Language: Hindi
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Writer: Sujoy Ghosh-Advaita Kala
Cast: Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Indraneil Sengupta
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Streaming on Netflix
Kahaani is a Hindi language Revenge- Mystery thriller film which was written and directed by Sujoy Ghosh. The name itself means story which has Vidya Balan as the protagonist, who is pregnant, arrives Kolkata in search of her missing husband. She finds out that her husband’s missing has been factitious and her quest to unravel it forms the rest of the story.
The film was a pathfinder for women-centric films in Bollywood, where most of the heroines were a shadow behind the male-dominated industry.
We can clearly distinguish the Guerrilla filmmaking used in the film, but it doesn’t affect the mood and charm of the film. Cinematographer Setu captured the beauty of Kolkata perfectly. In fact, the director brilliantly crafts his film through the culture of Kolkata, which is most celebrated for the famous Durga Pooja. Durga Pooja epitomises the victory of good over evil and the festival has a major role in the movie. The director does his role brilliantly and the well-written screenplay without any loophole, aids him. The climax of the film is masqueraded with twists and some sort of spoon-feeding fades the mood of the film and the system hacking scenes also bit corroded to my liking.
But the film is much appreciated for the performance of Vidya as Vidya Bagchi. The film is her one-man show throughout. We cannot see any artificiality in her acting in any of the shots in the film. She has done a wonderful job in portraying the character. The supporting characters including Nawazuddin Siddiqui have done justice to their roles. Music and BGM perfectly blend with the film.
Sujoy Ghosh and Vidya deserve huge accolades for conceiving such a bold subject and their courage yielded them critical acclaim and box office success. The film was remade into several other languages and additionally, the rights for the Hollywood remake were also sold.
Verdict: 6/7 stars.
Brilliant.
Trivia:
- Vidya Balan prepared for her role by interacting with pregnant woman and Gynaecologist she learned about the difficulties faced by woman during pregnancy and their also superstitious followed by some.
- The film was shot totally in Kolkata and most on the streets. Bengali actor Prasenjit Chatterjee had encouraged Sujoy Ghosh to shoot the film in Kolkata.
- Saswata Chatterjee who plays the evil villain Bob went to see the film with his wife where in his wife would close her eyes whenever he appeared on screen because he was too evil in the film.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui got a major breakthrough with this film as he struggled for 12 years in just small character roles. After Kahaani he became one of the busiest actors. - Though in the film the cellphone proves to be a tool for Bob Biswas as his prospective victim’s photo is sent to him via MMS, in real life Saswata Chatterjee (who portrayed Bob Biswas )doesn’t even use a mobile and has only a landline number as a point of contact.Included among the “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die”, edited by Steven Schneider.
- Sujoy Ghosh built Khan as a character with lean physical build but full of mental strength, loyalty and patriotism. Khan smokes a relatively cheap brand of cigarette (Gold Flake) despite his high official post; Nawazuddin Siddiqui had smoked that brand of cigarette throughout his struggling days.
