Kaminey: Of Love, Power, Greed and Honest Intentions

“Mere Har Jhooth Ki Niyat Sachhi Hai” Sweety, Kaminey

The year was 2009, Monsoons were striking quite aggressively in Madhya Pradesh, Swine Flu came knocking down the door of the country for the first time at Hyderabad airport and was on the verge of spreading pandemically, especially around Pune. The country was simultaneously preparing to celebrate 63^rd Independence Day. Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots was still months away from creating history at the box office. I had finished my school by then and was quite content with the kind of marks I got in 12^th, I knew what stream of specialization I had to enroll myself in for my graduation but the admissions were still a month away. I was a total “Fukra” so to speak, time was preferentially dedicated to movies and novels. By then, a name had subconsciously stuck with me; Vishal Bhardwaj, and till date I am not able to decipher why? Perhaps because of the iconic whistle from the song “Chhod Aaye Hum Woh Galiyan” from Maachis, or the brilliant adaption of Macbeth in the form of Maqbool or narrating the tragedy of Othello through the haunting eyes of Omkara. Be it through music or through his films, he always had something new to tell, and the narration of which attracted me (it still does but in a more dramatic way). The date was set, a day before Independence Day, there I was sitting at the third-class stalls in Jyoti Cinema (the only single screen theater back then which solely survived on the blockbusters of the Khan’s) waiting for the irritating washing powder Nirma advertisement to end, and let the lights go dim. Little did I know that after coming out of the theater singing “Pehli Baar Mohabbat” that nine years later I’ll still be so fascinated with that film; Kaminey.

Was it Bollywood’s answer to Pulp Fiction, as most reviews said at that point of time? Or was it solely because of the fact that people till then had not seen something so edgy, dark and yet very realistic in its nature in a Hindi film. Something that demanded your utmost attention. Kaminey narrates the tale of identical twins, Charlie and Guddu with speech inhibitions. Charlie lisps, whereas Guddu stutters. As Charlies proclaims, he runs, while his brother crawls. They are poles apart. Charlie is ambitious, while Guddu wants stability. Vishal Bhardwaj’s enduring fascination with the stories of underdogs is what formulates Kaminey into a such a riveting film. Both the brothers are the underdogs of the story, crammed around the world full of mean people, and that surrounding is what makes both the brothers subconsciously develop that mean side inside them. The atmosphere of the film is quite dark, revolving around the monsoon period of Mumbai, as if the film is trying to explore a darker side of these characters in a dark period of the city. We see a wide array of colorful characters in the film, from an archetypal Maharashtrian gangster turned politician, Bhope Bhau who has immense dislike for immigrants coming from North India and making their lives in Mumbai more difficult. We have another pair of brothers working at the Narcotic cell of the city, Lobe and Lele, who works for a bad-ass drug kingpin, Tashi. We have three more brothers, Mujeeb, Sumon and Mikhail who are associates of Charlie. We have a typical confident Maharashtrian girl, Sweety who does not shy away from taking control of the situation when her love is at stake.    

Kaminey touches various themes of the times we live in, Greed, Power, Ambition, Dreams, Politics, Poverty, Sexuality, Friendship, Love through the course of these characters. Kaminey feels so realistic, why? because the characters are so believable and the situations they get enrolled themselves are also real. Imagine a gangster with international drug traders and smugglers organizing a party and everyone is having a good time until the light goes away, then all of them sit around at a corner with candles lightened up waiting for the electricity to come back, or for that matter travelling in the yellow black taxi to go to a rival gang's place. There is no dramatization of any sorts. The unique point here is how wonderfully Vishal Bhardwaj treats his characters and takes the popular plot of the seventies Hindi films; estranged brothers, miscommunication, gangsters and interlace a narrative so real in its outcome. There are so many metaphorical symbols in the film specifically highlighting the mean side of a person. Every character in the film is a kamina of some sort, few innocent ones, while few dangerously dark ones. Even the little kid at one point realizes the magnitude of the moment and displays his greed to Bhope Bhau. Sweety pretends to stammer just like Guddu so that she can come close to her, Guddu, who planned his marriage five years later but gets seduced into an opportunity for an intimate moment. Charlie, despite knowing the consequences of taking the custody of Guitar takes a bold step in his life. All of them, literally are Kaminey. 

Charlie starts his introduction by describing his dream, the way he follows that one particular rupee, he cannot help himself but go after that. He comes close to a beautiful girl, and whispers near her ear “Blue Thunder” That one note changes the scene drastically, as soon as it rifts away from Charlie, we see lights go dim, and people fading off, and he is unable to catch it, the scene is a direct symbol of Charlie’s greed, and ambition to own his booking window. The face-off between Charlie and Guddu is another memorable moment in the film, Tassaduq Hussain's cinematography is top notch in that particular scene. There is also a nuanced tragedy depicted in Kaminey that we discover over the time in the film, where we learn about the suicide of Charlie and Guddu’s father who stole a watch, even the brothers claim that they were too young to understand the motives behind the actions of their father, but the tragedy is so personal and devastating that it makes the both the brother choose their own individual path.  The speech inhibitions faced by both the brothers are actually metaphors. There is this word that found recently, which made me think more deeply about the speech inhibitions of these two brothers; logorrhea. In terms of psychology, it is a disorder of communication which causes unnecessary loquaciousness and monotony, which can sometimes lead to incoherency. We have to come in terms with the fact that in today’s world, logorrhea is deep rooted, and it presents itself with several dangers, two major ones being miscommunication and conflicts. Everyone is speaking their heart out (social media) but no one understands or cares. Vishal Bhardwaj, probably makes us believe that the world is now convoluted around the web of trends, that to convey their state of mind or to express themselves, people should use either do it through silence or through speech impediments.   

 

The camaraderie between Mikhail and Charlie in Kaminey is extremely likeable, both are in a different state of craziness, yet they look after each other every time. Charlie considers Mikhail way more than his brother. The song Dhan Te Nan has ambiance of a rave party, where people are in some sort of psychedelic trance, as Mikhail points out in the earlier moments before the song, one can see people kissing, the dark red light of the room intersecting through the room, Charlie and Mikhail do get into that psychedelic trance, since both of them are high on Cocaine, and opportunity that the guitar brings with itself makes them ride high on dreams. Quite easily the show stealing scene of the film, where Charlie and Mikhail have a face of with Bhope Bhau and Gang, this is where we see a more psychotic and dangerous version of Mikhail, who gives a metaphorical warning to Bhope to side away otherwise he would take away his “Ek Mirchi aur Do Nimbu”. In the climax of the film, we see Charlie in a suit, owning a booking named “Mikhail and Co” which in the script is "Kismet and Brothers". They might have changed it considering in mind what Mikhail meant to Charlie.   

Vishal Bhardwaj never backs away from talking about the political scenario of the time the film is set under, we hear about Bhope Bhau's fundamental beliefs that immigrant have sucked the blood out of their "Mumbai" which for Guddu is still "Bambai", But Guddu does not let himself comes under the impression that he is an outsider, he answers the questions with the theory that immigrants like him are the sugar in the glass of a milk, it won't impact the quantity of milk, but would make it less sweet. There is constant belief in my opinion that somewhere somehow Vishal Bhardwaj picks out a situation or a character and through them he expresses his political views of the current times. He created that atmosphere in Omkara and connected the links between Othello, organized crime and politics of Uttar Pradesh. In 7 Khoon Maaf, as we travel through the life of Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes, the chapter of her third husband, Wasiullah Khan (Musafir), we see the times when Babri Masjid Demolition occurred and changed the political climate of the country forever. Vishal Bhardwaj’s strongest political commentary came through the tragedy of Haider where a brave attempt was made to talk about the mayhem cause in the heavens. In Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, he talks about the state of farmers and the kind of treatment they are given on the ground level, and that too through black comedy.

The irony of the story between Guddu and Sweety is quite amusing, we are introduced to Guddu, who works at a NGO and educates Sex workers about safe sex and condoms, and yet it was his lost in the intimacy kind of the moment that lands him up in a situation where Sweety gets pregnant. He has a manually prepared poster of his plans in life, that marks the important events he should accomplish by specific year. Sweety is a quintessential Vishal Bhardwaj female protagonist, who lives her life the way she wants to irrespective of any patriarchal approach by her family, she comes out a strong character. My heart sank a bit, when I saw her on the screen, my immediate reaction was "Don't make me watch her succumb to another tragedy by the means of people around her, just like the way it was done to Nimmi and Dolly Mishra", but as we see more of them, I observed that Guddu and Sweety are the perfect love story of the times we live in.  

Kaminey’s music appears like a tribute to the music of 70’s, there are RD Burman songs placed in the narrative which works so beautifully, the popular Dhan Te Nan is a tribute to the 70’s style retro period. When Charlie gives Francis a surprise visit at the hotel, we hear the song “Do Lafzo Ki hai Dil Ki Kahani” from the movie The Great Gambler (1979) played at the background, Similarly when Charlie gets hold of the guitar, he plays the song “Duniya Main Logo Ko Dhokha Kabhi Ho Jaata Hai”  The title song of the film is what deeply wins you over, the song written by Gulzar and Sung by Vishal Bhardwaj expresses the state of mind of Charlie, we see a reflection of Charlie walking through the railway tracks. The title song 'Kaminey' encapsulates the soul of Charlie and the theme of the film as well. “मेरी आरज़ू कमीनी, मेरे ख्वाब भी कमीनी, एक दिल से दोस्ती थी, ये हुज़ूर भी कमीने”, The intentions, the dreams, the one absolute close friend, all of them were Kaminey.

Reflections in Mirrors play a significant role in most of Vishal Bhardwaj's films, as if when the characters look into the mirror, they see an actual reflection of themselves of who they are in reality, and what they should be doing instead of pretending to be something else in front of other's. Charlie looks into the mirror, and starts playing the guitar, confident that the guitar will change his miserable life. Guddu, on the other hand looks into the mirror and forces a fake smile and convinces himself that he is happily marrying Sweety. Speaking of true reflections in mirrors, who can forget the iconic moment of realization of Langda Tyagi in Omkara, he breaks the mirrors with his hands and smears the blood on his forehead mentally proclaiming the much-deserved position of Baahubali that he felt, he rightfully deserved. It was that particular discovery of his reflection that made him plot the ultimate tragedy. In Maqbool, a broken Nimmi asks Miyan about the purity of their love and we see a reflection of the couple. In 7 Khoon Maaf, Susanna looks into the mirror, broken and bruised, she tries to hid her pain by applying all sorts of make-up. We sense an innocent side of Susanna, who has come to the realization that she has once again failed on her quest to find love, and soon all of her innocence will be vanished once she rings the bell. In Haider, when Haider calls his mother, Ghazala to meet her, he directs her face to a broken mirror, and tells us about the dual face she has, this is also reference to the theme of Omkara, where Dolly Mishra’s father warns Omkara about the dual face nature of a woman. We also see Harry Mandola, holding a bottle of alcohol and struggle with his alcoholism in Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola. The Mirror reflects the other 'Harry', he becomes once he is intoxicated under the influence of alcohol.  A mirror is not always true version of the reality, it's a reversed version that we see, the directions are opposite in front of a mirror, left becomes right. Another idea behind the use of reflection in mirrors is to hold a deeper symbolic meaning in the context of the situation that the character is going through. A recurring idea expressed through reflections in mirror is about duality of the person. Reflections in Mirrors also to a certain extent symbolizes the narrow gap between Conscious and Unconscious mind, the reflected image is an indicative of the depth of their unconscious mind. The beauty of mirror reflections in Vishal Bhardwaj's films is that they are placed subtly in the narrative, which points out an extreme expression from the person. We can presume that reflections hold an alternate reality that the person desires when most of the time they are gazing at themselves for a long time.

Kaminey is not Vishal Bhardwaj's first encounter with twins who are pole opposite in nature, in his first film as a director, Makdee, he told the story of two sisters, Chunni and Munni. The two sisters are more or less similar to Charlie and Guddu, one of them is notorious, while the other one is genuinely straight and simple. On a closer look, I found several more references of twins in Kaminey, Lobe and Lele appears twins, the twin diamonds which Cajetan brings in return to get hold of the guitar. At one point of the film, we see a pair of crow, two kids flying kites. In his other films, there are also important roles essayed by siblings. The popular witches from Maqbool, Inspector Pandit and Purohit can easily be assumed as twins, the fanatic Salman brothers from Haider too makes this list.     

Another central facet in Vishal Bhardwaj's films is most of the important characters are driven by the lust of greed and power, and it is this quality in them which makes them fascinating figures. Crime is always juicer than spirituality, and the characters in Vishal Bhardwaj's fictitious world does not even make an effort to hide those features and live a pretentious life. In Makdee, we had a witch who cons an entire village just because of the greed she has developed for evil intentions. In Maqbool, Abba ji is poetic in his nature, and considers Mumbai as his beloved, yet he does not shy away from killing his brother in law for his betrayal. In Omkara, we have Bhai Saab, who has an incredible aura surrounding him, he values power more than anything else. He is living a lavish life inside the jail premises and controls the organized crime syndicate. In an outrageously funny scene, he tells Langda Tyagi to pull the chain of the train and asks the TT to take a you-turn and drop these guys back. Even in The Blue Umbrella, Nandu is driven by a surreal greed to capture the Blue Umbrella from Biniya, this is what drives him in his life. 

I read the screenplay of Kaminey, and recalled a line from Gulzar Saab, where he tells that films are made on two tables, Writing and Editing. This scenario become much truer if you take an example of Kaminey, the original screenplay is a lot different than the one we see on the screen, it is more violent on paper, but the one which we see on the screen feels more real. There is this whole angle of how Cajetan (a name in reference to the Kenyan writer, Cajetan Boy who developed the idea of Kaminey and sold the rights to Vishal Bhardwaj)  gets the hold of those diamonds, a bloody war like sequence somewhere around Africa, but it is not present in the film. The prime difference between Screenplays and Novels is the role of the Director, Novels are exclusively for writers, where for a screenplay to work, we need a director with the clear vision about how he visualizes the words.

The climax of the film is simply a poem about the actions these people take in their lives, there is a violent shootout between a lot of people, Cocaine getting burned, every is aimlessly shooting at whomever they see, yet amidst through all these chaos, it’s the song that narrates the climax so beautifully, the lust for power and a tiny moment of opportunism to get a second chance in life. That’s the magic of Vishal Bhardwaj’s music, he use it to express his stories and situation, people feel the music and gets the ton of the scene or the mood of the character. Be it a tragedy, a fable, chaos, loss, redemption, there is always a poem to narrate it.

And what about the scene between Guddu and Sweety near the petrol pump, how often do we see a Hindi film Hero tell us that he read Champak, Nandan, Bela Bahadur, Guddu tells us very proudly while narrating his love encounter with Sabiya Layik Ahmed, and what makes him recall the incident from class sixth, in which he almost failed, perhaps his insecurities about love. He realizes that Sweety does not have a speech impediment, he simply communicates his thoughts about people picking on him due to his vulnerabilities, and this is the point where Sweety simply says “Mere Har Jhooth Ki Niyat Sachhi Hai”

Love is a such a strong volatile emotion, and it’s quite needless to say, an extremely special sense of experience for a person to feel that feeling around and, Mere Har Jhooth Ki Niyat Sachhi Hai. It has all the colors yet can be gruesomely dark, and destructive and, Mere Har Jhooth Ki Niyat Sachhi Hai. Love will always trigger the strongest of reactions from us, it makes us, it helps us discover a lot of things about ourselves and yet it has the capability to break us and Mere Har Jhooth Ki Niyat Sachhi Hai. Love is about stuttering together, locating flaws, and finding peace in those human flaws, and Mere Har Jhooth Ki Niyat Sachhi Hai. Love is about recalling an incident in the middle of the road at midnight, where your heart was shattered forever, because Mere Har Jhooth Ki Niyat Sachhi Hai. Love is about crying your heart out, screaming on top of your voice, and talking in silence with each other because Mere Har Jhooth Ki Niyat Sachhi Hai. Love is metaphysical yet very somehow a bit empirical. Love is in the laughter, Love is also in tears, because Mere Har Jhooth Ki Niyat Sachhi Hai. Love is in ecstasy, love is also in grief, love is a disease, and yet the diagnosis itself, because Mere Har Jhooth Ki Niyat Sachhi Hai. Love is finding answers to uncanvassed questions. Love is reading Gulzar’s words together in solace, because………… Mere Har Jhooth Ki Niyat Sachhi Hai