The protagonist of Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey (2009) tells during the beginning of the movie: “We are never screwed by the paths that we take, but by those which we don’t”. And at the end of the film, this is exactly what must be told of Kaminey too. The idea behind Kaminey is inarguably great – so great that each one of us who hears it would be tempted to elaborate on it, make our own version of it and provide a whole new dimension to it. The sad thing is that that is precisely what has happened. With much hype behind it, Kaminey has proved to be yet another idea wasted, but is sure to have its own takers claiming everything, from Shahid’s six pack abs to its pretty neat soundtrack, as a reason to celebrate it as a masterpiece. Cinema is often called a “collaborative art” and Kaminey serves to prove that the real challenge is not to produce art, but to derive it out of collaboration. What would make for a more interesting movie than Kaminey would be a film about its making, for it is surely going to be funny seeing too many people trying to incorporate their own vision into the film, leaving the director helpless.
(Possible spoilers)
Here is the plot for those who would like to know what the film is about. I’m pruning down a lot of details which Bhardwaj seems to have retained for the sake of filling the runtime of the film. Guddu and Charlie (both played by Shahid Kapur) are twins. Guddu is working in an NGO, spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS and is in love with Sweety (Priyanka Chopra). Sweety is pregnant with Guddu’s child and is the sister of Bhope (Amol Gupte), a fundamentalist politician who is now hell bent on getting rid of Guddu to stabilize his position in the party. Charlie, on the other hand, is a gambler and a small time crook. He dreams of having his own horse-race booking company and hopes to grab hold of lady luck by whatever way he can. His villain is Tashi (Tenzing Nima), a high-profile gangster with international connections whose “goods” fall into the hands of Charlie. There are also some two dozen characters who enter the screen now and then, laugh manically, get shot and get forgotten. And yes, their paths cross, things (are made to) happen and they live happily ever after.
Kaminey is written by four people and it shows. Remember the game we used to play where each one of us took turns to add one line to take the story forward? Now remove all the fun from that and voila, you have the script of Kaminey. This proverbial broth absorbs a specific character from each one of its cooks, but doesn’t have one of its own. Nor does it present memorable characters in it. May be Bhardwaj was trying to create a Pulp Fiction (1994) of sorts, but the result is far from it. His characters are quirky for the sake being quirky. May be their names do allude to some movie classics, but you almost hear them crying out: “Hey there, I’m a offbeat and kinky character. Please love me and imitate me”. Neither are they employed as abstractions to make large scale statements about the world as in “arthouse cinema”, nor are they distorted and caricatured to pay homage and refer to film history as in Pulp Fiction and nor are they used to summarize the spirit of the age. They are not even real people living in all three dimensions. Characters come and characters go. Peripheral characters have their own limelight and die without a trace.
Let me try to clarify what I mean by summarizing what “each script” of Kaminey wants to be and what it turns out to be. The first of these was the potential USP of the film. Kaminey is full of Bolly references. Two brothers, who love each other, growing up on either side of the law, a larger than life baddie who vacations in exotic locales while giving orders to pull the trigger elsewhere and even a climax where almost all the characters in the film start firing at each other, while the bad bro turns martyr to save his sibling – we’ve seen them all before. What Kaminey seems to be trying is to pay tribute to and give a reboot to this Masala Noir genre while attempting to retain the sensibilities of today’s generation. But such a film ought not to take itself seriously. Instead it has to go for the laughs, all the way. This is where the second thread of Kaminey intervenes. One might argue that Bhardwaj was trying to give a slick production like Raghavan’s superb Johnny Gaddaar (2007), but characters in such films, I believe, should never be psychoanalyzed. Look at each character in Gaddaar. What do they all want? Simple. Money. Each of them is a mere placeholder, a mere entity that is driven along by the plot, its uncertainties and well, its fate. Kaminey, on the other hand, earnestly elaborates on the characters’ motivations and dreams, trying to make us empathize with them. It even presents extended Freudian sequences for this “purpose”.
[Kaminey Trailer]
Kaminey is then a character-driven film, you say? Let’s take the case of Guddu and Sweety – the two characters that the writers may claims as having depth. Apart from their one night-stand, we are given about three short scenes that are supposed to illustrate their relationship. The first of this is a perfunctory “chemistry scene”. The second one, which turns up just after the fiasco at their marriage ceremony, seems like just another ploy to siphon sympathy. And wait till you hear what the laughable basis of their romance is, in the third scene which takes place in a train. And finally, the most annoying of all the contributions is what makes the already out of control film seem overreaching and pretentious. With a tacked up message that blows up to full scale during the final shootout and cooked up observations that would make Thomas Friedman scratch his head, Kaminey shows signs of a naughty liberal chuckling his way through. Kaminey is not four films packed into one, but one film torn apart into four. Even if it had stuck to one of those paths, Bhardwaj would have had a pretty decent bullet point in his resumé.
Everything seems to come in pairs in Kaminey. There are pairs of brothers everywhere in the film. I would have even loved if the rapper-gangsta from Bombay to Bangkok (2007) showed up in Kaminey to claim that Tashi was his half-brother! But seriously, Kaminey never capitalizes upon this opportunity anywhere in the film. Let me just tell you about a couple of points in the film where I thought it could have taken the “other path” and salvaged itself to an extent. The first is at the intermission point, where Guddu and Charlie are confronted by wrong sets of goons. There was scope both for some awesome comedy and awesome suspense there. Not by the regular identity-confusion gag (and if the film’s vision was strong, that too), but by some subversion of conventions and morals. Instead, the film opts for some slapdash rush towards the climax, which is the second time I felt that the film could somewhat reset itself towards the destination it wanted. When more than a dozen characters are present on your canvas for a single scene, it’s very easy to mash it all up and that is exactly what happens. But this could have proved to be gold if only Bhardwaj had decided to stick to the true purpose of the film.
I may be just playing the troll over here, but surely, none of the scenes hold together. Each version of the film’s script seems to pull down the other, taking the film into a zone of utter indecisiveness. Kaminey, unfortunately, does not even have the surface gloss of Dev D (2009). Using ill-focused, largely handheld shots, Kaminey betrays both its history and quality. One can’t even comment on the technical aspects of the film, for the script leaves them without a direction. So it remains a mystery whether the excessive number of close-ups did good to the film or whether Bhardwaj’s device of revealing the past towards the end was apt, for the film does not seem to know what is good for it at all. All that is amusing in the film is the way Shahid Kapur makes lisping sound funny (lisping is new, stammering is out of date, you know). As for Vishal Bhardwaj, it is only good that he now returns to his personal and honest way of storytelling, for god sake, having a say on the final script. I risked Swine Flu by going to this movie and I say I deserve a medal.
Verdict:
August 14, 2009 at 9:57 pm
This makes it interesting. The diverse views, often antithetical.
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August 14, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Hmm… the plot thickens eh? Let’s see the BO verdict.
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August 14, 2009 at 10:29 pm
are you on twitter?
Very interesting review..
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August 14, 2009 at 10:31 pm
yup…
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August 14, 2009 at 10:37 pm
I second to what you wrote. And it’s kinda funny to read all the glowing praises for the film.
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August 14, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Yes. I think the film would have been called a masterpiece even if it had not released. Will all that promo hype!
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August 15, 2009 at 5:33 am
Sorry to be a spoilsport or as Arnie likes to say ‘party pooper’ but I thought Kaminey was a blast! I’m not sure about all the references to Guy Ritchie and Pulp Fiction though – it felt more of an extended unconscious homage to the masala cinema of the 70s. It’s a film that straddles that middle ground between art cinema and the mainstream. Technically, the film is outstanding in all areas especially the cinematography. I think it has to be viewed in the context in which it was made; it is post-modern Indian film – I would compare it to the way Tarantino shot Kill Bill, with a nerd like love of cinema. ‘Kaminey’ is VB’s tribute to masala cinema – it is hyperkinetic film making that blends together the nauseau brought on by a Tony Scott film with a fondness for locations that reminded me of VVC’s ‘Parinda’ and its inventive use of Mumbai. I will be posting my analysis soon complete with the litany of intertextual references VB makes. I guess you are right about the hype though.
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August 15, 2009 at 8:23 am
Wow, waiting to read that. I envy that you like the film. It just didn’t work for me…
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August 15, 2009 at 9:38 am
Please elaborate what you mean by ‘The idea behind Kaminey is inarguably great’. What IS this idea?
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August 15, 2009 at 9:55 am
From the same review:
“…is to pay tribute to and give a reboot to this Masala Noir genre while attempting to retain the sensibilities of today’s generation.”
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August 15, 2009 at 11:50 pm
“the real challenge is not to produce art, but to derive it out of collaboration.”
hallelujah, comrade
when can we see a few estranged Kollywood reviews!?
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August 16, 2009 at 7:06 am
touche! That’s the same question I’m asking myself… I’m not sure if it would be Kandasamy. Hope not!
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August 16, 2009 at 12:44 am
I wonder if you’ve seen Sankat City? If yes, what did you think of it?? I found some similarities between the two. Though Sankat City, to me, was FAR better.
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August 16, 2009 at 7:04 am
I’m so sorry that I missed that one. Will catch it soon.
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August 16, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I look forward to your views on that. I like the way you write/think. Commendable.
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September 1, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Sankat City DVD’s and CD’s are out!! Waiting to hear your take on it….
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August 19, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Back after a long time.. :)
Anyways, guess you have been slightly too harsh on the movie. The problem is what you expected from the movie. In a sense I guess maybe you expected much much more.
As someone who doesn’t fancy Tarantino’s cinema (yes, it includes the legendary Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs) and this being almost a homage to movies of those kinds, I ended up liking it more than I expected.
Maybe because I fell in love with a couple of characters, Amol Gupte and the two policemen for instance. In that sense I looked at it more as a character driven movie, which you seem to have shot down.
But in a sense, as you said, maybe he took the movie too seriously and ended up falling in the same traps as the Masala Noir movies you are talking about.
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August 19, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Hey Kutty, Kamon aachoo? So you do get time to watch movies eh? :P
Well, it seems like I’m in the 0.00001% who thought this one fell on its face.
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August 20, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Srikanth, I’m not sure about the stats. You see, I think you might be in the 0.01%.
I have not seen the film, but a good friend of mine, and a voracious movie-viewer mails me this about the movie. I think it treads pretty close to what you say.
One question I would like to ask Vishal Bharadwaj. “What’s the big rush sirjee?”
Kaminey felt like such a rush job. It is in so much hurry that most of the scenes become a hodge-podge series of shots which desperately scream at you “Look I’m so snappy. Look I’m so trippy. Look I’m so smart and look I’m faster than you. Dare you blink!”
Of course it is one helluva ride, but the ride doesn’t give a damn whether you are with it or trying to cling onto any thread you see. The ride wants to any freakin how reach its destination within a given deadline.
*SPOILER ALERT START*
Consider the ending shots. The shootout is over. Charlie is hit. In the next shot we see a bullet being removed. Immediately cut to, twins CU – Guddu CU – Priyanka CU, cut to Charlie betting in the crowd with a board of Mikhail and Co, cut to Fofhie. THE END.
These above images just rush through as if its job is just to inform. “What’s the big rush sirjee?”
*SPOILER ALERT END*
Surprisingly, though my initial words seem harsh towards Kaminey, my immediate reaction was far from negative. I really liked the 2nd half, except few things at the end. But when I started discussing it with my sister, the haze of ‘why didn’t Kaminey crack it’ slowly started to clear and I became more confident about my problems with the film.
I rarely come across Bharadwaj Rangan’s reviews in my daily surfing, but for Kaminey, I made it a point to read his opinion. And he gets one insight dead right.
“Kaminey is best experienced as a minor movie with major, character-driven set pieces. But there are times you are left with the niggling feeling that Bhardwaj is attempting to inflate this minor material into a major movie. “
Kaminey tries to give weight to the otherwise mean, quirky and frivolous characters. Along with this it also tries to bring some gravitas into a Guy Ritchie-esque plot. It tries to evoke a sense of traumatic childhood, brother vs brother, kameena panti, right and wrong, ambitions and love. And this is exactly where it messes up. The dynamics between the brothers rest on a clichéd (I never thought I would use this word for Kaminey) and a contrived guilt laden flashback. The love angle works better as a plot propeller rather than evoking any emotions (ala True Romance. The love angle was so freakin intense). And what was the big deal about the kameeneys. Were they that Kameeney? Have we not seen more kameeneys in our bollywood. Take for example Sayaji Shinde from Shool. And now compare it with Bhope Bhau. Bhope bhau could be termed as more entertaining, but who would you term a proper Kameena. Bhope bhau acted more like a chindi politician playing chindi power games. Tashi was just going around with his business. Lele Lobo were the becharaas stuck in a situation. What was the most Kameena thing these guys did in the movie? *SPOILER ALERT START*
For me it was the ruthless First class compartment Maandavli. I cant think of any more Kameenapanti apart from the fleeting killings. The Bengaalis, looked like were totally edited from the movie to evoke a sense of surprise at the end.*SPOILER ALERT END*
So, my point is, why make a big deal about the whole thing, why play the profoundly worded title song amidst this chaos, “Why so serious sirjee?” If the screenplay were treated a bit more farcically, a bit lighter handedly this would have become a far more potent film.
My final problem with the film would be the shaky and headache inducing cinematography + editing. Tassaduq Hussain and Meghna Sen do complete disservice to the screenplay. Now I know why Mr. Anurag Kashyap referred to Kaminey as a Guy Ritchie meets Paul Greengrass. And for Kaminey there shouldn’t have been any Greengrass influence. This ain’t a Bourne Bourne Identity or a United 93. Then why shake the hell out of the viewer. Why all the fast cuts and the constant barraging of ‘cool’ looking out-of-focus shots. Please keep the camera still and let us soak in the crackling chemistry between the characters. “Sirjee, you don’t need these gimmicks to be cool. Your raapchik dialogues and the quasi edgy direction are enough sirjee!” The need for more cool and calm editing is accentuated by the presence of the non-spoonfeeding screenplay. The screenplay doesn’t divulge all details and keep many things hanging around trusting (sometimes over trusting) the audiences sensory, cerebral and emotional receptors. In such cases the character dynamics have to be soaked in by the viewers so as not to be hindered by the lack of details. And this needs still shots to maintain the overall clarity of the going ons.
Okay, enough of bitching. Actually all this bitching is more of a natural retaliation to the insurmountable praise it’s been receiving. Even my most trusted people like Raja Sen and Rajeev Masand couldn’t find a fault in the film. I respect them so much for their Bollywood reviews that I sometimes doubt my own reasoning. But to hell with the critiquing and lets delve into why Kaminey is a screamer in its own right.
The screenplay (barring the above mentioned issues) is indeed imaginative and many a times rib tickingly audacious. When characters run into each other there is always an inherent tension and they end up in a crackling showdown. Watch out for Mikhail vs Bhope bhau. Each character is supposedly the Dude in his vicinity and that results into a strong underlying energy throughout. And the actors make a feast out of it. Not a single one looking outta place. Shahid Kapoor delivers a visceral performance as Charlie and also oozes sincerirty as Guddu. Priyanka plays her bit with mast bindass honesty. Her feisty and earthy marathi rendering made me go weak down the knees. Enough has been said about the rest of the cast. I would just like to add that each one commands his screen space in presence of others and come up with jhakaas performances.
Kaminey surely takes hindi cinema a notch up with its narrative and plot structuring, but doesn’t reach in the vicinity of cinematic class. It mish-mashes genres rather unspectacularly. (Mithya did that spectaculary) But anyways the energy, which is maintained on high levels throughout, ensure that not a dull moment is delivered. And finally it has upped my respect for Mr Tarantino ten fold.
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August 20, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Thanks so much for that mail, Satish. Get lost Bergman, I’m not alone in this world!
A really perceptive write up indeed. He/She should start writing. I can guarantee one reader. :)
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August 20, 2009 at 9:55 pm
I don’t think its a bad film, rather I’d second the views of Omar Ahmed. However, despite that I must say yours is a marvelously written review. Just because I don’t agree with what you’ve said doesn’t mean I can’t like the way you said what you’ve said. By the way, I hope you manage to make sense of the last sentence. Anyway, its always interesting to have views that go contrary to popular feeling – and that is the long and short of it. And the way you’ve written, if you had gone on for a few more paragraphs, I might have started believing you :)
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August 20, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Thank you Shubajit. As you said, at the end of the day, its just an opinion.
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August 20, 2009 at 10:02 pm
BTW, the last sentence is supposed to read:
“I risked Swine Flu by going to this movie and I say I deserve a medal.”
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August 20, 2009 at 11:29 pm
It will be interesting to see how a film like ‘Kaminey’ stands up in a few years – the way we judge films in their immediate context changes considerably later on.
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August 20, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Exactly, that’s why I believe that I’ll like a few movies more in the future. And a few less…
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August 21, 2009 at 12:51 am
Kaminey seems to be a love it or hate it kinda movie.
I felt in trying to be “snazzy” and “crisp”, V.B. somewhere down the line fell into the cliche trap. (shootout/Bhope’s change in ideology/bhai-bhai confrontation etc)
Irony. because from scene 1, that’s one thing he tries very consciously to avoid.
Having said that, I loved the attempt. I loved the dialogues and I loved the oddball support cast.
But for now, I’d stick with Maqbool.
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August 21, 2009 at 9:18 am
In fact, I would have loved if the film had elaborated on the Bhai Bhai confrontation.
I would have preferred one of the brothers being played by some other actor. That way, we could have had a crackling buddy movie, where the bros fly at each other’s throats, spouting one liners all the way. I am not able to think of a comparison now, the closest that comes to my mind is Thiruda Thiruda (Chor Chor)- incidentally a witty RGV script.
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August 21, 2009 at 12:13 pm
well.. for one.. i can’t get my head around the leads.. shahid kapoor and priyanka chopra.. i mean, who are they kiddin.. you needed someone like a younger sanjay dutt.. an original badass.. if he has a gun in his hand.. you don’t call it a gun.. you say- ghoda.. and for the girl you needed someone like urmila in daud.. i mean, chopra’s an airhead and plastic.. the first half of the film, i squirmed through.. i love the second half though.. i thought it went real abstract.. without rhyme or reason it jogged ahead.. i loved the shabby cinematography and those pointless montages of mumbai and the black and white footage.. the plot became so very perfunctory.. but the movie bogged me down yet again with that lousy ‘ending shootout’ song.. i mean, come on, VB, how come you suddenly choose to go all jingo on me now. whats with the righteousness?
i still like it for some tiny pleasures tucked away in the periphery.
I also hate the way he fucked up the soundtrack. the songs deserved better.
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August 21, 2009 at 12:20 pm
All that was missing from the final song was a subtitle reading “Crime doesn’t pay”. I couldn’t even see all of this as a “glorious mess”. Plain mess.
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August 21, 2009 at 12:14 pm
i also had a tactile moment of beauty when i developed a massive craving for vada pav.. one i haven’t been able to fulfill yet..
bangalore should have more vada pav
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August 21, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Bangalore would make a great geographical equivalent of Kaminey (if you will allow for some stupid comparisons that is) – floating in Pizzas and Burgers, but never ever tasty as Vada Paavs or Paav Bhajis
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September 7, 2009 at 12:07 am
I must appreciate the intellectual level of thinking and the impressive command over language you and some other posters here have. Please take it as a complement.
But the kind of analysis you make, just think it this way, it would be possible to find serious flaws in Citizen Kane and 2001: A Space Odyssey and Pather Panchali and what not. I have an observation although, those who are not satisfied with Kaminey belong to a group that takes cinema a lot more seriously than others.
I am a struggling writer-director in Mumbai, my younger brother is an assistant director and we keep meeting people from the film industry. And if you were among us, you would know, how important Kaminey is for Hindi Cinema. And how difficult it is to make such a film.
Anyways, I am a person who believes in appreciating more than criticizing. Guess this is the problem with me.
And one final word, I am sick of people saying ‘Maqbool was far better than Kaminey.’ Not that I disagree. Only if all those people had taken the trouble to watch Maqbool in a theatre, perhaps it would not have been a loser at the box-office. When a ‘Johnny Gaddar’ or a ‘Sankat City’ comes, we conveniently miss it. We catch it later and when a ‘Kaminey’ gets some loud praise we let out that wise tone: ‘Johnny Gaddar was better’.
If only we could appreciate efforts, honestly….
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September 7, 2009 at 7:34 am
Satyanshu,
I never believe in considering the efforts behind making a film as an indicator of quality and a tool for compromise. I really admire the guts of the director to go through it all. But that I think should stay away from viewing the final product. If efforts were a yardstick in appreciating movies, then films like Fizzcarraldo, 81/2 etc. would be masterpieces even if they hadn’t released.
Yes, I see how cherished it is for people in the industry to see a film like Kaminey come out of the studios, but that is because I feel those people almost always give weight to the conditions under which it was made more than anything.
I also believe that comparing Gaddaar is a valid one because it is the kind of film Kaminey wants to be and falls short. Instead of speculating, it is always better to see it alongside a film that has done it gloriously.
Thanks,
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October 3, 2009 at 12:22 pm
[…] a single stylistic umbrella despite their vast disparity. One deadly flaw that Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey (2009) had was that, in an attempt to marry genres, he ended up marrying styles too, which made the […]
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January 30, 2010 at 11:31 pm
[…] to debutant filmmaker Abhishek Chaubey (who shares the writing credits of Kaminey (2009)), I’ve been able to watch a film that is completely unprovocative, after a long time. As […]
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