Cinema
Kahani
Kahani is a Sujoy Ghosh (Jhankar Beats) directed thriller set in Kolkata. The film starts with a terrorist attack on Kolkata metro, in which the involvement of a youth is shown to us. A few years later, an Indian woman calling herself Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) is shown descending on Kolkata in search of her missing Software engineer husband Arnab Bagchi.
The guy had come to Kolkata on a software project, and thereafter disappeared without a trace. Escorted and assisted by a cop (Parambrata Chaterji), our lady Vidya goes about her search with a fine tooth comb.
The film highlights the deep rooted corruption and involvement of biggies of the Intelligence Bureau in acts of sedition and terrorism, and how even a serial killer Bob Biswas (Saswata Chaterji) can move around amidst us posing as an innocuous, cartoonish Insurance agent.
The unfolding of the narrative does successfully build up a suspense, but the director commits a major blemish in showing us the involvement of a lookalike of the missing person in the initial sequences. Also, I feel the idea of an urbane, Hindu Bengali Software guy involved in terrorism a little too far fetched. I agree money can be a lure, but I have not read or heard of any such involvement till date…
The city of Kolkata complete with Durga Puja festivities brings back memories of masters like Mrinal Sen and Tapan Sinha in its depiction. The simile with Goddess Durga punishing evil doers in justifying the murder of the villain in the climax is a directorial guise to condone the act.
The performances are first rate. Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chaterji and Nizamuddin Siddique are superlative. Saswata Chaterji in a small chilling role is convincing. Dhritiman Chaterji and Kalyan Chaterji formed the supporting cast. A highlight is Amitabh Bachchan’s fine rendition of Ekla Cholo Re , but the legend could have done with better pronunciation given he is the Jamai (son-in-law) of Bengal ?
Rating: 3.2 out of 5
22-Aug-2012
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Subhajit Ghosh
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