Kahaani (IPA: [kəˈɦaːni]; "Story") is a 2012 Indian mystery thriller film directed and co-produced by Sujoy Ghosh. It stars 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 INR80 million (US$1.3 million),Kahaani was conceived and developed by Ghosh, who co-wrote the film with Advaita Kala. Shot in Kolkata, the crew often employed guerrilla-filmmaking techniques on the city's 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) and Aranyer Dinratri (1970).
Kahaani was released worldwide on 9 March 2012. Critics praised the screenplay, the cinematography and the performances of the lead actors. Due to critical acclaim and word-of-mouth publicity, the film became a sleeper hit, earning INR1.04 billion (US$16 million) 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).
Cast:
Vidya Balan as Vidya Venkatesan Bagchi
Parambrata Chatterjee as Satyoki "Rana" Sinha
Nawazuddin Siddiqui as A. Khan
Indraneil Sengupta as Milan Damji
Dhritiman Chatterjee as Bhaskaran K.
Saswata Chatterjee as Bob Biswas
Darshan Jariwala as Captain Pratap Bajpayee
Abir Chatterjee as Arup Basu
Shantilal Mukherjee as R. Shridhar, chief technical officer at the NDC
Kharaj Mukherjee as Inspector Chatterjee, a friendly inspector at the Kalighat Police Station.
Colleen Blanche as Agnes D'Mello
Nitya Ganguli as Mr. Das, the guest house owner.
Ritabrata Mukherjee as Bishnu, a worker at the guest house.
Pamela Bhuttoria as Sapna, an employee at NDC.
Kalyan Chatterjee as Paresh Pal, a clay artist and a police informer.
Riddhi Sen as Poltu, a worker at a tea-stall.
Massod Akhtar as Rasik Tyagi, systems supervisor at the NDC
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