References in Kaminey –

Apart from belonging mostly in the genre of films like Pulp Fiction, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Manmohan Desai film films which Vishal Bhardwaj openly says he admires, I found two other films that may have influenced Kaminey –

1. PARASH PATHAR(1958) - The scene in Kaminey towards the end of the film when the little boy trades chocolate with Amole Gupte for keeping quiet is a reference to Parash Pathar directed by Satyajit Ray.

2. OLDBOY(2003) – In the scene where Charlie recalls how his Dad died, we see Charlie as a grown up child as well as a kid in the flashback. Vishal Bhardwaj uses that brilliantly. We see young Charlie bring the money to get his father out of the prison. But it’s too late and Guddu throws the money back to Charlie. The young Charlie is replaced by Shahid Kapur in the scene and the scene becomes a metaphor that Charlie even after growing up feels the pain he felt when he was young and holds himself responsible for his father’s death. The switch of young Charlie to Shahid Kapur in the flashback itself is a reference to Oldboy when O Daesu goes back to his school to remember the incident that happened. We see the switching between young O Daesu and the older one when he tries to recall the incident.

Shahid Kapoor's speech defect in KAMINEY is now a fashion statement, and is being copied by the young and old. The actor not only essayed both his speech defect roles to perfection, but with the cute way in which he spoke, he won all the hearts, and we can now hear many trying to emulate his style by substituting 's' with 'f'.

School children, and especially the youth have picked up his style and made it into a fashion statement. We have had fans emulating hairstyles, dresses and walking, dancing styles of their favourite actors, but this is the first time in the history of cinema that the mannerisms relating to speech defect are being aped by so many.

In fact, people even go to the extent of calling out to Shahid when they see him, by asking, 'Arre, Fahid, kaifa hai tu yaar?" and Shahid simply enjoys all the attention. Recently, in an interview to a leading daily, he admitted that it was really very nice to know that people find him synonymous to his character of Charlie in KAMINEY.

Well, Shahid it's your charm that has ensured that your latest Eid release, DIL BOLE HADIPPA, has shown decent collections, despite a super strong challenger in the form of Salman Khan's much hyped WANTED. Way to go, man.

Even though he has worked in films across varied genres, the lover boy image seems to be stuck around Shahid Kapoor, courtesy his recent successes like KISMAT KONNECTION, JAB WE MET and VIVAAH.

"Even when I was on the verge of signing KAMINEY, people discouraged me. Since on paper itself it sounded such a different film, I was advised that I should follow a conventional route and do more love stories. People felt that I was on a wrong path by signing on something experimental when I should have rather consolidated my image as a lover boy. I am glad I took a firm stand though because I sincerely believe that audiences today want a change", explains Shahid.

He isn't turning his back away from romantic films though.

Audiences and critics can't stop raving about Shahid Kapoor's performance in the hit film "Kaminey", but the 28-year-old actor says doing the dark thriller was a "litmus test" as his well-wishers felt breaking away from his lover boy image may ruin his career.

"The fact is that mass as well as niche audiences have given a thumbs up to a subject and a genre that were never explored before. This was a very huge film for me and hence a big litmus test as well. It was such a huge risk and my fortune could have swung either way. I'm so happy that it paid off eventually," Shahid told IANS.

Kaminey is a good success, both critically as well as commercially, and now all of a sudden Shahid Kapoor finds himself in the super big league. While the Khans (Shah Rukh, Aamir, Salman) have been dominating from the top along with Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan, the success of Kaminey means that both Shahid Kapoor as well as Saif Ali Khan (who again delivered a huge money spinner in Love Aaj Kal) are already making actors in the Top-5 uncomfortable. As this Vishal Bhardwaj film continues to fetch audiences and reactions for itself in it's second week, Joginder Tuteja catches up with Shahid Kapoor who feels that the biggest success point for Kaminey is the fact that massy as well as niche audiences have given a Thumbs Up to a subject and a genre that has been hitherto unexplored.

Once in a particularly blue moon, comes a film that makes you wolf-whistle. One that then ties you to the edge of your seat and forcibly pins you there and pounces on you, eventually leaving you sitting in the dark, drained and grinning and more satisfied than a film has any business leaving you. This, ladies and gentlemen, is that kind of ride.

And way more.

Vishal Bhardwaj reinvents the filmi rollercoaster with feverish glee as he takes a wonderfully twisty plot and paces it flawlessly around a bunch of madcap, irresistible characters. It takes nearly twenty minutes to get used to things, the characters, the words they speak, they way they speak them, and the tone of the film -- heck, to get used to this film's world. Then on, the film just freakin' flies.

Bollywood actor Shahid Kapur, who is essaying a double-role, with speech disorders, in Vishal Bharadwaj's upcoming film 'Kaminey' is thrilled to play 'bad' on screen for the first time.

"Good can get boring after a period of time. I have tried to achieve what director Vishal Bharadwaj has envisaged.

It is the best double role that I have come across in recent times," Shahid, who has spinned success with his typical choclate boy image in earlier films, told reporters here.

Vishal Bhardwaj's Kaminey stars an interesting mix of actors -- and we're not talking about the lead actors only.

The supporting cast, as in all Bhardwaj movies, is just as strong. We saw Piyush Mishra and Ajay Gehi play the father-son team fabulously in Maqbool, and of course, Saif Ali Khan's brilliant sidekick Deepak Dobriyal in Omkara.

We look at the eclectic supporting cast of Kaminey.

Shiv Subramnayam as Lobo

Role: I play a cop called Lobo, who works in the Anti-Narcotics Bureau. He has a side business of pilfering drugs and selling it to dealers. But at one time, he lands up in a mess as the drugs he steals gets stolen from him, and he has a powerful gang boss breathing down his neck. He spends the rest of the film trying to get his drug haul back, with his partner Lele.

Preparing for Kaminey: I just roller coasted through the film, following the director's instructions blindly. My character is a cop, so instinctively a certain authority crept into my behaviour.

Favourite scene: I like the scene where Lobo and his partner Lele interrogate Charlie (Shahid Kapur) in the police station. It's funny and menacing at the same time. All three of us just got into the groove and the scene just flowed.

Toughest scene: I found a scene where Lele, Charlie and I sit cramped in the front seat of a car and I had to punch Charlie. It was difficult as we had no place to move.

Background: I am from Mumbai. I'm a scriptwriter and have won two Filmfare awards -- Best Screenplay for Parinda (1989) and Best Story for Hazaaron Khwaishen Aisi (2006). I have also collaborated on 1942: A Love Story and Chameli. I have written Leena Yadav's Teen Patti, featuring Amitabh Bachhan and Ben Kingsley, which should be releasing soon.

I have written four plays, all of which had long and satisfying runs. Apart from writing, I've acted in films like Prahaar and Drohkaal.

Vishal Bharadwaj is as much of an enigma as his films. He goes incommunicado when he is shooting a film but is wonderfully articulate and expressive once the pressure is off. Perhaps because he started his career as a music director, his films are appealingly lyrical and poetic even as they explore the dark side of human behaviour

• All your films explore the dark side of the human psyche…
Yes, I have been doing that right from Makdee, in which I tried to show life from the point of view of a child. As a child, I remember, one of my relatives was supposedly possessed by a ghost and we would take him to a Maulvi to get rid of the ghost. I was only 14 - 15 years of age and I was traumatised. Then as I grew up, I realised that I had to get this out of my system and so I made Makdee. I tried to do the exorcising with Maqbool and Omkara too but I think we can never get rid of our dark side. We get dark images everyday. But Kaminey, I would say, has the lightest side of that darkness presented in a humorous manner with some seriousness.

Barely four films old, but director and music composer Vishal Bhardwaj commands a respect in the industry, few filmmakers can boast of.

Three years since his last outing as a director, Vishal is now looking forward to Kaminey. Preferring to stay away from the party circuit, the still desi-at-heart filmmaker believes that only work should do all the talking. Though he admits that he still has to get used to the filmi ways, here we get the director of films like Maqbool and Omkara to talk about the filmi things that really matter.

It’s been three years since your last film Omkara...

I was waiting for the right script. There was also another project with Franka Potente that we were working on, but it didn’t materialise. The film had kept me busy for long.

It's a song that captures the current Indian spirit wonderfully. The gung ho, the gassiness, the gumption, the gauche glibness. Dhen te Nan, a bouncy song in Vishal Bhardwaj's Kaminey, is India, a brash celebration of Indian brio.

Dhen te Nan is Main Street and its many rambunctious happenings. Dhen te Nan is Country Street with its seething ardour. It's Bharat with bombast, it's Bhart's bravura performance. Koi good luck nikale, aaj gullak toh phode are words that resonate in the subconscious of the small town.

In that line is a sizzling mixture of to-do (koi good luck to nikale) and can-do (aaj gullak to phode). More than a decade and a half into liberalisation, Dhen te Nan is a cocksure cornucopia of Indian capers.

Now that KAMBAKKHT ISHQ has set the pace for opening week records at the box office to be broken again, all eyes on KAMINEY to do the trick. Those who have had the dekko at the film can't stop raving about it and feelers from insiders have been that KAMINEY is all set to be a smash entertainer in the offering.

Says a prominent film personality who has had a sneak peak at the film, 'KAMINEY is one helluva entertainer and Vishal (Bhardwaj) has surpassed his own past work from OMKARA and MAQBOOL. What a fantastic story teller! This is his first stab at a hardcore commercial flick and he is just excellent.'

She believes that KAMINEY has in it to break the box office records.

'First and foremost the title will do the trick', she reasons, 'The youth is already anticipating the release of KAMINEY because of sheer excitement that comes with the title. While the campus crowd is certainly going to go wild due to numerous twists and turns that the film sees, in smaller towns and cities too the film is heating up very fast. Though the film is more than a month away, the film is so hot that even if it releases next Friday, it will turn out to be a full house show.'

Shahid Kapoor, who plays a double role for the first time in Kaminey, has adopted his father Pankaj Kapur’s method of acting. Both the characters, Guddu and Charlie, played by the actor have speech defects — one stammers and the other lisps.

Pankaj Kapur has played a double role in Anubhav Sinha’s Dus. When director Vishal Bharadwaj asked the senior actor’s son to play the morally-incompatible twins, Shahid apparently studied the way his father played the double role in Dus.

Amole Gupte, who plays the villain in Kaminey, confirmed the news and said that he has never witnessed such diligence. He said, “When Shahid played Guddu, who stammers, he completely internalised all of the character’s traits, including the stammer, so the character doesn’t end up looking like a caricature.”