Kahaani Review Tanqeed.com

Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chatterjee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Vidya Bagchi arrives in Kolkata from London to find her missing husband. Seven months pregnant and alone in a festive city, she begins a relentless search for her husband.With nothing to rely on except fragments from her memories about him, all clues seem to reach a dead end when everyone tries to convince Vidya that her husband does not exist. She slowly realizes that nothing is what it seems. In a city soaked in lies, Vidya is determined to unravel the truth about her husband- for herself and her unborn child – even at the cost of her own life.

After reading the story/synopsis of Charade and Ruby Cairo it does not seem that the movie is inspired from these movies contrary to some reviews. The movie is definitely not copied from Khoj starring Rishi Kapoor. The movie is inspired from The Usual Suspects in the main twist but it is not a copy. The final scene however is copied/inspired from the final scene of Taking Lives starring Angelina Jolie.

Story by Sujoy Ghosh and Advaita Kala is pretty good. Dialogues are good especially the one where Parambrata comments that he is a cop not a thief when he has to break into a building. Some scenes stand out like the ones where people keep pronouncing her name as Bidya or the scene where Agnes gets killed or the scene where Vidya hacks into a computer and the final procession scenes.

Its hard to pin point the flaws without revealing any major spoilers. It seems a bit odd that they kill Agnes just because she tried to access a record and gave some information to Vidya. It also seems odd that there would be records that they can get from the Blood bank and the doctor a few years later when all his records are supposed to have been destroyed. Surprisingly they kill other people but let Vidya off with just a scare. A killer who is being chased does not shoot at the cop despite having a gun. A part of the story involving the final twist seems way too implausible.

Cinematography by Setu is very good and he captures the hustle and bustle of Kolkata really well. Editing by Namrata Rao is very apt for a thriller. There are no unnecessary scenes or scenes that bore. The movie is very engrossing and this is very important in a thriller. There are only a couple of songs composed by Vishal-Shekhar which play in the background. “Aami Shotti Bolchi” sung by Usha Uthup and “Ekla Cholo Re” sung by Amitabh Bachchan are good. Background music is decent.

Vidya Balan delivers a very good performance but it does remind of her performance from No One Killed Jessica. Also there are quite a few scenes where her walk is nothing like that of a pregnant woman. Parambrata Chatterjee is excellent as the soft spoken cop. Nawazuddin Siddiqui tries hard to be a domineering cop but he just does not seem right for the role. Kay Kay Menon would have been more apt for the role. His character is made to look like an idiot in the end though. Saraswata Chatterjee is excellent as Bob Bishwas and wish he had a much more central role in the movie. The little kid who plays Bishnu is good. The rest of the performances range from decent to good.

Sujoy Ghosh’s direction is very good for the most part. Once the final twist is revealed some people might get mad (and rightly so) at some scenes that were shown earlier in the movie which were a deliberate lie. This could have been avoided. The final scenes involving a religious metaphor could have been a bit more subtle and there was definitely no need for that voice over by Amitabh Bachchan explaining the obvious. Usually thrillers in Hindi Cinema look way too inspired from Western movies but this one looks like an authentic Indian thriller with the Kolkata setting. Kahaani is not perfect but it is still very good if one can ignore the flaws.

Rating: 3.5 / 5 (Very Good).