Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Amol Gupte, Tenzing Nima, Chandan Roy Sanyal

Director : Vishal Bharadwaj

Rating: ****

Vishal Bharadwaj makes a first half that’s so good that it’s near flawless. Charlie lisps. Guddu stammers. To create identical twins with a distinctive speech impediment is a master-stroke. And to set them in a sea of dubious, dodgy characters, where they all have to swim or sink, has the audacious stamp of a director who’s always gone where everyone else in Bollywood has feared to tread.

He gives the twins completely different, completely captivating identities. Charlie dreams of finding a ‘fortkut’ to fortune, while doing the dirty work for a betting syndicate. The earnest Guddu works, quite appropriately, with an NGO. The love of his life is Sweety ( Priyanka), who’s done a little fiddle of her own to get close to the cute guy who stammers. The lead characters of a Hindi film who are not straight and narrow, and proud of it? You lick your chops, and settle down to the rest of the feast you hope will be as delicious.

And for a while, it is, as Bharadwaj goes about setting the scene. Other `kaminey’ surface, one after the other. Tashi the gangster, with his cheroot and fancy yatch. A trio of Bengali brothers who fix races. Local hood Bhope Bhau, lover of Marathi `manoos’, and hater of all the others who live in Mumbai. A couple of crooked cops fronting a huge drug deal. A guitar full of white powder worth crores. The seductive smell of illicit cash. The director picks up his mix, gives it a good shake, and lets his gang of grifters rock and roll. Till the interval, `Kaminey’ is fabulous : dhan ta nan!

... contd.