Kahaani: Difference between revisions
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Khan and Rana decide to use Vidya as their front woman to track down Milan Damji , as they feel her search for her husband is a good cover for hiding the true nature behind their own manhunt. Together, they manage to uncover that there is a second rogue agent in the IB who has been aiding Milan all these years, and is probably being paid off by the enemy. They also find that the NDC seems to be a regular cover for folks who are secret agents in Kolkata. Suspicion then moves to the NDC CTO, one Sridhar, when Rana and Vidya find that his computer was being used to send out anonymous MMS instructions to the assassin killing anyone who has any record of Damji. It turns out that Sridhar also gave the order to kill Agnes, the NDC HR Manager, and his latest instruction has been to finish Vidya. |
Khan and Rana decide to use Vidya as their front woman to track down Milan Damji , as they feel her search for her husband is a good cover for hiding the true nature behind their own manhunt. Together, they manage to uncover that there is a second rogue agent in the IB who has been aiding Milan all these years, and is probably being paid off by the enemy. They also find that the NDC seems to be a regular cover for folks who are secret agents in Kolkata. Suspicion then moves to the NDC CTO, one Sridhar, when Rana and Vidya find that his computer was being used to send out anonymous MMS instructions to the assassin killing anyone who has any record of Damji. It turns out that Sridhar also gave the order to kill Agnes, the NDC HR Manager, and his latest instruction has been to finish Vidya. |
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Vidya helps the police corner Sridhar, by hacking into his computer (she is after all a qualified software professional with knowledge of systems), and helps the IB and police find out that Bhaskaran is the other rogue agent in the system aiding Milan. |
Vidya helps the police corner Sridhar, by hacking into his computer (she is after all a qualified software professional with knowledge of systems), and helps the IB and police find out that Bhaskaran is the other rogue agent in the system aiding Milan. |
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The police try to corner Bhaskaran, who, realizing his predicament sends Damji after Vidya to retrieve the data she has retrieved from Sridhar's computer. Milan tells Vidya that in return for this information, he will give her husband back to her. Vidya agrees to meet him on the final day of Durga Puja at an immersion ceremony. |
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We then find out that Vidya is actually an IB agent herself, whose husband dies 2 years back in the [[Kolkata Metro]] poison gas attack, which was carried out by Damji. The ex chief of the IB has trained her for this mission so that she could find Damji, as well as the rogue elements in the Bureau who were aiding him. In this, she succeeds beautifully by posing as a pregnant woman searching for her husband, and uses the resources of the IB and Kolkata Police to find out about and trace Damji. While Inspector Khan and Rana felt they were using her as a front, it was actually the other way round. Vidya (which we now find was not her real name), before disappearing, leaves a note to Rana, thanking him for his help. |
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== Release == |
== Release == |
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Revision as of 07:55, 14 March 2012
| Kahaani | |
|---|---|
| File:Kahaani first look.jpg Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Sujoy Ghosh |
| Written by | Ritesh Shah Sutapa Sikdar Sujoy Ghosh |
| Screenplay by | Sujoy Ghosh Suresh Nair Nikhil Vyas |
| Story by | Sujoy Ghosh Advaita Kala |
| Produced by | Sujoy Ghosh Kushal Kantilal Gada |
| Starring | Vidya Balan Parambrata Chatterjee Saswata Chatterjee |
| Cinematography | Setu |
| Edited by | Namrata Rao |
| Music by | Vishal-Shekhar |
| Distributed by | Pen India Pvt. Ltd Viacom 18 Motion Pictures Boundscript Motion Pictures Pvt. Ltd |
Release date |
|
| Country | Template:Film India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | ₹8 crore (US$940,000)[1] |
| Box office | ₹16.50 crore (US$1.9 million) (First 4 days net gross)[2] |
Kahaani (Template:Lang-hi) is a 2012 Indian Bollywood thriller film directed and co-produced by Sujoy Ghosh. It stars Vidya Balan and Parambrata Chatterjee in lead roles. Balan plays a pregnant woman in search of her husband and the father of the child. The film is Vidya's fourth female-centric film after Ishqiya, No One Killed Jessica & The Dirty Picture.[3]
The film released on 9 March 2012, was well received by critics.Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).[4][5]
Cast
- Vidya Balan as Vidya Venkatesan Bagchi
- Parambrata Chatterjee as Satyaki Sinha/Rana
- Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Khan, Intelligence Bureau (IB) Senior Officer
- Kharaj Mukherjee as Inspector Chatterjee, in charge of Kalighat Police Station.
- Saswata Chatterjee as Bob Biswas
- Abir Chatterjee as IB agent & Vidya Bagchi's original spouse (guest appearance)
- Dhritiman Chatterjee as IB Chief, Bhaskaran K. (guest appearance)
- Darshan Jariwala as ex IB Chief, Capt. Vajpayee (guest appearance)
Plot
The story begins with Vidya Bagchi(Vidya Balan), a pretty, intelligent, urbane woman, seven months pregnant, in an emotionally fragile state, but with extreme reserves of determination and resolve, arriving in Kolkata from London, looking for her missing husband. On the very 1st day of reaching to Kolkata,the first thing she does is to go to a police station to lodge a complaint about her missing husband Arnab Bagchi. Arnab had come to Kolkata on a software consultancy project with the National Data Centre (NDC). According to Vidya, the first two weeks of his visit, went by smoothly, with Arnab and Vidya chatting daily. Suddenly, one day...all communication with Arnab ceased and he went untraceable. A sympathetic policeman, Satyaki Sinha/Rana (Parambrata Chatterjee) assists Vidya in her search, as Kolkata prepares herself for its biggest festival, [[Durga Puja ]]. Vidya and Rana go to the hotel where Arnab had stayed and is shocked to see that the hotel is actually a very down market guesthouse. The manager insists that no Arnab Bagchi ever stayed with them. Vidya chooses to stay in the guesthouse. Next morning Vidya goes to the NDC but the HR manager, Agnes, tells her the same thing in person as she said on the phone to Vidya in London. Agnes had not sanctioned any assignment for any Arnab Bagchi, and neither did he arrive in Kolkata. The police are slightly baffled that both the NDC and the hotel where Arnab was staying, claim that no one named Arnab ever arrived! But Vidya of course says that she knows he had come to Kolkata. Rana also finds out that both London and Kolkata immigration have no records of anyone by the name of Arnab Bagchi leaving London or arriving in Kolkata. A day later, Agnes from NDC calls Vidya and tells her that an NDC ex-employee by the name Milan Damji closely resembles her husband (from a photo Vidya showed Agnes when she met her). Agnes tries to extract Milan's records from the HR systems, but is denied access to Milan's record. The same night, an assassin posing as an insurance salesman shoots her dead at her home. Rana and Vidya follow this lead and break into the old offices of NDC to check for old records of Milan Damji. Vidya says she is convinced that her husband, who apparently bears a likeness to this Damji, has fallen into trouble as the wrong man in the wrong place. She convinces Rana that finding Damji will mean getting a direct lead to her husband. Meanwhile, Agnes trying to access Milan Damji's files rattles two high ranking IB officials - the chief Bhaskaran (Dhritiman Chatterjee) and his expletive spewing deputy Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). Khan is sent to Kolkata, and we learn that Damji was a an IB agent gone rogue, who was responsible for scores of deaths a couple of years ago in a poison gas attack in the Kolkata Metro. The IB has been looking for him ever since. Khan and Rana decide to use Vidya as their front woman to track down Milan Damji , as they feel her search for her husband is a good cover for hiding the true nature behind their own manhunt. Together, they manage to uncover that there is a second rogue agent in the IB who has been aiding Milan all these years, and is probably being paid off by the enemy. They also find that the NDC seems to be a regular cover for folks who are secret agents in Kolkata. Suspicion then moves to the NDC CTO, one Sridhar, when Rana and Vidya find that his computer was being used to send out anonymous MMS instructions to the assassin killing anyone who has any record of Damji. It turns out that Sridhar also gave the order to kill Agnes, the NDC HR Manager, and his latest instruction has been to finish Vidya. Vidya helps the police corner Sridhar, by hacking into his computer (she is after all a qualified software professional with knowledge of systems), and helps the IB and police find out that Bhaskaran is the other rogue agent in the system aiding Milan.
The police try to corner Bhaskaran, who, realizing his predicament sends Damji after Vidya to retrieve the data she has retrieved from Sridhar's computer. Milan tells Vidya that in return for this information, he will give her husband back to her. Vidya agrees to meet him on the final day of Durga Puja at an immersion ceremony. We then find out that Vidya is actually an IB agent herself, whose husband dies 2 years back in the Kolkata Metro poison gas attack, which was carried out by Damji. The ex chief of the IB has trained her for this mission so that she could find Damji, as well as the rogue elements in the Bureau who were aiding him. In this, she succeeds beautifully by posing as a pregnant woman searching for her husband, and uses the resources of the IB and Kolkata Police to find out about and trace Damji. While Inspector Khan and Rana felt they were using her as a front, it was actually the other way round. Vidya (which we now find was not her real name), before disappearing, leaves a note to Rana, thanking him for his help.
Release
Critical reception
Upon release, the film received highly positive reviews from critics. According to review aggregator ReviewGang this movie received 8 out of 10 rating by professional critics.[6] Taran Adarsh of Bollywwod Hungama gave 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "The Dirty Picture, the admiration for the National Award winning actress Vidya has scaled woozy altitudes and let me affirm, the supremely talented actress delivers a performance that's at par with her former accomplishments."[7] Madhureeta Mukherjee of Times Of India gave 4 out of 5 stars and said "Once again, a 'pregnant' Vidya, ironically displays more 'male ornaments' (excuse the watering down) than most heroes."[8] Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com gave 4 out of 5 stars and said "Vidya Balan excels in Kahaani, a film which is much too enjoyable to find flaws."[9] Rajeev Masand of IBN Live gave 3.5 out of 5 stars saying "it's a delicious thriller". Aakash Barvalia of MoviezAdda gave 4 out of 5 stars and said "It’s a story of one brave and courageous pregnant woman, Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan), who came all the way long from London to Kolkata, to find her missing husband Arnab Bagchi."[10] Goher Iqbal Punn from Bollygraph.com gave Kahaani an overwhelming 4.5 stars out of 5 & praised the movie by saying "Vidya Balan’s Kahaani was being awaited much. After watching her marvelous performance in the superhit ‘The Dirty Picture’, people were simply crazy to watch her next venture. Kahaani hits the screens today with gusto. Prior to the release, the expectations from Balan’s fans and the moviegoers were high and she as well as the film too live up to those expectations aptly".Top rated critic Anupama Chopra evaluated "kahaani" by saying "Kahaani is a nifty thriller with an enjoyment quotient that is indirectly proportionate to how long you spend thinking about the plot."
Box office
The bulk of the business came from Mumbai, Delhi/UP, East Punjab West Bengal and Mysore, with those five circuits giving a contribution of over 80%.[11][12] However, the film picked up on Saturday and Sunday, resulting in a ₹13.50 crore (US$1.6 million) net gross in its three-day weekend.[13] Despite being called a slow runner by the trade pundits, the film was actually declared a "hit".[14][15][16] In oversees market,despite not being an 'Overseas-friendly' genre, Vidya Balan starrer has done good business. The movie has grossed approximately Rs 3.30 crore nett at the foreign collections in the first weekend.
Kahaani, which was released in 45 theatres in America, has collected Rs 1.31 crores ($2,63,011) at the USA Box Office in the first weekend. The film has raked in Rs 1.13 crores (AED 8,30,000) nett from 25 screens in UAE. It has collected Rs 54.21 lacs (£69,211) from 31 screens in UK.
The movie has also done fare collection in countries like Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.
Soundtrack
The music of the film was composed by Vishal-Shekhar while the lyrics were penned by Vishal Dadlani, Anvita Dutt & Sandeep Srivasta. The album was released on February 22, 2012. Several of RD Burman's Hindi & Bengali composition have been aptly used in the background.
| Untitled | |
|---|---|
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Aami Shotti Bolchi" | Usha Uthup, Vishwesh Krishnamurthy | 03:20 |
| 2. | "Piya Tu Kahein Rutha Re" | Javed Bashir | 04:59 |
| 3. | "Kahaani (Male)" | KK, Vishal Dadlani | 04:26 |
| 4. | "Tore Bina" | Sukhwinder Singh | 05:52 |
| 5. | "Kahaani (Female)" | Shreya Ghoshal, Vishal Dadlani | 04:28 |
| 6. | "Ekla Cholo Re" | Amitabh Bachchan | 05:13 |
See also
References
- ^ "made on a budget of 8 cr kahaani gets all-time-blockuster response public reviews". naachgaana. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
- ^ "Kahaani Has A Good First Weekend". boxofficeindia. Retrieved March 13, 2012.
- ^ "A clean break for Vidya Balan". India Today. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
- ^ "FIRST LOOK: Vidya Balan in Kahaani". Hindustan Times. 1 December 2011. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
- ^ "No Ordinary Kahaani".
- ^ "ReviewGang Review". Review Gang. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
- ^ Adarsh, Taran. "BollywoodHungama Review". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- ^ "TimesOfIndia Review". Times Of India. 8 March 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- ^ Verma, Sukanya. "Rediff Review". Rediff. Retrieved 09 March 2012.
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- ^ Barvalia, Aakash. "MoviezAdda Review". MoviezAdda. Retrieved 09 March 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help)
- ^ "Weekend Expectation". boxofficeindia. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
- ^ "Kahaani to overtake Chaar Din Ki Chandni". BoxOfficeIndia. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
- ^ "Boxofficeindia.com". Boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
- ^ "Vidya Balan's 'Kahaani' declared a hit - Movies News - Bollywood - ibnlive". Ibnlive.in.com. 2011-05-10. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
- ^ "Vidya Balan strikes gold, Kahaani declared a hit". www.daily.bhaskar.com. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
- ^ IR Vol XL (No. 3), 13 Mar 2012. "Vidya Balan's 'Kaahani' is a box-office hit". International Reporter. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
External links
- Official website
- Kahaani at Bollywood Hungama (archived)
- Kahaani at IMDb