Indian cinema and its global audience were prepared for a change. They craved unusual genres of films that were handled in a different way and performed distinctively without moving away from Indian-ess. And Vidya Balan with her earthy non-glam yet beautiful looks (her limpid eyes say it all) with a courage to move away from the customary roles, has carved an undisputed niche for herself.
In a recent interview when asked if she would ever do the usual glam-doll role of Bollywood masala film, she had counter questioned the journalist, “Jab mujhe khane ke liye maass mil raha hai to mein haddi kyon chunoon?” (When I can eat meat then why should I go for bones?)
She’s so right. Even Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Nargis and Meena Kumari couldn’t achieve what this ever-smiling, demure, soft spoken girl has. In fact, she has accomplished what male super stars of the industry aren’t able to do—on the fourth day of the release of her new film, Kahaani, a weekday and for an afternoon show, Balan had a nearly 85 per cent full theatre.
Understand the hold she has on her audience here. Kahaani doesn’t have any known male actors. The Dirty Picture, Ishqiya and No One Killed Jessica catapulted her to a different league of actors and got her innumerable awards including this year’s coveted National Award, and she shared the spotlight them with well established co-stars. Kahaani doesn’t have a single foreign locale shot. The entire film has been rivetingly shot in Kolkatta and the enticing cinematography makes you realise why Dominique Lapierre, author of the book City of Joy, fell in love with the city. There is neither a single romantic song, sleazy scene nor any show of cleavage. And yet within the short span of its release, the film has already made a huge profit for its producer-director Sujoy Ghosh.
The story itself is complicated. A Metro train is rapidly getting filled up at Kalighat station when a man (Abir Chatterjee, a well-known Bengali TV and film actor) also gets in apparently searching for something after a telephonic tip warning of a terror attack in the local train. An innocent-looking baby’s milk bottle falls off a bag and a deadly gas releases killing off all the travelers on it.
Two years later, a heavily pregnant Vidya Venkatesan Bagchi (Vidya Balan) alights at the Netaji Subash Chandra Bose international airport in Kolkatta. As she comes out with a trolley bag in one hand, a guide book and bottle of mineral water in the other hand, she gets surrounded by taxi drivers. One decent-looking driver offers to take her to her first destination, Kalighat police station.
And this is how the fast-paced story without a pause unfolds. Not a single frame is extra or wasted. Though Ghosh is not in a hurry to finish his story, neither does he relax in narrating it. Every incident is clear, no over-the-top emotions, no screaming or loud noise. Even the cacophony at the time of the biggest celebration in Bengal is in sync.
Reaching Kolkatta a few days ahead of the highly religious and popular Durga Puja, the software engineer Bidya, as Bengalis pronounce her name, files a missing persons report at the police station. Couple of months ago her husband, Arnab Bagchi on an assignment had come to Kolkatta from London where the duo resided. One day he suddenly disappeared. All her enquiries from London proved futile and so she decided to come to Kolkatta to trace him.
At the police station she meets a rookie cop Satyaki Sinha, affectionately called Rana (Parambrata Chatterjee, another well-known Bengali actor and director) who offers to help her search for her husband. It is he who tells her that there is no trace of any Arnab either coming to India or leaving London.
From here on it is the saga of finding Arnab Bagchi. It is at the National Data Center that Vidya finds out that there was a Milan Damji who was a look alike of her husband and that the police and the IB have been looking out for him from the last two years since the Metro death of commuters by the poisonous gas. Not finding any trace of him, they had closed down the case.
Vidya refuses to believe that there was any look alike and her husband had any terror link. So with the help of Rana she starts to unravel the mystery. The chocolate-sweet looks of Rana suit the role so much that it is easy to imagine him getting favours from everyone he wants including the secretary of the HR manager of high security National Data Center where Arnab was supposed to have reported to. Though he is unknown to the Hindi film world, Parambrata has superbly essayed his role of a rookie cop finding himself attracted to Vidya.
In fact, except for Vidya, all other actors in the film are well-known Bengali actors. Dhritiman Chatterjee as IB chief Bhaskaran K, in a guest appearance, proves why directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Aparna Sen, Deepa Mehta had complete faith in him to deliver whatever role given to him with aplomb. The surprise element is Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the chain-smoking IB officer Khan. Hitherto seen in bit roles in films like Lage Raho Munnabhai, Sarfarosh, etc, Siddiqui will be a ‘new’ find after this film. The rotund contract killer Bob Biswas played by Saswat Chatterjee is another great element. Impossible to imagine the sweet-smiling insurance officer as a cold blooded killer.
Right till the end, Sujoy Gosh maintains his grip on the audience. Of course there are a couple of weak points like Rana opening an old padlock with a hairclip, etc, but to counter this there are some very sweet moments of Vidya and the young child actor playing the helper at the guest house where she is staying.
The music by Shekhar Vishal is unobtrusive and gels with the film. Setu the cinematographer and Namrata Rao as the editor have done such a wonderful job that Kolkatta looks a great culture hub of India. Added to all this is the effortless acting by every actor. Vidya, of course, as the heavily pregnant Bidya walks away with all the honours.