Showing posts with label Shahid Kapoor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shahid Kapoor. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Kismat Konnection (2008) - Starring Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan and Juhi Chawla

Shahid Kapoor had the super-hit film with a pairing with Kareena Kapoor, and the movie ? Jab We Met. Unfortunately, his luck ran out then, and in fact Jab We Met was released when the pair was already done, with Kareena waltzing off with Saif Ali Khan, and Shahid looking for somebody on the rebound. During and after the course of this movie, there were a lot of stories about a relationship with Vidya Balan, but soon after this movie released, the talk went away. In fact, the movie had a strong opening and a great first weekend, but then went weak and was classified as a weak movie at the box office. The songs were okay, the chemistry was okay (although there were a number of comments about his boyish look while she looked like his aunty), and then of course, there was withering criticism of Vidya Balan's wardrobe, something that must have riled her a lot (she talked about this criticism for some time after the release of the movie).
The movie also had a role by Juhi Chawla, trying to play a non-glamorous role, and if the movie had been successful, maybe that role might have been more appreciated. However, it was not to be. The movie was released under the banner of Tips Industries, being produced by Ramesh Taurani, and was directed by the well admired director Aziz Mirza (who of course has a very strong Shahrukh Khan connection). The music was by Pritam, with lyrics by Sayeed Quadri & Shabbir Ahmed). The movie had story by Rahila Mirza.

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The story of how a particular person could be the key to another person's luck sounds like the story that a fortune teller might try to tell you, and so it was in this case. It is particular painful for a person who was at the top in college, and was predicted to do very well. Raj Malhotra (Shahid Kapoor) is an architect, and is still struggling for good work. In addition, he runs into trouble in the form of Priya (Vidya Balan) and they have a tiff (verbal tiff).
Soon after, Raj goes to a gypsy lady Haseena Bano Jaan (played by Juhi Chawla) for help and advice, and she tells him that there is a person whose very presence will bring him luck, and guess what, it will be Priya. If she were there when he was trying to do his business, it will lead to more clients, more business, and success.
Priya is more interested in doing social work, including standing up for the rights of citizens when businesses are trying to push them aside. She wants to prevent the building of a huge commercial project that will push aside a small community center, while for him, the big move is to propose himself as the architect of this huge commercial project. So he lies to her in terms of trying to help her project while putting forward his proposals for the project. And, her presence does seem to help his fortune. He also falls in love with her, but then, things get upturned when she finds out what he is actually trying to do.
However, by this time, he is for the project that she is trying to do, for her cause, and changes his plans to accommodate the community center, but is knocked out of the bidding process, even though she is attracted finally by what he is trying to do. And then help comes from a very unlikely source, such a help that you would start to believe in a concept of God. A movie that can be watched.

Kismat Konnection (2008) - Starring Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan and Juhi Chawla

Monday, August 15, 2011

Kaminey (released in 2009) - Starring Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Amol Gupte

Kaminey was an interesting movie, released in the year 2009. Even the name was somewhat different from the existing names that are used for movies, and the script was even more interesting (and was actually bought from a Kenyan writer for 4000 dollars by Vishal Bhardwaj). When I walked into the movie hall, the movie seemed a bit slow in the beginning, but quickly gathered pace and became a must watch. The movie was directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, starred Shahid Kapoor in a double role, and also starred Priyanka Chopra in a role that she must have appreciated. The music for the movie was also given by Vishal Bhardwaj, and was well appreciated, especially for the hit song, called Dhan Te Nan, sung by Sukhwinder Singh, Vishal Dadlani. Lyrics for the movie were by Gulzar. The movie was nominated for a number of awards at the Filmfare awards, Apsara awards, and many others.

DVD for Kaminey on Amazon / Flipkart


The movie takes on the life of 2 identical twins, growing up as orphans in the city of Mumbai. The normal depiction of loving twins is very different, here these are 2 boys who cannot stand each other and stay away from each other. They both have some amount of speech problems, Charlie lisps in his speech, while Guddu stutters when under stress. They separated when they were young, because of the time when their father died; Guddu believes that Charlie did not get the money when their father needed it when they were young.
They are now leading separate lives, with Guddu working for an NGO in the area of AIDS, having an affair with Sweety (played by Priyanka); while Charlie works as a bookie at a horse racing arena, working for 3 Bengali brothers. He is a hard-nosed cynic, with money being the main motivator. He is very close the youngest of the 3 brothers, Mikhail (Chandan Roy Sanyal); it is with Charlie and Mikhail that the hit song Dhan Te Nan has been shot in a club. Trouble starts on 2 different fronts - Charlie goes after a jockey because of whom he loses all his money, even after being warned not to go after the jockey. In the same hotel, in a drug deal involving cops, 2 crooked cops kill 3 drug dealers and steal a guitar containing Rs. 10 crore worth of cocaine.
In the bedlam, Charlie steals the van containing the cocaine filled guitar and is over-joyed when he discovers that the guitar contains untold wealth. At around the same time, Sweetie tells Guddu that she is pregnant, something that is a shocker to Guddu, more so when Guddu gets to learn that Sweetie is actually the sister of prominent politician, Sunil Bhope. Bhope has the anti-outsider platform as his political vehicle, and is shocked when hears that his sister is getting married to a migrant from Uttar Pradesh. Bhope gets his men to disrupt the wedding and bring back Guddu and Sweety, but they manage to fight off and escape.
The rest of the movie is a swift series of events, with the guitar and the cocaine being the key ingredient, since everybody wants it. One brother is taken, being mistaken for the other. The whole movie explodes in an orgy of violence in the end, with the action taking place at Bhope's house, and all the people being involved in the fight.

Kaminey (released in 2009) - Starring Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Amol Gupte