review of 'kahani'

There is a jinx associated with leading ladies, winning the Oscar for Best Actress – apparently, post Oscars, they fade away, great roles don’t come their way & generally, their career goes downhill – its happened to Halle Berry, Hillary Swank, Nicole Kidman …
And then there's Vidya Balan – she wins the National Award for ‘Dirty Picture’ & even before she lays her hands on the trophy, with “Kahani”, she comes up with another winner; Vidya, gal, you are on a roll!!!
Please folks, leave the microscopes & binoculars home – sure, if you closely examine Sujoy Ghosh’s plot, the detective in you will be pleased to discover a lot of loopholes and gaps in the plot!

But this story deserves an unbiased watch, where you sit back and enjoy, an almost genuine ‘whodunit’ thriller & climax tak, 'sochtey reh jaaogey!'
Oh Calcutta – what a refreshing breath of realistic air – where you are spared the picture perfect, postcard images, of the capital of Mamta Di’s Paschim Banga. ‘Kahani’ takes you to a bustling, slightly dark, sometimes stark city, but strangely, the City of Joy has never looked more fascinating, or appealing.
Props to Bhidya, for immersing in a character, so unlike her avatars in ‘Dirty Picture’, the lovely Lolitha of ‘Parineeta’, or even the horrific “Heyy Baby’! For me she is the female counterpart of Aamir Khan – like a chameleon, she takes on the colours of whatever characters she is portraying, fearlessly & uncompromisingly refusing to be stereo typed – she dares to be different & how!
The supporting cast – haven’t got their names, but sure remember their work! The realist in me did wonder, whether it would be, oh so easy, to find such a bunch of loveable, amiable & helpful police officers, staff of a sleazy guest house or a chai boy – but sometimes you need to set your cynicism aside and just accept, that maybe the world is not full of people with the milk of human kindness flowing out of them, but movies are fictional, so why not dream & believe!

Amitabh Bachchan's serene rendition of 'Ekla Chalo' strikes a sublime note in a paradoxically bustling, yet lonely metropolis.
By now you must have clued in to the obvious – that while I have been waxing eloquently about the movie, you still don’t know what it is about! That’s the way it’s going to be - for me to know & for you to find out! The ‘Kahaani mein twist’ – dekho!