yay! kaante got me a free CD

Posted a review-lette of Kaante and won myself a compilation CD of current chartbusters[sic]. The review is a rather positive take on the film, so you can't accuse me of being a consistent cynic ... rather an inconsistent one, aren't I?

thorns ... postmodern revisionist blaxploitative slick pastiche

coming soon ... : a more comprehensive outpouring.

In the meantime, if you haven't already seen Kaante, catch up on source material with The Usual Suspects, Reservoir Dogs, Heat, Fight Club, Snatch and the openings of Warner Bros movies.

Trivia/SPOILERS {NOTE: If you caught up with the movies mentioned above, the denouement should not be tough to figure out.}

* who is the undercover cop: hint One: Who's the narrator? What's the source? Elementary, my dear Puttan

* who is the undercover cop: hint Two: When the captured cop (see cool trivia nugget following) tells them (what the audience already knows) that one of them is an undercover cop, and there's the languid "settling in" of this heavy truth, who's the dude whose song makes it to the background? (and is mercifully truncated before complete aural destruction)

* As if to acknowledge the underplayed inspiration from The Usual Suspects, misdirector Sanjay Gupta names the hapless cop who is after the unholy six McQuarrie. Christopher McQuarrie wrote the script for the Bryan Singer film, won an Oscar for it, AND was also a police detective in real life. Nice touch.

* Another song omitted from the film is Dil Kya Kare, which is just as well, considering that this number pales in comparison to the electronica-mix-heavy heady other songs.

* In true homage to all action movies involving social scum and inefficient police machinery set in the expressionist city of LA, this movie also bases itself there. Complete with numerous shots (some new, some stock from source American movies) of the cityscape (which, unlike well-made LA films, add nothing to the narrative), excessive abuse of yellow filters, slow motion (again, no purpose) and guns.

addendum (october 28, 2003): Just to underscore the overt Thums Up plugs in the film, here's a newsitem about the advertising deal.

thorns?

Yep ... that's what Kaante translates from Hindi to English. Out in the theatres today and I'm planning to catch a show tonight. In fact, I did catch a show tonight. But more later (faithful to Kaante as well as it's immediate parent Reservoir Dogs, this is a flashback).

Los Angeles. baara mai do hazaar (12 May 2000). jahaa.N ham chhe pa.NTar pahalii baar mile the. humane sochaa thaa ki duniyaa jeet le.nge. apani lag gayii {translation: Los Angeles. 12 May 2000. Where the six of us met for the first time. We thought we'd conquer the world. We got screwed}.

An hour earlier. We drove to Galaxy Cinema on Jimmy Carter Blvd and got tickets (deserted... but mostly because the previous show hadn't cleared out yet). We then drove to The Mughals. The music playing was surprisingly from previous decades, and, R D Burman (yay!). In fact, it was a seldom-heard song of his zamaane mein sabse puraani from the ill-fated Lovers. After placing an order for mutton biryani I paid a visit to Bollywood Video next door, and returned with two finds: Lovers/Kasam Paida Karne Waale Ki and Romance/Sawan Ko Aane Do. When I got back to claim a rather generous helping of excellent biryani, they were running a song from Romance. As if the coincidences with R D Burman weren't enough, these were both Kumar Gaurav starrers and so was Kaante which we were about to watch in less than an hour.

Back at the theatre, we weren't disappointed by the rush of people waiting. After navigating past some irritating Indian lass who insisted on vertical and horizontal integration of captured seats (Indians, no matter where they racinate themselves, will always be Indians -- NOTE: this statement has some positive vibes too, but not in this context), we found ourselves some good seats and settled down to be entertained.

"Chhorna chhorna chhorna re/Mera bhheja phorna re." Do these lines sound like a bankrupt drunkard's reflections before suicide? Perhaps, but these are actually words from a song of Sanjay Gupta's Kaante being performed by its heroes Lucky Ali (the only pro singer here), Mahesh Manjrekar, Sunil Shetty, Kumar Gaurav, Amitabh Bachchan (he can do anything) and Sanjay Dutt (he has delivered one hit already). Six stars in one song: that is an exception...{The stars are singing by Biswadeep Ghosh on Hindustan Times}