Kahaani is one of those suspense thriller which keep you engrossed in the narration throughout the length and make you think of a million plausible endings to keep you busy . Grippy screenplay, Engrossing Characters, Fine performances, Amazing Background Score, Good Cinematography but may be about 15 minutes longer than ideal. Absolutely Recommended for a watch this weekend.
Kahaani as you would already be aware by now (after the 753987435 appearances on TV including daily soaps and 65376347 interviews by Vidya to promote the movie) is a story of a wife who is ooking for her lost husband in Kolkata.There are 7-8 other characters which keep getting introduced one by one at constant intervals which help the movie in taking those essential twists and turns necessary to keep you guessing. The plot unravels slowly and in the end you seem to be satisfied with the climax and do not get irritated by it (as in the case of some ill executed mysteries, where you go.. WTF where did this come from types). Offers enough in the screenplay to keep you interested in the unraveling of the mystery towards the end.
Though screenplay is no doubt the soul of the movie, good performances by almost all the actors help the cause too. The best part about the performances was that the actors never look like actors, but characters they are portraying. May be a lot because almost all of them are new or have done only 1-2 cameos in movies earlier. Its Vidya all the way and though you may seem that too much of bhaav has been given to her, she does 100% justice to it and comes out a winner. Even characters which are just ancillary to the plot have delivered the goods and that's the biggest strength of the movie after screenplay. Its a consolidated performance by the whole cast rather than one or two stars shining and rest just fulfiling the formality.
Credit also is due to Vishal Shekhar for providing an absolutely mesmerising background score. It involves the audience even more, as if it's taking the scene to a next level altogether. If the scene is 90%, then the score takes it to 100 and you get that overall 'feel' from the movie. No Jarring sounds, No Hans Zimmery shor sharaaba, Just perfect according to the scene. The Cinematography captures Kolkata beautifully and towards the end you realize why kolkata plays such an important role in the narrative. Why it couldn't have been set in delhi or mumbai but kolkata only.
Though due to so many characters being introduced every now or then, sometimes you are like 'Ab bass karo yaar, ab bata hi do kya hua arnab bagchi ko' coz with every introduction the plot takes a turn and you seem to be going farther away from guessing the plausible ending and towards the second half you almost give up. That is when you seem to mind the length of the movie. May be about 15 mins shorter in the second half and coming to the point slightly quickly could have made it even better.
Overall: Very Good in every aspect with enough twists and turns to keep you engrossed. Recommended.
Feel-O-Meter: 7/10