Kahaani (2012-movie) : Bollywood Hindi Film

Kahaani Movie Details :

Kahaani Movie is a 2012 Indian Bollywood thriller film co-writter, co-producer and directer is Sujoy Ghosh. It stars are Vidya Balan as Vidya Bagchi, a pregnant woman searching for her missing husband in Kolkata during the festival of Durga Puja, assisted by Satyoki “Rana” Sinha (Parambrata Chatterjee) and Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui).

Made on a shoestring budget of 80 million , Kahaani was conceived and developed by Ghosh, who co-wrote the film with Advaita Kala. The crew often employed guerrilla-filmmaking techniques on Kolkata’s city streets to avoid attracting attention. The film was noted for its deft portrayal of the city and for making use of many local crew and cast members. Kahaani explores themes of feminism and motherhood in male-dominated Indian society. The film also makes several allusions to Satyajit Ray’s films such as Charulata (1964), Aranyer Din Ratri (1970) and Joi Baba Felunath (1979).

Kahaani was released worldwide on 9 March 2012. Critics praised the screenplay, the cinematography and the performances of the lead actors. Following critical acclaim and word-of-mouth publicity, the film earned 1.04 billion worldwide in 50 days. The film won several awards, including three National Film Awards and five Filmfare Awards. The latter included trophies for Best Director (Ghosh) and Best Actress (Vidya). A spiritual successor, titled Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh, was released on 2 December 2016.

• Directer : Sujoy Ghosh
• Producer : Sujoy Ghosh,Kushal Kantilal Gada
• Writter : Ritesh Shah,Sutapa Sikdar,Sujoy Ghosh
• Screenplay : Sujoy Ghosh
• Story : Sujoy Ghosh,Advaita Kala
• Starring : Vidya Balan,Parambrata Chatterjee,Nawazuddin Siddiqui,Indraneil Sengupta,Saswata Chatterjee
• Music/Songs : Vishal-Shekhar
• Background score : Clinton Cerejo
• Cinematography : Setu
• Editer : Namrata Rao
• Casting : Roshmi Banerjee
• Production Design : Kaushik Das
• Art Direction : Sukhvinder Singh
• Costume Design : Suchismita Dasgupta,Sabyasachi Mukherji
• Visual Effects : Amarjyoti Borah,Vagaram Choudhary,Abdul Rahman Coatwala
• Action Directer : Sham Kaushal,Sanober Pardiwalla,Paramjeet Singh
• Production company : Boundscript Motion Pictures
• Distributer : Viacom 18 Motion Pictures,Pen India Limited
• Genres : Mystery,Thriller
• Release date : 9 March 2012
• Country : India
• Language : Hindi

Kahaani Movie Wacth Online :

Not Available

Kahaani Movie Star Cast :

• Vidya Balan as a Vidya Venkatesan-Bagchi
• Parambrata Chattopadhyay as a Inspector Satyaki Sinha aka Rana
• Indraneil Sengupta as a Arnab Bagchi / Milan Damji
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui as a Mr. Khan
• Dhritiman Chatterjee as a Bhaskaran
• Saswata Chatterjee as a Bob Biswas
• Darshan Jariwala as a Retd. Colonel Bajpai
• Sk. Azad Ahmed as a Drunk at Monalisa
• Masood Akhtar as a Rasik Tyagi
• Mohd. Faiz Alam as a Bob’s Boss
• Roshni Ali as a Student
• Anindya Pulak Banerjee as a Bimal
• Kamalika Banerjee as a Receptionist
• Dibyendu Bardhan as a Police Inspector
• Paresh Bhowmick as a Drunk at Monalisa (as Paresh Bhowmik)
• Pamela Singh Bhutoria as a Sapna (as Pamela Singh Bhutori)
• Colleen Blanche as a Agnes D’Mello
• Mita Chakraborty as a Mrs. Bose
• Mithun Chakraborty as a IB Agent
• Abir Chatterjee as a Arup Basu
• Kalyan Chatterjee as a Ramesh Pal
• Phalguni Chatterjee as a Headmaster
• Rumki Chatterjee as a Old Woman At Metro
• Vishal Chowdhury as a Fat Man
• Saurav Das as a TV Veiwer (as Sourav Das)
• Shaubhik Das as a Drunk at Monalisa
• Nitya Ganguly as a Monalisa Manager
• Shankar Ghoshal as a Milan’s Neighbour (as Shankar Ghosal)
• Taranjit Kaur as a Mother at Metro Station
• Bhaskar Majumdar as a Mr. Bose
• Kharaj Mukherjee as a Inspector Chatterjee
• Rwitobroto Mukherjee as a Bishnu (as Ritobroto Mukherjee)
• Santilal Mukherjee as a R. Shridhar
• Kunal Padhy as a Dr. Ganguly (as Kunal Padhi)
• Debdas Saha as a Monalisa Manager’s Friend
• Debashish Sarkar as a IB Agent
• Riddhi Sen as a Poltu
• Arindam Sil as a TV Veiwer
• Nandadulal Tripathi as a NDC Guard
• Amit Vasudeva as a IB Agent

Kahaani Movie Story :

Kolkata is abuzz with the preparations for the annual Durga Puja festival, as seven months pregnant Vidya Bagchi steps off the airplane from London. Her first stop is the local police station to file a missing person report. Weeks ago, her husband Arnab arrived in India for a job assignment. The first two weeks, they talked daily on the phone, and then without explanation, his calls stopped. Everywhere Vidya turns, no one can remember Arnab. There is no trace of him at the guest house or his workplace. But Vidya will not give up her search. Somewhere in Kolkata she will discover the dangerous truth.

Kahaani Movie Pre-post Production :

Development :

Sujoy Ghosh approached novelist and script writer Advaita Kala with the idea for the film. Kala took inspiration from her experience in Kolkata, where she had moved in 1999, akin to the protagonist in the film. She reported that despite facing a language barrier and the chaos and poverty of the metropolis, she was charmed by the warmth of the people, which was reflected in the film. Kala started writing in 2009 and finished the 185-page script by February 2010. Her research included reading the books Open Secrets: India’s Intelligence Unveiled by Maloy Krishna Dhar and India’s External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) by V. K. Singh.

Ghosh, who co-wrote the story and the screenplay, began to plan the film while awaiting the release of his previous film Aladin (2009), but the dismal response to Aladin was a setback. He had to approach several producers to finance him for Kahaani, but was refused and discouraged from making the film owing to three factors: a pregnant woman as the lead star, a bunch of unknown Bengali actors as the supporting cast and Kolkata as a backdrop. Yashraj Films were willing to produce the film, but wanted Ghosh to sign a three-film deal, which he declined because he did not want that much commitment.

Bengali film actor Prosenjit Chatterjee encouraged Ghosh to shoot in Kolkata. Ghosh finally selected Kolkata for several reasons: the director’s acquaintance with the city, its mix of modernity and old-world charm, and budget constraints. Kolkata is a cheaper location than Mumbai or Delhi, where most Bollywood films are shot.

Ghosh admitted in an interview that after his two preceding directorial ventures – Aladin and Home Delivery (2005)-performed poorly at the box office, Kahaani was his last chance to create a niche as a director. He added that the film’s plot twist came somewhat accidentally. Having described the skeleton of the story to a friend during its development, the friend called him back a few days later to enquire about his film. The friend had mistakenly imagined sequences which he assumed to be parts of the plot, from which the twist ending was derived.

Kahaani Movie Casting :

Vidya Balan (on right) was the first choice of director Sujoy Ghosh (on left) for the leading role in the film.
Vidya Balan was the first choice of both writer Advaita Kala and director Sujoy Ghosh. Ghosh had planned for a long time to work with Vidya and approached her in 2010. Unimpressed with the plot outline, Vidya refused, only changing her mind after having read the completed script.

Ghosh chose mostly Bengali actors as he wanted to make the characters as authentic as possible. The role of the Inspector Satyoki “Rana” Sinha was first offered to Chandan Roy Sanyal, but he could not take the part due to other commitments. Parambrata Chatterjee, a Bengali actor whose acting in the film The Bong Connection (2006) had impressed Ghosh at the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image festival, was later offered the role in Kahaani. Chatterjee had earlier worked with Vidya in her début film Bhalo Theko (2003).

The casting director Roshmi Banerjee suggested Nawazuddin Siddiqui for the role of Khan. Siddiqui, who had only had minor roles in Bollywood up to that time, was surprised that for the first time he would not have to portray a beggar. Saswata Chatterjee, another Bengali actor, was surprised as well when he was offered the role of the contract killer Bob Biswas. He thought there were suitable actors in Hindi film industry for the role. He said that Ghosh had known him since childhood and was impressed with his acting, so he wanted him as Bob Biswas.

Ghosh went against the expectations of casting a popular actor from Bollywood. He signed Bengali actor Abir Chatterjee to play Vidya’s husband. According to Ghosh, popular Bollywood actors were not willing to work with him after his two previous flops. He also believed that audience might expect more screen-time from a better-known actor. Several other Bengali film and television actors, such as Indraneil Sengupta and Kharaj Mukherjee, were cast in supporting roles.

Characters :

Before the shooting of the film began, Vidya started to use a prosthetic belly to look as close to authentically pregnant as possible. According to news reports, she met doctors and pregnant women to learn about the typical lifestyle and nuances of a pregnant woman, and also made lists of rules and superstitions followed by pregnant women. Vidya said that during her college days she often used to imitate pregnant ladies during stand-up acting among friends, an experience that helped her during the shooting.

While briefing Saswata Chatterjee about his character, the cold-blooded killer Bob Biswas, Ghosh used the phrase “Binito Bob” (meaning polite Bob), which crystallised the notion of Bob’s manners. Further discussions led to the inclusion of paunch and a bald patch. Chatterjee devised the mannerism of rubbing his nails together as some Indians believe doing that helps prevent hair loss. The mannerism was well-noted and praised by the viewers. Ghosh was surprised at how Bob Biswas was greeted by fans as a cult figure. He emphasised that the deliberate ordinariness of Bob Biswas was portrayed so convincingly by Chatterjee that the viewers can expect Bob to be around them at any time and any place.

Parambrata Chatterjee said in an interview that he did not identify with the Rana character, owing to the difference between his own urban upbringing and Rana’s rural background. Chatterjee visited police stations and did some research “on their work, mindset and other relevant things” to prepare for the role. The character Khan was envisaged as a ruthless, arrogant, expletive-spewing officer who cares nothing about the emotional or social consequences of his behaviour. Siddiqui said that he was surprised on being offered the role, and wondered how he could portray the arrogance needed for the character. Ghosh built Khan as a character with lean physical build but full of mental strength, loyalty and patriotism. Khan smokes a relatively cheap brand of cigarette (Gold Flake) despite his high official post; Siddiqui had smoked that brand of cigarette throughout his struggling days in Bollywood and thereafter.

Film Shooting :

Film Shooting took place on the streets of Kolkata, where Ghosh often employed the art of guerrilla filmmaking (shooting in real locations without any previous knowledge given to onlookers) to avoid unwanted attention.The cinematographer Setu, who had assisted others in the past to shoot documentaries in Kolkata, said that unlike majority of Indian films, Kahaani was shot mostly without artificial light. The film was shot in 64 days, during which the Durga Puja festival of 2010 took place. Shooting locations in Kolkata included Kalighat Metro station, Nonapukur tram depot, Kumartuli, Howrah Bridge, Victoria Memorial, old houses of North Kolkata and others. The climax, which takes place on the night of Vijayadashami (the last day of Durga Puja), was shot on the night of Vijayadashami in the premises of a Barowari (publicly organised) Durga Puja celebration in the Ballygunge neighbourhood of Kolkata. Most of the crowd in the climax were not actors. Some actors mingled with the crowd engaged in Sindoor khela – their job was to appreciate the camera angles and accordingly apply sindoor (vermilion) on Vidya’s face so that accidental exposure of her eyes to sindoor could be avoided.

Ghosh chose the guest house in which the protagonist stays after noticing it during his visit to a neighbouring hotel in April 2010. He booked it for 10 days for 40,000, and requested the guest-house employees to keep the shooting schedule a secret. Choosing a room with windows overlooking a busy road, he proceeded to give it an old-fashioned look by replacing the windows’ designer grilles with old-fashioned wooden ones, and by painting the room with some rough patches.

Kahaani Movie Songs / Music :

The film score and soundtrack was composer are Vishal–Shekhar, and the lyrics for the film’s six songs were writter are Vishal Dadlani, Anvita Dutt and Sandeep Srivastava. Several of R. D. Burman’s Hindi and Bengali compositions were used in the background. The soundtrack album was released on 19 February 2012 and subsequently on the digital music platform Apple iTunes India since its inception from mid-2012.

The soundtrack received positive reviews, and was praised for its amalgamation of Bengali and Hindi lyrics. A review in CNN-IBN states that the song “Ami Shotti Bolchi” is able to partially convey the feel of Kolkata, and that the soundtrack “features right voices with the overall mood of the album”. Mumbai Mirror rated the album with 3 stars out of 5. Reviewing the soundtrack for Indiatimes, Anand Vaishnav commented that “Kahaani, as an album, stays honest to the theme of the film”.

All lyrics are writter are Vishal Dadlani, Anvita Dutt and Sandeep Srivastava, except where noted.

• “Aami Shotti Bolchi” – Usha Uthup, Vishwesh Krishnamurthy
• “Piya Tu Kahe Rootha Re” – Javed Bashir
• “Kahaani (Male)” – KK, Vishal Dadlani
• “Tore Bina” – Sukhwinder Singh
• “Kahaani (Female)” – Shreya Ghoshal, Vishal Dadlani
• “Ekla Cholo Re” (Rabindra Sangeet) – Amitabh Bachchan

“Kahaani (Male)” Full Video Song :

• Song: Yeh Meri Kahaani
• Singer: Shreya Ghoshal
• Music composer : Vishal–Shekhar

“Piya Tu Kahe Rootha Re” Full Video Song :

• Song: Piya Tu Kahe Rootha Re
• Singer: Javed Bashir
• Music composer : Vishal–Shekhar

Kahaani Movie Marketing and release :

Kahaani’s first-look poster was launched on 2 December 2011, and the official trailer on 5 January 2012. The poster, portraying a pregnant Vidya Balan and lacking any romantic element, was well received. Critics’ expectations were low, owing to the director’s previous box-office failures. Vidya appeared in public with a prosthetic belly to promote the film, and mingled with the public in railway stations, bus stands and markets. She often carried a sketch of her on-screen missing husband, and asked people to help in finding him. Social-networking website Ibibo.com developed an online game, The Great Indian Parking Wars, which required players to park Vidya’s taxi on a street; it was well-received, reaching 50,000 hits in 10 days.

On 5 March 2012, prior to release, Kolkata Metro authorities objected to a scene in which Vidya is pushed by a man onto the tracks as a train arrives. They requested that the scene be removed, as it would remind people of the past suicides, which had tarnished the railway’s image. The filmmakers screened the scene for the authorities and explained that nothing in the film would affect the image of the Metro or prompt people to commit suicide. Convinced, the officials withdrew their objections, and the scene was retained, although it was removed from trailers.

Kahaani was released on 9 March 2012, a day after International Women’s Day. It played on 1100 screens worldwide. CNN-IBN reported that although Kahaani was ready before The Dirty Picture, distributors deferred its release, fearing that Vidya’s role of a sexy siren (in The Dirty Picture) after that of a pregnant woman might not be received well. STAR TV bought the exclusive right to broadcast the film for a price of 80 million , which was the highest-ever price paid for a female-centric film in India. The Indian television premiere of the film was on Star India’s channel Movies OK on 3 June 2012. The DVD of the film was released on 17 May 2012 across all regions in a one-disc pack in NTSC format. Distributed by Shemaroo Entertainment, it contained additional content, such as behind-the-scene footage, video of celebration parties after its theatrical release, and music videos of the songs of the film. The VCD and Blu-ray versions were released at the same time. The film is also available on Netflix.

Kahaani Movie Review :

This film review are Mostly Positive from Critics, IMDB Public Reviewing site give 8.1 Star Out Of 10 Star with Reviewers are 57,812.

Do not listen to what people tell you based on the rumors, go and watch it!! The story is just fantastic!! A lot of thought has been put into every minute detail of the movie!! All of it to culminate in an awesome finish. Vidya Balan has as always done her bit perfectly and is supported well by her co-star Parambrata Chatterjee.The cinematography in the initial stages is fair. The direction is legendary. Every single scene has a part to play in the climax. Go watch it \m/. You’ll be glued to your seats for sure!! And don’t bother to think of what’s gonna happen next, cos just like any awesome thriller, you’re gonna be proved wrong ;P

Critics Rating by Taran Adarsh, from Bollywood Hungama give 4 star out of 5 Star.

Kahaani Movie Box Office Collection :

INDIA

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