"Kaminey"

Watching and getting thrilled too many times with crime classics from hollywood these days I would always think what exactly is there that we don't get to watch such movies in bollywood. Whatever the answer may be I don't want to get into detail of that but one thing is clear that Vishal Bhardwaj with Kaminey has presented one such movie now and more importantly that is not a remake of some foreign film.
With this original work Vishal presents India, doubtedly, its very first noir. Its a story about twins Guddu and Charlie. Guddu stutters and Charlie has sigmatism. The plot of the story is present here. I don't want to say much on the story or the plot, I only want everybody to witness it themselves. There are many interesting parts in the film. The very start of the film in Guddu's lisping voice is fantastic in itself and the dialogues here and later in the whole film are fabulous in themselves. The "मैं 'फ' को फ बोलता हूँ" and Amol Gupte replying with "साले फ को फ नही बोलेगा तो क्या ल बोलेगा" and then that dialogue "फुबह फुबह उफ़ मनहूफ़ का चेहरा देख लो तो रात को मय्यत पक्की फमझो" are some of them that I still remember. Above all you have "अपना हाथ जगन्नाथ"..........fantastic.
Amol Gupte as 'Bhupe Bhai' is superb. There are many instances in the film where one would get a glimpse of the immortal Bhiku Mhatre in Bhupe Bhai. He is one of the most entertaining parts in the film. Shahid Kapoor is completely new in the movie and is superbly brilliant. Priyanka had nothing much to do but whatever she had to she did it perfectly.
The acting and the dialogues are brilliant but surpassing all this is the music and the lyrics. Nobody would have thought about 'dhan te tan' that this favourite day to day slang of every indian will come to us in this very form. The duo of Vishal Bhardwaj with Gulzaar sahab has given us many hit music like maachis, omkara etc and they haven't fail here either. The duo is once again fantastic. All in all Kaminey is a great movie to watch and get entertained.

Love Aaj Kal

These days I have seen many old english classics mostly of the black noir genre from the black n white days of hollywood. Amidst these, I got to see this new release from bollywood, Imtiaj Ali's "Love Aaj Kal". One would think what exactly is the connection between the noirs and this movie; really there is no connection or even a similarity between these except that I liked all of these.
After successfully directing 'Jab We Met', Imtiaj brings us another one that has something of a newness. Having seen the character of Geet (Kareena in 'Jab...'), it was hard for me to leave behind its freshness while going to watch 'Love...'. It was easily expected from Imtiaj to bring back the same freshness again on the celluloid and this time he has Saif's Jai Wardhan Singh for us. For a guy like me who is so keen in comparing everything to the past, it was not a surprise that I was looking for a comparison rather similarity between the two movies. Well, I got one right up in the title.........hehehe........like the title of the earlier film, 'Love...' has also a hinglish fusion :)
Having said all this, I would like to say that though both the films are about the youths of today and their take on love, they both are completely different. Where 'Jab...' was about a girl who is her own favourite, has her own ways and definition of life and lives every moment of her life and changes completely after breaking up with her boyfriend, 'Love...' is about a boy who has ambitions in life but is completely enjoying life to its fullest, has fallen in love for 13-14 times and celebrates his break up and after it again becomes a छुट्टा सांढ़.
Anyways, 'Love...' is something more than this. The first half an hour are completely about this all but the theme changes with Rishi Kapoor (the london cafe owner) coming into the picture. He starts comparing Saif's time to his own jawani ke din, interstingly, played by Saif himself (but this time with turban on).
The film is a nice attempt to compare the two generations, their values, their views on life and love etc etc etc. The two love stories go collaterally. The black tea in one becomes black coffee in other; The bicycle in one becomes the sports car in other; जिया बैंड, दिल्ली becomes Jia Band, Delhi and so on. Imtiyaz puts a lot of effort and succeeds also in showcasing the essence of realtionships in the two times. The decency of the past times and the carelessness and career orientation of present times is very well evident in the film. The scene where Saif (with turban) goes to calcutta just to have a look of his love and gets a cup of black tea that also not directly in his hands and the scene where saif (without turban) announces his break-up with Deepika and decides to celebrate this are all sufficient to show the differences in the two times.
Maybe, it was never an intent of the director to make a comparison between the two love stories, but as I said earlier for a guy like me who is always keen in comparisons, it is hard not to do that. For me, the Rishi Kapoor love story was the one that won my hearts. The decency and the heartfelt emotions in this love story was fabulous for me and above it all, it was the suspense in this love story that kept me bound to my seat and also propelled the story forwards.
Saif in both the roles is fabulous. Deepika has also done justice to her role. Music is a mix of different genres, where we have Aahun Aahun..... rocking, Aaj Din Charheya in Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's voice is soothing. All in all, for me, it was a good experience with Love Aaj Kal.................