Sujoy Ghosh co-wrote, co-produced, as well as helmed Kahaani, a 2012 Bollywood Hindi-language thriller movie. Vidya Balan plays Vidya Bagchi, a pregnant lady seeking her missing husband in Kolkata during the Durga Puja season, with the help of Parambrata Chatterjee’s Satyoki “Rana” Sinha and Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui).
Kahaani was conceptualised and developed by Ghosh, who also co-wrote the movie with Advaita Kala, on a shoestring budget of $80 million. To avoid attracting notice, the crew used guerilla filmmaking tactics on Kolkata’s downtown streets.
The movie was praised for its accurate depiction of the city and also for employing a large number of local crew as well as cast members.
In a male-dominated Indian society, Kahaani examines topics of feminism and motherhood. There are also references to Satyajit Ray’s movies Charulata (1964), Aranyer Din Ratri (1970), and Joi Baba Felunath in the film (1979).
On March 9, 2012, Kahaani was released globally. The writing, photography, and lead actors’ performances were all acclaimed by critics.
The movie has made $1.04 billion worldwide in 50 days after critical praise and word-of-mouth popularity. Three National Picture Awards, as well as five Filmfare Awards, were among the accolades bestowed to the movie. The latter featured awards for Best Director (Ghosh) and Best Actress (Vidya).
Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh, a spiritual successor, was released on December 2, 2016.
The occupants on board a Kolkata Metro Rail compartment are killed by a poison-gas assault. Two years later, during the Durga Puja celebrations in Kolkata, Vidya Bagchi, a pregnant British-Indian software engineer, arrives in quest of her missing husband, Arnab Bagchi. Satyuki “Rana” Sinha, a police officer, volunteers to assist. Although Vidya says Arnab travelled to Kolkata on a job assignment for the National Data Center (NDC), preliminary inquiries indicate that no such individual worked for the NDC.
The NDC’s chief of human resources, Agnes D’Mello, tells Vidya that her husband looks like former NDC employee Milan Damji, whose file is most likely retained at the old NDC office. Bob Biswas, an assassin operating undercover as a life insurance agent, kills Agnes before she can save anybody else. Agnes is photographed at the front door of her residence, where she is seen listening to music. Vidya and Rana get into the NDC office and discover Damji’s file, narrowly avoiding a confrontation with Bob, who is also looking for the same information. Meanwhile, attempts to get Damji’s data have drew the notice of two Intelligence Bureau officials in Delhi—chief Bhaskaran K. and deputy head Bhaskaran K.
Vidya, on the other hand, receives a call from an unknown number, threatening her that if she wants to see her husband alive, she must hand over the documents to the caller. The caller, Khan believes, is Milan Damji.
Vidya, Rana, as well as Khan accompany Vidya to see Damji. When Vidya expresses her doubts about Damji’s ability to return her husband in exchange for the sensitive paperwork, he abruptly ends the meeting. When Vidya tries to stop him, Damji pulls a revolver on her in the ensuing battle. Vidya disarms him by stabbing him inside the neck with her hair stick and afterwards shoots him with his own gun with both the prosthetic belly she’s been using to fake her pregnancy.
Before the cops arrive, she dashes into the throng, leaving a thank you letter for Rana and a pen drive holding Sridhar’s computer data, which leads to Bhaskaran’s arrest. Rana believes that there was no such person as Vidya or Arnab Bagchi, and also that Vidya had been abusing the police as well as the IB to further her own goals.
Vidya is revealed to be the widow of Arup Basu, an IB officer and Damji’s colleague who was murdered inside the poison-gas assault, which further caused Vidya to pass out and have a miscarriage when she saw her husband’s body.
Vidya was assisted by former IB officer Pratap Bajpayee, who suspected the participation of a high IB official, in her effort to revenge his and their unborn child’s deaths.
Vishal–Shekhar composed the movie’s score and soundtrack, and Vishal Dadlani, Anvita Dutt, and Sandeep Srivastava wrote the lyrics for the movie’s six songs. Several Hindi and Bengali tunes by R. D. Burman were utilised in the backdrop. The soundtrack CD was published on February 13, 2012, and it has been available upon that Apple iTunes India digital music market from its debut in mid-2012.
Positive reviews were given to the soundtrack, which was commended for combining Bengali as well as Hindi lyrics. According to a CNN-IBN review, the song “Ami Shotti Bolchi” is able to transmit the sense of Kolkata to some extent, as well as the soundtrack “includes suitable voices with both the overall tone of the album.” The album received a three-star rating from the Mumbai Mirror. Anand Vaishnav, writing for Indiatimes, said of the music, “Kahaani, as an album, stays true to the spirit of the movie.”
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