Search - Kaante on DVD

The best you can get from bollywood

Rohit Singh | Lucknow | 03/18/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Kaante is the biggest attempt ever to extract a piece of good and the most genuine thoughts ever presented in a bollywood movie. For all those persons who compares kaante with other Hollywood flicks didn?t know the fact that the per capita income of India is less that 1 dollar per day and still we are able to produce such a big movie is appreciable. Kaante may be inspired from Quinton terrentino's original legendry movie reservoir dogs but not all movies are created equal.
The object details are high except some scenes which create confusion like a bunch of chaps standing on the roof of the building shooting some illegal weapons and nobody nearby is bothered is quite unnatural. The technicalities are upto the Hollywood standard and the super 35 mm film is cleverly used to shoot the scenes. The acting is superb by all actors especially by Mahesh manjeaker'Bali' he was excellent. The background score is excellent and the stunts are breathtaking out and out an excellent movieand it is not a movie full of weeping ladies and strict father's conflict with sons and its doesn't feature a drunk lover who dies for a girl"

Rip-offs really aren't much fun.

Eric | 01/15/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Kaante, Bollywood's latest attempt at imitating Hollywood, goes maybe a little too far by stealing scenes straight from many popular crime films, most particularly Reservoir Dogs along with more than a dash of The Usual Suspects and Heat. Ok, I'll be a little kinder today and call it a remake, or a re-imagining, if you will. The movie is, obviously, made for a foreign crowd that probably hasn't seen any of the aforementioned films, thus it might seem fresh to them. But I can tell you this for certain, had I not seen any of those three films, I still would have despised Kaante, simply because it's an example of poor filmmaking.The film begins with six men (all of them Indian) in a jail cell who have just made plans to commit a major crime, turns out it's to rob a bank. When the actual bank robbing occurs (70 minutes into the movie!), something goes terribly wrong as the police are waiting for them. They make their escape and meet at the rendezvous point, but suspect one of them is an undercover cop. If you've seen Reservoir Dogs, you know where it goes from here.Right off the bat, there are problems I have with the script. What police force in their right mind would place all these criminals together in the same cell, given that they were all accused of the same crime, a plot device that really goes nowhere and is only introduced as a feeble reason to string these guys together. Then comes the actual planning, intercut with scenes of flashback and "characterization," which takes forever considering this is obviously not as character-oriented as the writer would like you to think (only one character stands out, that's "Major"). As for the undercover cop, whose identity I won't give away, it strikes as me as odd that he chooses to wait until the bank robbery to tip off the police. Wouldn't it be wiser to do it before, so mass bloodshed could be prevented?The film's centerpiece, the huge five-minute gun battle after the robbery, is obviously inspired from Heat, and it's directed in a heavily stylized, chaotic fashion. There are some nifty stunts and setpieces (the motorcycle going down the stairs, the guy sliding down the hill all the while shooting some cops, the latter obviously a signature from John Woo), but the director fails to put it together in a lucid fashion (outside of the gun fight, he overstylizes the movie, obviously trying to give it a slick Hollywood look and feel, but it rather comes off as a second-rate music video). Everything happens way too quickly and I'm still not entirely certain how all the criminals got away just like that.Afterward, we get the virtual remake of Reservoir Dogs, complete with the criminals debating what to do and who could be the cop. Obviously, their common sense isn't working since they choose to argue rather than split the money and run. There's even a scene where one of the criminals is prepared to shoot a cop they kidnapped, but is stopped by one of his co-partners, reminding him that if he kills a cop, he'll be hunted the rest of his life by the police, apparently forgetting the dozens of cops they slaughtered outside the bank. By the end, I'm not sure what it is the film is trying to do or say. As escapist entertainment, it's populated with far too many unlikeable characters and certainly doesn't feature enough outrageous action to fill up a 140-minute running time. As a character study, it's too over-the-top and shallow. ..."

Excellent

mr s ratansi | Hounslow, Middx United Kingdom | 01/30/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A great film that has changed the way Hindi films can be perseved. Yes it is has taken bits of Hollywood films (Usual Suspects, Heat,Reservoir Dogs ) but that has helped the film gel together into an excellent action movie. It is about a bank job that goes wrong and if you have seen Reservoir Dogs you will know who the undercover cop is. But then having seen recent hollywood films and you can literally count how many of them are fully original without taking bits from other films (XXX being a prime example). The film is well directed and acted too, with veteren actors like Amithab Bachan and Sanjay Dutt really showing their experience. If you do watch hindi films give watch to see a different movie to what you are used to. If you dont watch hindi films watch it for a well made gangster movie."

It's a remake, but so what? Bollywood veterans go wild

A. Wagner Chaudhary | NY | 11/25/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Yes, it's "Reservoir Dogs." Yes, it does lag at times. But seeing Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt, who've had long careers as Bollywood heroes, shredding the scenery as foul-mouthed criminals is terrific fun. (The subtitling in the theatre didn't do justice to some of the riper swearing, by the way.) If you aren't familiar with their careers (and with Sanjay's real-world legal problems, to which there is a sneaky and very funny reference), it's worth a few minutes to look them up."