So what the kahaani of kahaani is you have to find out for yourself because you're not getting that here. At least not for another month till most of you have seen it and it's gone out of the theatres.
The movie is set in Calcutta, and not Kolkata, because it is set in those parts of Calcutta that in my eyes can never be called anything else. Thanks to V I've got this fascination for that city and for Bengali, which basically means, I had a silly smile plastered on my face for most parts of the movie, especially when they spoke in Bengali and called her Bidda instead of Vidya because they cannot pronounce the 'V' (it doesn't exist in their alphabet).
It's shot in all the local places of the city, the corner 'cha' stalls, the metro, and a lot of the tram… Weaving in and out of the city gallis gearing up to a fantastic Durga Puja crescendo. Having never been in Cal during the Pujo time, I found it extremely fascinating to see the beautiful idols adorned with love and jewels, and to see order and devotion amidst the chaos. I guess I liked the fact that they weren't singing or dancing to the tunes of popular hindi cheap songs like we see in our Ganpati festivals, but were instead singing and dancing to the tunes of Bengali women ullulating. Another unique thing about the movie was hearing Amitabh Bachchan singing 'Ekla chalo re…' penned by Rabindranath Tagore… And like Chak De, there were no other songs, and only a background score. All the characters were sculpted to perfection, and even the seemingly obvious glitches turn out to be part of the storyline in the end. The child artist in the movie who plays the role of a helper boy in the guesthouse was adoring and such a natural, it didn't feel like he was acting at all!
Obviously Vidya Balan is the star of the movie and rightfully so. Yet again she has proven why you don't need a size zero figure to get people to notice you. Her stellar acting, natural beauty and perfect diction makes you think of what all she has in store for us in the days to come. She holds your attention throughout the movie, and manages to deliver over and over again.
You realize after the movie ends, that the reason you haven't seen such great cinema often is because very few movies have a script that is so gripping and so flawless. Intricacies woven in together which seamlessly unravel in the end. Characters so complex that they make you think. Editing so crisp that it sets a pace that's fast and yet not a blur. Cinematography so beautiful that you begin to see the order within the madness. Ahh. It's a brilliant movie and I'm telling you, you want to see this movie to know why the poster makes you think of Durga Maa now!
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