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Directed by: Sanjay Gupta Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty Los Angeles. Six Indians. All with criminal records. All desperate for cash. When they are mistakenly brought in as suspects for a truck robbery by the LAPD, the six men decide to band together and plan to get back at their captors by robbing the bank that serves as the department’s chief treasury. However, when the heist goes horribly wrong all signs point to a traitor in their midst, and the surviving members almost turn on each other as they try to work out who turned them into the cops. 2002’s Kaante has been popularly described, and rather accurately I might add, as a Bollywood remake of Reservoir Dogs, though it also features obvious nods to The Usual Suspects, Heat and John Woo’s gangster pictures. The film, in contrast to many Bollywood films, is very slick and well made, taking cues from Jerry Bruckheimer films with quick-cut editing and coloured filters. At 2½ hours long, its also somewhat shorter than the Bollywood norm, and despite some padding actually moves comparatively briskly. There’s also some good, tense sequences on offer with the highlight being the violent confrontation with the police that is the botched robbery. However, the biggest problem with the film is the musical numbers. Now don’t get me wrong here. I know they’re an integral part of mainstream Bollywood cinema and as someone who indulges in the genre often these peculiar musical interludes are a highlight for me. Unfortunately in the case of Kaante’s brisk-moving story they serve as nothing but both unnecessary padding and a rather annoying distraction to the plot. And despite all the attractive women gyrating in skin-tight clothes, with the cold, MTV-style way these sequences were shot I found them hard to enjoy at all. Though I have to admit I did enjoy the songs though. Kaante also suffers from the director’s increasing overuse of visual flairs that become distracting in their own right as the film drags on, and anyone familiar with Reservoir Dogs will probably get a feeling of déjà vu as the film comes to a close. In the end Kaante is a rather solid action thriller that probably would've been better without the obligatory musical numbers. 3.5/5 PROS: Some tense and exciting sequences. CONS: The songs are distracting, if you are familiar with Reservoir Dogs you should be able to see the twists and turns ahead. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0294662/
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Oct 26, 2004 10:48
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 11:04 |
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