By the time you read this, I’m sure you would have seen
Kahani. Some of you would have seen it twice, maybe.
I can safely say that sensible cinema makes a comeback to the
Hindi film industry.
Seldom do we, the people in the Hindi film industry tell
stories of our cities. Forget telling stories about them, we do not even use
them as good backdrops. Once in a while we may see Dibakar Banerjee use Delhi
as a splendid backdrop (Khosla ka Ghosla and Oye lucky lucky oye) to tell his
stories or Kiran Rao shoot Mumbai in such a way that it re-introduces us to the
city we live in.
Kahani opens with a shot of Kolkata, and you immediately you
warm up to the prospect of something different and new. Sujoy makes passionate love
with Kolkata the way we have seen Woody Allen make love to Manhattan or Paris
through his films. Mind you, this is not a stupid placement or government funded
/ aided tour, but pure, unadulterated love for the city. What you see in Kahani
is nothing short of a treat.The lazy trams, the cramped alleys, the crowded markets, Durga Pujo is shot with splendid detail and care.
Sujoy lets his cinematographer, Setu, bite into Kolkata and
give us a heady cocktail of cacophonous city. The dust, grime, color and the
air of the city come alive in each frame of the movie.
The second lead of the film (Kolkata is the lead character)
Vidya Balan is just as outstanding as the city itself. She is one women whose
body of work might one day end up mirroring that of Meryl Streep. It is getting
REALLY difficult choose the best amongst her performances. Vidya’s performance
as a heavily pregnant woman is so damn convincing that just 10 minutes into the
movie, you are rooting for her and you let her enthrall you. She gets you to do
what most superstars (I’m not saying actors) do not. She gets you to root for
her, go through the roller coaster ride
with her instead of just sit and watch her go through her lines. Your feelings
/ emotions for Vidya Bagchi only gets more sensitive as the movie progresses.
It has been a week since I saw the movie and I have probably
read zillions of tweets and Facebook updates that spoke about how Vidya Balan
has rocked the show. Agree. No two ways about it. But, spare a thought for the
guy who made this whole movie possible, the guy who conceived this movie, and
left no stone unturned to get this movie to screen.
(Pls go through the link at the end of this post. Once you
are done reading the whole post, that is).
While most us know that he is more than a capable director,
what clicks for him in Kahani is his writing. This movie does come across as
his most passionate, most loved and most cherished work. This is one of the
most smartly written work in the recent past. First of all, kudos to him for
resting a very tricky genre on the shoulder of a woman, a pregnant one, no less.
The movie is like a puzzle where-in the viewer does not
watch characters unfold the twists and turns. Here Sujoy sucks you into the
vortex immediately. The viewer is taken trough a highly fulfilling roller coaster
ride. It has all the elements of a classic whodunit. The story grabs your
attention almost immediately, keeps you enthralled, teases you along the way,
makes you hold on to your breath, throws little tit-bits at you and in the end
gives you the high of a 12 year old seasoned scotch whisky. This is beautiful blend of Hitchcock and Satyajit Ray in equal measure.
While it would be criminal to give away any of the plot details it would be in the scope of permissible praise to say the writing is clearly not meant to strew red herrings in our way. As we go back to the film, at the end we see every detail, every twist and turn in the plot was meant to be a coherent pointer to the complete picture
Though, it feels longer than 115 minutes, there is never a
dull moment, as every character keeps throwing something at you to keep you
guessing, wanting you to crack the code.
The experience is heightened by some razor sharp editing and
a rousing background score by Clinton Cerejo. In fact, the score is largely
responsible for the tight pace of the movie.
At the end of it all, you come away as a happy person, because,
here is a movie, that satisfies the thirst for good cinema. It makes you
believe that Hindi movies can indeed entertain and rewarding.
As promised, here is a link to Sujoy Gosh’s blog on Kahani :
See you at the movie :)
