Kahaani

Trust Vidya Balan to make the right choice of a potential story line. Every time she exceeds herself in terms of the quality of the character that she plays on screen. A trend that probably started with Paa. Since then she has played a village wife with truck loads of spunk, the sister of a girl who is part of national folklore searching for justice and immortalised arguably the only hero amongst heroines in Indian cinema last year. Each performance has earned her a truck load of accolades. So it didn’t come as much of a surprise when she was chosen to play the role of a pregnant woman who has been abandoned by her husband.

Not much was expected from Sujoy Ghosh after atrocious boo boos like Home Delivery and Aladin. But then there was Jhankaar Beats also as a debut. So I guess somewhere the makers would have seen a spark that was left over and not doused after the Box Offices did everything but physically throw him out. Well Ghosh Dada doesn’t disappoint which is the good news for those who pick Kahaani for the weekend. He creates a story that makes us seasoned movie goers say that it was kind of predictable. But the regular average every day Joe or Jane would say – It kept us guessing.

What I did not like about the movie is the complete lack of credibility that Ghosh has given to the audience. Sujoy Sir – we don’t need to be told every single thing that has happened. Leave it to us to guess or interpret the movie in a way that we would like to. Also, avoid the use of long shots and people travelling on trams smiling to themselves just for the heck of it. Put it there if there is a reason. Else save on film and time. Will make the film tighter and more enjoyable.

Try and focus the spare time that you so get on more attention to detail. Such as ensuring that the female lead doesn’t look like she is 10 months pregnant with triplets. Or explaining to us how a low level cop from the Baangal can speak such good Hindi without any accent whatsoever? Or taking a step back to wonder why you need a body identification when you have a photograph.

I cannot think of anyone else who would have the courage or gumption or guts to play a role that demands so much intensity. Vidya Balan was the perfect choice. But her execution of the role was much below the bar that she has set for herself in the recent past. Or was that probably due to the superb acting from almost the entire cast. Not one of them seems to have been perturbed with the presence of a huge star.

Vishal Shekhar’s music is just about at par. Editing could have done much better. The Big B adds another Kolkata movie to his narration repertoire. He also adds a Bengali song to his CV. All going in to get probably the best movie this year to date (I haven’t seen Paan Singh Tomar yet mind you). 7 on 10. Watch it.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FMvJ1i_ixI