only way he could avoid a price being placed on his head by Bhope. Guddu and Sweety hastily marry, but are confronted by Bhope's men right after the matrimony. When Bhope discovers Guddu's full name, his aides realize a bigger trouble is at hands, Guddu is a migrant from the Uttar Pradesh state. Having a migrant brother-in-law would definitely dent Bhope's Maharashtra for Maharashtrans agenda, and eventually costing his election ticket. The price on Guddu's head is now inevitable. Sweety however fights off Bhope's men and both flee away, with Sweety having previously booked ticket flights to Kathmandu so that they could start life anew there.
Charlie meanwhile has tracked down Francis at a posh hotel in the city and craving to get his revenge. He refuses to heed to his boss' orders to leave the hotel after delivering information of Francis' whereabouts, instead goes for that kill himself. In a separate track however in a different room at the same hotel, two corrupt cops kill three drug dealers and collect a guitar case containing Rs. 10 Crore worth of cocaine, to be delivered to drug lord Tashi (Tenzing Nima). Charlie and his aide invade Francis' hotel room, and start seizing his belongings and beating him up to make up for the lost money when Francis' aide returns to hand over Francis a gun, which sparks off a gang crossfire all the way to the parking lot, where the two cops are now placing the guitar case in their van. Charlie and both of his aides seize the van in order to escape from Francis' men, and soon after realize that they have seized a police vehicle. Charlie drives it to a remote place in order to abandon the van without trace when he discovers the contents of the guitar case.Thinking of this as the shortcut that will lead to his dreams, he steals the guitar case. The cops soon track down the van but once they discover that the guitar case is missing, Charlie's head is on for the hunt. Charlie informs Mikhail about the discovered drugs and both of them take joy at the money they would earn from the deal, but as Charlie goes back in order to retrieve the case for Mikhail, Bhope and his men sit waiting inside, with Bhope looking for Charlie to reveal Guddu's whereabouts. A drunk Mikhail interupts their conversation, and for all the talk, he is murdered by Bhope.Guddu and Sweety meanwhile have a nasty argument after Guddu realizes that Sweety had not only faked her identity, but also her own stammering in order to get close to Guddu. Both leave each other, and after being spotted by the cops at a petrol bunk, he is mistaken for Charlie and is arrested. He is assaulted by the cops who refuse to believe that he is Charlie's twin brother until a phone call arrives on Guddu's mobile, with the call coming from Charlie's number, where Bhope is on the line. The crooked cops and Bhope strike an exchange deal- Charlie in exchange for Guddu and Sweety.Guddu and Sweety are brought back to Bhope's house, where Bhope reveals that a local builder will pay him Rs.5 crores if he marries Sweety off to the builder's son, and he needs the money for the election. Guddu, remembering that the whole fracas is about the guitar case containing Rs. 10 crores worth of drugs, bargains with Bhope- Guddu will get Sweety if Guddu retains the guitar case for Bhope. Bhope sends Guddu and his men to retain the guitar case from Charlie's house.Charlie is assaulted by the two cops who are desperate to find out about the guitar case, or else Tashi will be going after their heads. Realizing that they are in as much trouble as he himself is in, Charlie refuses to barge. However, in a freak accident, one of the cops accidentally shoots himself in the thigh, and Charlie uses the distraction and pick up a gun and make both cops his hostages, where he bargains a deal with Tashi- the guitar case for a payment of Rs.10 lakhs. He sends the injured cop and his aide to Tashi to deliver the details of the exchange, and heads back to his house to retrieve the guitar. Guddu arrives there with Bhope's men, totally unaware that Bhope has delivered instructions to kill Guddu once the guitar case is found.
Guddu and Charlie both meet in an abandoned house, and start fighting over the guitar case. Guddu manages to get a hold of the case, but Charlie threatens to shoot him should Guddu proceed. Guddu however asks Charlie to stop blaming himself regarding their father's death, implying that its none of their fault that their father committed suicide. Realizing that he has to finally choose the right path and be responsible for their lives, Charlie lets Guddu leave. However, Bhope's men are all found murdered when Guddu returns to the house, as the elder Bengali brothers, upon discovering the death of Mikhail, have gone on a killing rampage to avenge their brother's death.While walking back, Guddu is held up by police, and after revealing the story, Guddu is asked to be a police informer while delivering the drugs to Bhope so that the cops could catch Bhope red-handed. Guddu returns and finds that Sweety, who has discovered about Bhope's orders to kill Guddu, has gone beserk and is shooting at will with fury over her brother's actions. Tashi too arrives at the scene after being informed by Charlie about where the drug is heading to. The fracas in escalated when the cops show up and round up on the criminals. Bhope starts negotiating with the cops so that the deal goes ahead, as Tashi, indentifying Guddu as the rat, holds Guddu at hostage at gun point to prevent the cops from opening fire.
In the middle of the chaos, Charlie arrives and sneaks with the guitar case. Moving to the veranda of a nearby house, he threatens to drop the case in the fire and burn the cocaine if Tashi doesn't let Guddu and Sweety go. He asks Guddu and Sweety to go on the run, and soon after, the Bengali brothers arrive with Mikhail's body in their jeep. Enraged at seeing his friend's dead body, Charlie drops the cocaine into the fire; which spells the beginning of a violent climax where the cops, Tashi and his men, and Bhope and his men, and the Bengali brothers, all open fire on each other, resulting in a flurry of dead bodies.Guddu returns to the virtual war zone to help Charlie out, and is saved by a policeman. Charlie runs into Sweety and safeguards her in a home before returning to find Guddu, when he sees two diamonds in the hands of a dead Tashi. Reminding himself to choose the right path, he ignores the diamonds but gets shot by an African drug dealer who was in Tashi's gang.The film ends by showing Sweety giving birth to twins as a grinning Guddu receives. Charlie was only shot in the hand and survives, and he manages to finally open up his bookie counter at the course, using his friend Mikhail's name for the booth. An elegant woman named Sophia, who features in Charlie's dream at the beginning of the movie, is now his girlfriend.