Sujoy Ghosh sure knows his craft. He
has a simple thriller story and ensures that the audience is at the tip of
their seats for most part of the two hours. It may not be the finger nail
chewing stuff and yet it is engrossing enough to keep the popcorn eating to a
formality. While some would believe that the suspense quotient of the film is
far lower than in Kahaani, methinks that the filmmaker in this outing ensures
the narration to keep you engrossed at all points in time with the happenings.
The story line is about Vidya Sinha (Vidya Balan) a single mother who is making
the best of the challenges in Chandan Nagar with a daughter who is paralysed
below her hip and thus on a wheel chair. She is waiting for the clearance for a
trip to the USA which will lead to a surgical alteration of the medical
condition of her daughter Mini (Naisha Khanna). She returns from office only to
realise that her daughter has been kidnapped. She literally runs on the road
only to meet with a terrible accident. She is now in come and the investigating
officer Indrajit (Arjun Rampal) enters the scene. Alongside Indrajit is his
colleague Pranab Halder (Kharaj Mukherjee). Indrajit is shocked when he sees
Vidya and believes her to be Durga his former wife and a kidnapper from
Kalimpong.
The rest of the narrative is about how Durga a admin staff in a private school
meets up with Mini (Tumisha Sharma) a little girl always before the Principal
for having dozed off in class. A chanced comment that she is not allowed to
sleep at home gets her thinking. Herself a victim of child abuse, she scents a
crime under cover and works hard to expose the child’s predator uncle Mohit
(Jugal Hansraj). Even as she tries hard to expose the incident she is stone
walled by the victim’s grandmother (Amba Sanyal) who is powerful enough to buy
the local police.
Saying anything more of the two parallel tales would be playing a spoil sport.
Watch how the film maker connects the two stories and how. Albeit with needless
dramatics takes you to a finale. If any where it is here that Sujoy falters. He
just cannot resist the temptation of falling for the regular format and gets a
tad loud and theatrical with the climax. While the entire narration is told
with a high degree of sensitivity and class the climax get loud and filmy –
Hindi filmy. This is the undoing of the film.
The film truly belongs to the punch filled presence of Vidya Balan. Like in the
earlier outing she is complete command and has the right sensitivity to take
the script along. She is a treat to watch and notwithstanding all the weight
she needs to hide she has a character which goes well with it all. Her
performance is top class and is a true reflection of her understanding of the
craft. Kahaani 2 is a wonderful piece of craftsmanship aided and abetted with
finesse by Vidya Balan.
Rating: 3.5
+ Vidya Balan and script
– Loud Climax
L. Ravichander.