Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani released ten years ago today, is regarded as one of the most compelling thrillers in recent memory because its suspense is hidden in plain sight. The title, which translates to the story,’ alludes to the protagonist’s weapon of choice while avenging her husband’s death. Vidya Bagchi [Vidya Balan] informs everyone that she is a pregnant woman searching for her absent husband in Kolkata. In reality, she is on a covert mission to track down and assassinate the Kolkata metro gas disaster architect, which killed her husband and many others.
Vidya employs the police, notably Inspector Rana [Parambrata Chatterjee], to help her cross the treacherous landscape of bureaucratic and political cover-ups to find her husband’s killer. In terms of plot, Kahaani is another retribution thriller or another card in the deck of avenging angel films such as Khoon Bhari Maang [1988] and Anjaam [1994]. But what distinguishes it is Bagchi’s use of narrative as a crutch to attain her goal, rather than the stereotype of cornering the mastermind’s troops one by one to get to the next clue in the trail. But it’s the mother’s pulsating heart at the center of the drama that makes Kahaani a captivating story rather than merely a soulless thriller.
While the sight of a pregnant lady by Vidya looking for her husband is enough to elicit pity, that emotion is flipped on its head at the climax, when Bagchi reveals she has a fake pregnant belly and that both her husband and unborn child perished a long time ago.
Again, the concept of a lady seeking justice after losing her family is appealing, but the narrative never confines itself to that particular aspect. In the dying minutes, Bagchi sobs to her buddy [Darshan Zariwala] that she has begun to feel like a mother again and has already started to believe her husband is still alive while repeating others that narrative. “I’d like to reclaim my hubby.”
“I want my child back,” she sobs, resorting to crying. At that point, you feel the most sympathy for the character. She is neither an angry angel nor a helpless figure but a thriving mother — somewhere in the between.
She can persuade people to buy her kahaani because she is thoroughly immersed in the narrative. She’s there because she wants to be. Telling yourself a tale, living it, and then convincing others of the same is a self-defense method to escape your history, sufferings, and loneliness, as used in Drishyam.
The repeated chorus of Usha Uthup’s song ‘Aami Shotti Bolchi’ [I tell the truth] parallels Bagchi’s strategy of telling the same narrative to others. She believes it a little more each time. The kahaani is her weapon to revenge her husband’s murder, but the gun finally turns against her. It entices her with a fantasy world before exploding on her like a truth bomb.
Vidya Balan’s choice to play the protagonist is revealing. Balan has previously played a single mother, but never one who was looking for her spouse. In fact, in Heyy Babyy [2007] and Paa [2009], she portrayed the polar opposite. Vidya Balan has always shown a strong single mother who is hesitant to share her child with an irresponsible spouse. In Kahaani, on the other hand, she tells herself a narrative. A narrative in which she is portrayed as a desperate yet resolute mother.
However, there are moments when the storyteller’s guard is dropped, and Balan slips out of character. She turns away and braves watery eyes when Rana assures her what a wonderful mother she will be. At that point, one realizes that, in addition to Sujoy Ghosh, Vidya Balan has been co-writing her kahaani.
This release is articulated by Prittle Prattle News in the form of an authored article.
