The Complex American Heist
KAANTE Is Different, But Where Is the Heroine, Where Is the Music!

          Director: Sanjay Gupta
          Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Kumar Gaurav, Lucky Ali, Mahesh           Manjrekar

          The Film: An Indian thriller in Hollywood mould or a Hollywood thriller in Bollywood mould? It's impossible to place Kaante in any well-defined category or class. Amitabh Bachchan-led cast, which boasts of others like Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Lucky Ali, Mahesh Manjrekar and Kumar Gaurav is the biggest attraction as far as Indian audiences go. They promise a bagful of action and thrills. Add to this, Ishaa Koppikar's item dance number and night club shows which one can enjoy only in Western towns.

           All the six super-criminals, thrown together in a cell in the US, plan the robbery of the year - a heist at the bank where the 'bad cops' keep their money. Kaante's story explores the motive each one has for joining the biggest adventure of their lives. This arttempt to lend to the theme a base of criminal psychology is not quite novel, but does bring into the story a certain sensitiveness.

           There are two surprise come-backs - Kumar Gaurav and Rati Agnihotri. Kumar plays a software engineer, but has no job in the US. And so he jouins the gang for money for the family. Rati as Amitabh's bed-ridden wife has little to do except whisper some dialogue. Her husband tries to quit the life of crime, but the police won't let him go. Big 'B' is more or less the leader of the gang and is addressed as Major by everyone.

The twist in the story comes in the form of betrayal after a successful job done. Who told the police of their presence in the bank? That's the crucial question they try to get an answer to. This creates a fatal suspicion among them and proves their nemesis.

     It's the format and the treatment that make 'Kaante' different from the usual fare churned out in Mumbai and other film production centres in India. Almost the entire crew - technical and back-up - is American. Though not mentioned anywhere, the film seems to be a co-production shot largely on US locations. Even much of the post-production work was done in American labs.