Aniruddha Guha reviews: 'Kahaani' will leave you stunned

These are good times. Last week, Tigmanshu Dhulia's Paan Singh Tomar gave us a taste of a well-made Bollywood biopic. This week, director Sujoy Ghosh serves up another rare treat — an edge-of-the-seat suspense thriller. When was the last time you saw a Hindi film that had you gripping the popcorn tub tighter than usual, and your hair standing on end?

 

Kahaani, about a pregnant woman’s search for her husband in an unknown city, is bloody engaging. It leaves you – if I may say so – with your balls firmly in your mouth, your heart racing at several points, your mind trying to put together all the pieces of the jigsaw strewn across the film. Unexpected humour comes as a pleasant but temporary reprieve from the tension.

 

All of it builds up to an explosive finale, which leaves you stunned. And then, the pieces start falling into place. Much after you watch Kahaani, the film will continue to occupy your mind, as you marvel over how efficiently the story panned out — the kind of film that is enjoyable to re-watch even if you know how it ends.

 

It’s no mean task, penning a script that holds your attention while its intention is to throw you off mark. To the credit of the writers — Ghosh, Advaita Kala, Suresh Nair and Ritesh Shah -- no strand remains untied.

 

There’s nothing excessive in Kahaani; everything is just right — the pace, the length, the drama. It’s the work of a group of well-intentioned and able technicians who work together in harmony to carve out an unblemished piece of cinema. Namrata Rao’s editing is watertight, while Setu’s cinematography captures Kolkata’s sights and sounds brilliantly.

 

The film unfolds during the nine-day Durga Puja festival in the city, which lends Kahaani a distinct appeal. Ghosh gets unfamiliar faces (casting by Roshmi Banerjee) which works well for the story. Each actor, except Vidya Balan, comes without a preconceived image, so you don’t know what to expect.

 

Parambrata Chattopadhyay endears himself as Rana, who helps Vidya with her search in a new city. Nawazuddin, as an Intelligence Bureau officer, is an actor you have watched doing good work before (he was top-notch in Firaaq), and he hits all the right notes in Kahaani. The creepy hit-man (Saswata Chatterjee), the senior cop at Kalighat police station (Kharaj Mukherjee), the two kids Vidya strikes a friendship with, even the man at the reception of the hotel where Vidya lives — every actor is well-cast.

Then there is Vidya Balan herself. The actress has assumed a larger-than-life persona among audiences after her exploits over the past few years; incidentally or otherwise, it works beautifully for the film. The actor brings her all to Kahaani, making the role sparkle like only she can.

 

Unlike Irrfan in Paan Singh Tomar, though, Balan never overpowers the film, credit for which goes to Ghosh. It’s hard to believe that a filmmaker who made such drivel as Aladin can bounce back with a gem like Kahaani. It shows that when things falls in place for a film — story, writing, acting, editing, cinematography, etc — it can’t go wrong. But it still needs a director — in this case, Ghosh — to make sure every last building block falls in place.

Watch Kahaani. Period.