I actually rented this film because of Rahul Bose. He is quite the actor and has done rather well for himself in the "Art Cinema" genre of Bollywood with film's such as, Mr. & Mrs. Iyer; Everybody Says I'm Fine to name a few.
But I was mildly surprised with Kareena Kapoor's acting capabilities. I always pictured her as the scantly clad, self-absorbed and bitchy "poo" from the film "Kabhie Kushe Kabhie Gham" (A movie I unfortunately sat through....my solace...I only saw it half-way) and thought of her as another shallow 20something actress. She fits the role like a glove and the film is cinematically appealing to the palate as well. Shot in the monsoon drenched locales of Bombay with catchy songs (Bhaage Re Man, Sajna Ve and the female rendition of Jaane being my favourites) reminded me of good times spent in Bombay.
The tale begins with a snippet into Aman Kapoor's (played by Rahul Bose) life. He is a 30something financial analyst of sorts at one of Bombay's Banks (or something along those lines). A party is being thrown for him as he has successfully completed some sort of merger. Aman is prosperous, he charges around RS. 10,000 per hour for a private consultation, but is not the partying sort. So he ends up leaving the bash and drives around Bombay until his car stalls at Fountain in the red-light district (notoriously known to be a place frequented by whoremongers and is a place where whores and their pimps reside). As it's a stormy night, business is dull. This is where we are introduced to Chameli, a whore played by Kareena.
Our protagonist Aman and Chameli get involved in conversation. What is the result of this association? I shall let the readers watch and find out.
The film is presented as a narrative with Rahul Bose being the storyteller. As I stated before the film is delightful as it give us (it certainly did me) insight in to the reality of the shanty & shady areas of Bombay, but in a more subtle way when compared to movies such as Chandani Bar or Market. This film is the meeting of two very different yet distinct methods of filmmaking in India...the commercial (sing, sing...dance, dance...trees...snowy mountains) and the Art House (movies that touch socio-political issues and raise questions/arguments). A meeting that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Now I rarely watch Indian films, as most of them turn out to be a waste of three hours, but I highly recommend this film to viewers. I give it an 8.5/10.
But I was mildly surprised with Kareena Kapoor's acting capabilities. I always pictured her as the scantly clad, self-absorbed and bitchy "poo" from the film "Kabhie Kushe Kabhie Gham" (A movie I unfortunately sat through....my solace...I only saw it half-way) and thought of her as another shallow 20something actress. She fits the role like a glove and the film is cinematically appealing to the palate as well. Shot in the monsoon drenched locales of Bombay with catchy songs (Bhaage Re Man, Sajna Ve and the female rendition of Jaane being my favourites) reminded me of good times spent in Bombay.
The tale begins with a snippet into Aman Kapoor's (played by Rahul Bose) life. He is a 30something financial analyst of sorts at one of Bombay's Banks (or something along those lines). A party is being thrown for him as he has successfully completed some sort of merger. Aman is prosperous, he charges around RS. 10,000 per hour for a private consultation, but is not the partying sort. So he ends up leaving the bash and drives around Bombay until his car stalls at Fountain in the red-light district (notoriously known to be a place frequented by whoremongers and is a place where whores and their pimps reside). As it's a stormy night, business is dull. This is where we are introduced to Chameli, a whore played by Kareena.
Our protagonist Aman and Chameli get involved in conversation. What is the result of this association? I shall let the readers watch and find out.
The film is presented as a narrative with Rahul Bose being the storyteller. As I stated before the film is delightful as it give us (it certainly did me) insight in to the reality of the shanty & shady areas of Bombay, but in a more subtle way when compared to movies such as Chandani Bar or Market. This film is the meeting of two very different yet distinct methods of filmmaking in India...the commercial (sing, sing...dance, dance...trees...snowy mountains) and the Art House (movies that touch socio-political issues and raise questions/arguments). A meeting that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Now I rarely watch Indian films, as most of them turn out to be a waste of three hours, but I highly recommend this film to viewers. I give it an 8.5/10.