Kaminey – Or the Art in Stammering.

So, I haven’t seen the current bollywood blockbuster ‘Kaminey’ but its all over the news that the hero of the hour Shahid Kapoor has done a great job in playing the part. He has a double role and the best part is that diction is not a prerequisite. One of his roles requires him to stammer and the other to lisp.

The problem with stammering is that it takes too long to say something and the problem with lisping is that one does not quite understand what the lisper is saying. So when one goes to watch Kaminey should one be prepared to sit for a very long movie (considering the time taken by the stammer to speak) or sit close to the speakers or to the screen to carefully hear the lisper speak or to read his lips? It seems that the time for this bollywood flick is the same as any other flick coming out from this side of the wood and no one seems to be complaining about the inarticulateness of the actor.

So one question is whether Shahid has really done justice to his roles of a lisper and a stammer? The other question is whether Indian audiences really appreciate good acting? Well, the fact that there are a quite a few acting awards instituted by different companies/magazines giving the same award to different actors shows that the Indian populace really have no idea of what good acting is (being an Indian I don’t know either). So answering the former question now, if the movie has a stammer and is of the same length then he hasn’t done justice to the art of stammering.

But, the good thing is that stammering has got into the mainstream. In flicks the character who stammered had the time he did because he needed that time to say the lines. The case of the stammering lawyer in ‘my cousin vinny’ is a case in point. The stammerers usually provided comic relief in bollywood flicks, just as a cross in the cleavage indicated the vamp turned sacrificial lamb.

So, even though Shahid was faking it, twice at that, he finds himself in the news, getting pats in the back and lugging trunks full of money to the bank. Which means that those who really stammer have a chance to get into the really big screen, directors are always looking for ‘naturals’ stammerers can raise their hands and stammer their way to the bank. Stammering and lisping may become the next big thing in the fashion and media bazaar and could even help relationships as one could spend more time ‘whispering sweet nothings’ and understanding them.