"Chameli"

How does one become what he/she becomes? How can a woman sell herself for few rupees and be desensitized? How does humanity sell itself for nickels and dimes and paisas and cents ... and not care at all?


This one-hour-thirty-nine-minute flick is the story of Chameli. Kareena Kapoor plays the title role opposite Rahul Bose as he tells the story of the night that changed his life. Recovering from the tragedy of his wife's death, the movie begins as the investment banker's car breaks down in a red-light area where he meets cigarette-smoking, mafia-fighting, slang-happy Chameli. An action-packed couple of hours ensue as he steps into the other half of the world, struggling to understand its wormholes.

Kareena Kapoor, even with her flawless skin and doe-eyed face, is able to deliver through crude and coarse mannerisms, unbridled language and all-too-frank laughter. Bose seems boorish enough and makes up for what Kareena lacks. In any case, the movie is watchable, if not for the needless songs, but for the paced dialogs, the peek into what lives after dark in sin-cities and the fact that you don't always have to see Kareena singing songs with a good-looking hero in the Alps.