Kahaani

A well-told, gripping kahaani

Hindi (U/A)
Cast: Vidya Balan, Parambrata
Chattopadhyay
Director: Sujoy Ghosh

Vidya Bagchi (Balan) lands in Kolkata from London in search of her husband who vanished while on an assignment there. And ‘V’ is the first casualty in the land of B’s. After a few efforts to correct the locals, she embraces her new name —“Bidya”.

As a lone crusader, the heavily pregnant software engineer (with hacking skills to die for) waddles across the dark, grimy alleys of Kolkata, taking in the colours and character of an alluringly mystical land (thank you Setu for the cinematography... for making one want to explore the City of Joy, desperately).

When all leads meet a dead end, she gets company in the form of a young cop (Parambrata Chattopadhyay, in a restrained but confident debut) who goes out of the way to help Vidya, even offering her quick-fix sari solutions.

Vidya is in terrific form and her bump looks real enough to leave the viewers breathless. But there isn’t much time to sympathise with her as director Sujoy Ghosh paces ahead with a thriller. Neat plot, no clues.

Add a Metro attack link, and Vidya’s search assumes political colours with the Intelligence Bureau sniffing in. And that brings in the rude and crude agent (Nawazuddin Siddiqui, we are impressed) who throws his weight around and knocks out some black sheep in the IB itself. Bachchan, winds up the proceedings with his “Ekla Chalo Re”, as Durga Puja celebrations reach the peak. The climax is one of the best in recent times.

Ms Balan’s act should definitely have her name bracketed for next year’s awards too. The woman may take a bow — she carries “Kahaani”, single-handedly, with panache. .
The movie even merits a re-watch for its explosive finale.