The Cast and crew reminisce about working on the sets of Vishal Bharadwaj's latest film, Kaminey, which opened this week to positive reviews.
I just went into the studio and gave it my all,” laughs Vishal Dadlani, popular music director, singer and rock star of music band Pentagram, when I ask him to share with us some of the challenges involved in singing “Dhan Te Nan”, his recent hit from the film Kaminey. The song, as many of us are aware, is a chartbuster already, and almost on the verge of gaining cult status. “I’ve had lots of hits, not just as a music director but also as a singer,” explains Dadlani, adding that “‘Dhan Te Nan’ is everyone’s song. It’s the song for the discotheques, it’s the song for the rickshaw-wallahs too.” He gives credit to the film’s music director, Vishal Bharadwaj, for that. “I’ve been a huge fan of his work and this song — especially with the hook “Dhan te nan” — is a throwback to the 1970s; it’s kitsch rock. I loved the reverse strings, and the palette that was offered in the song,” he says. When Dadlani first listened to it, the scratch was done by Bharadwaj himself. “He sounded phenomenal in the rough track and, frankly, I wondered why he wanted someone else to sing it,” says Dadlani. “He’s such a calm and composed guy, and such a pleasure to work with.”
While Dadlani, a successful music director in the film industry, speaks of the feedback he is getting for the song, Honey Trehan, chief director and casting director of the film, quips, “Basically this film is full of kamineys. When I was hired as the casting director for the film, I just knew the film would be the most challenging one of my career.”
Just three days after its release (the Maharashtra government’s order to shut down the cinema halls notwithstanding) Kaminey has been well received by audiences and critics alike. “It’s a success, I’ll tell you that,” says Chandan Roy Sanyal, a theatre actor who debuts in the film as Shahid Kapoor’s sidekick (he’s the character with the unkempt look in the song “Dhan Te Nan”).
But what makes Bharadwaj’s films different, gritty and worth watching? Says an insider who has worked closely with him: “You see, all his films have flopped at the box office. Maqbool, Omkara, The Blue Umbrella: none of them have reaped box-office returns the way a lot of other commercial films do. But, a) he makes his films at realistic, modest budgets and b) he appeals to a niche audience. People still come to watch his films.” Why? “Because, they are films by the Vishal Bharadwaj,” says Sanyal, candidly. “Will you come to watch Kaminey because it’s a Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra film? No. You’ll watch it because it’s made by Vishal Bharadwaj,” reasons Sanyal, who, on the first day of the shoot, asked Bharadwaj for his autograph. “He simply wrote, ‘Don’t let me down.’ I knew then that I was in trouble,” Sanyal laughs.
What makes Kaminey particularly noteworthy is the fact that it has an interesting star cast, including many newcomers. Amol Gupte, creative director and writer of Taare Zameen Par, debuts as the villain of the film. “We (Vishal and I) fought especially because I was convinced of Amol being the villain of the film,” remembers Trehan, who has been with Bharadwaj for most of his films, including Makdee, Maqbool and Omkara. “We were to do a film called Barf but that never took off,” he interjects, while we talk about the making of Kaminey.
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The shooting took place over eight months and, in Trehan’s own words, “It is the sort of treatment that has never been seen in Indian cinema. Yes, world-cinema lovers familiar with Quentin Tarantino’s works will identify with it, definitely. But the beauty is to bring a treatment like this to Indian audiences at large,” he says.
Though Trehan makes a significant reference to Tarantino (of whom Bharadwaj is an unabashed fan), Hrishikesh Joshi, who has been associated with theatre in Mumbai for 20 years as an actor and writer, marvels at how Bharadwaj seamlessly blends the two crafts of films and theatre together. He, like most other actors auditioning for various other parts in the film, had to go through six rounds of auditions before he was finally selected for the role of Lele. “When we perform a stage play, it’s a start-to-finish routine. There are no cuts. Vishal, I was amazed [to find], has the same manner of working in his films too. He just won’t shout ‘Cut’ till it is absolutely necessary,” he explains. For the “interrogation” scene, recalls Joshi, which involved the presence of three characters (most importantly Kapoor, on whom one of the cameras was focussed), Bharadwaj ensured that all three characters communicated and responded too. “That’s Vishal’s trick — of capturing that one solid expression, that one moment. So, the actor isn’t waiting in the vanity van. Far from it. He’s out there, just like in theatre, living the journey of the character on the sets of the film,” explains Joshi.
For Sanyal, having faced rejections for films like Rang De Basanti, Dilli 6 and Rock On, Kaminey was an exciting opportunity. “I was disheartened when I wasn’t selected for those films, but after having done Kaminey, I couldn’t have waited for anything better,” he says with a smile. Most actors and crew members on the film agree that working with Bharadwaj was like learning filmmaking at an institution. “Vishal insists that we question his script — not once, not twice, but over and over again, and that’s exactly how we were shooting too,” says Sanyal.
Priyanka Chopra, for her part, says, “When I read the script I was blown away. But I did have my reservations, considering it was really Guddu and Charlie’s film. Where exactly would Sweety — the character I play in the film — fit in? Vishal said just one thing to me, ‘Can you place your faith in me?’ That’s when I understood that I simply had to be a part of Kaminey.”
No wonder, then, that audiences are waiting to be a part of Kaminey too.
