Kahaani..Gripping, Yes!…Perfect, NO!

  Kahaani is the story of  Vidya Balan, who is enjoying a new high after her `The Dirty Picture’  won some national level awards, reprising the role of a pregnant woman claiming to be Computer programmer from London who walks into a crowded Kolkata asking questions about her missing husband whom she lost contact suddenly in that very city.. Soon with a helpful clean faced (and hearted) cop in tow, she plunges into an onerous task of unearthing the id of her spouse which seems to have been erased from all possible records.

It is a good role and she dons the mantle of a lone crusading woman very well…In these days when heroine oriented Mainstream Hindi movies are rare, she may even bag some awards for this effort too..

But for me, the movie script was nowhere near perfect.

OK,. Yes, as recent thrillers go, it stands apart as a more sensible one, with suspense maintained well to almost near the climax… I, for one, smelt the end coming about half hour earlier than the Director would have liked, but the point is there are quite a few loose ends ( read unexplained and semi explained ones ) , and thus many viewers may not understand the full impact of the climax and what it means to the story till after the movie credits roll.

I expected to see Kolkata in a new light as claimed by most reviewers but it is still the same old ‘Calcutta’ that seems to be frozen in a time warp with decadent buildings and ancient facilities except for its Metro which is in fact a character in this film.

!! SPOILERS AHEAD!! ( Don’t read further if you want to watch the movie)

1. As to spoilers…somehow the way Vidya handles herself as a ‘ pregnant’ woman is a not quite convincing. She walks about too quickly, awkwardly and seems tireless with all the the long treks in the so called `City of Joy’.
2. There is no explanation on the schoolboy who carried a bottle of poisonous gas in the Metro train and caused the leak that kills hundreds shown as a mere accident, even though it will be described as a meticulous terrorist attack later. .I mean How? And basically who was the schoolboy?Where is the connection with the main villain in this case? It is never shown, even in the end..
3. Why would a HR officer get bumped off by villains for accessing existing HR records of an Ex-employee?    If that was so critical for them to be kept hidden, did the villains wait for 2 years till someone like her accessed it, just to kill them then.. Strange logic!
4. The reactions of the exposed ‘inside man’- for eg, Shridhar is strangely loud and out of character; he starts a physical bash-up in the main roads with the guys who stole an important closely guarded secret from him …But his yelling and shouting about the ‘secret’ attracts every bystander in the road and it’s a dead giveaway.
5. Who sponsored the Metro attack finally?.. They just killed one evil agent and arrested another on their payrolls after all this hullaballoo…
6. Did she manage to get away in the end?.. The case will be closed by the Police after such a bloody climax allowing her go scot free? No answers provided except for allusions to a vengeful Mata Durga …Oh, well!

What I really Liked: Kishoreda’s sung  RD Burman composed songs of Old 70′s  playing in the backdrop of  `Bengali Kolkata ‘, quite appropriately

Bottomline:

See it by all means..Recommended, rated 3.5/5