Kahaani

Victoria Memorial

The search for a missing person, a mysterious woman, an enamored police officer, coils within coils- Hindi cinema is not known for neo-noir, but Kahaani (2012), set in Kolkata in the days leading up to Durga Puja, suggests it should be.  The use of religious imagery remind the viewer that greater forces are at work than meet the eye. Strings of fairy lights highlight the darkness; fireworks distract more than they illuminate; neon bulbs reveal grime and indifference; monsters ooze wickedness in the shadows, and kajal hides the secrets behind the femme fatal’s eyes. Blues, oranges, and grays form the palette of the film, and their constant presence ties the many locations across Kolkata together.

Tram Depot

Setting this film in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta, sometimes still Calcutta depending on the politics of your conversation partner) was a unique choice: the city is not generally the site of Hindi-language films, although it is easy to find Tollywood films shot in Kolkata. Luckily for viewers, Kahaani shows off Kolkata in all her extravagant, cosmopolitan glory. As a leading cast member, the city is magnificent.

Durga and Kali

Intrinsic to Kolkata is the annual Durga Puja, the celebration of the Hindu goddess Durga’s defeat of the demon Mahishasura, and her return to visit to her maternal home. Created from power donated by the other gods to defeat the demon, Durga is a loving and lethal mother goddess, and the ten-day celebration of Durga’s victory over the forces of evil is a major holiday throughout Eastern India and into Bangladesh. Pandals, temporary structures venerating Durga, are a major visual theme in Kahaani, and several scenes are shot in Kumortuli, a community in northern Kolkata where pottery is made. Durga’s significance is explained in some heavy-handed exposition at the end of the film (narrated by Amitabh Bachchan) but her role is visually suggested within the first minutes. Durga is also associated with Indian nationalism and the idea of Mother India.

Durga submerged at the end of the Puja

Like Kolkata and Durga, Vidya Balan is also magnificent, as per usual- she is a remarkable actress with a penchant for playing strong, intelligent, sexual women in unique projects like this one (please also see Ishqiya). In this film, she plays Vidya Bagchi, a heavily pregnant software engineer who takes none of the patriarchy’s shit. Particularly satisfying is the scene in which she yells at the guest house owner for ignoring her and appealing to the man standing next to her. 

This is something every woman (literally every woman) has either thought or yelled at some point in her life, at colleagues, doctors, mechanics, bankers, salespeople- possibly all of the above. The struggle to be acknowledged as equal- or acknowledged at all- is ongoing.

Vidya’s unapologetic determination to find her husband, while heavily pregnant with his child, makes the romantic undertones even more interesting. The growing attraction of young police officer Satyoki "Rana" Sinha is played with sensitivity by Bengali actor and director Parambrata Chatterje. She stumbles and he catches her; she leans over and he smells her hair. Vidya’s allure is understated but immediate, and Balan injects personality and humanity into the role of a femme fatal. How could Rana fail to fall in love?  

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who similarly appears frequently in parallel cinema (please see The Lunchbox (2013)) makes another welcome addition to the cast, and Saswata Chatterjee is fantastic as contract killer Bob Biswas. The film, however, belongs to Balan, Durga, and Kolkata.

Kahaani doesn’t include any of the frequent singing and dancing usually associated with Bollywood cinema, any more than C.I.D did in 1956. Noir is not a genre that lends itself to exuberance, so don’t come looking for choreography.

If, on the other hand, you are looking for a feminist take on the genre, or indeed a feminist take on anything, this is an empowering option. But to my mind it is worth watching for the interactions between the light and darkness in Kolkata: the city sets and then steals the scene in every shot.

I have yet to find a great history of the city, but for a slice of its history I recommend Producing Workers: The Politics of Gender, Class,and Culture in the Calcutta Jute Mills, by Leela Fernandes. Esoteric yes, but I promise you will learn something new. I also recommend Sanjay Patel’s The Little Book of Hindu Deities for an accessible intro to Hinduism. It was written for children but with a sense of humor and great illustrations, and is light enough for travel.

A few notes:

‘Arjun’s charioteer’ is a reference to the conversations between Arjuna, hero of the epic Mahabharata and his charioteer (a disguised Lord Krishna) which form the Bhagavad Gita. The gist is that Lord Krishna, disguised as the charioteer, encourages Arjun to do his duty.

Throughout the film Vidya (whose name means wisdom or knowledge) struggles to correct the pronuncion of her name from “Bidya” to “Vidya”. This is a running joke about Bengali pronunciation, which makes little to no distinction between the sounds and uses the same letter for both.

Finally, code switching between English, Hindi and Bengali occurs throughout the film and denotes class and origin. Rana speaks with his mother in Bengali but Hindi or English with Vidya and Khan. Vidya asks Rana to translate written Bengali for her; the hotel owner, less familiar with English, calls Vidya “Majesty”. Subtitles don’t pick it up, but as a rule, if Rana is speaking with someone from Kolkata he is speaking Bengali. Otherwise, he is speaking Hindi. 

Film: Kahaani (2012)
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Writers: Sujoy Ghosh and Advaita Kala
Country: India
Runtime: 122 minutes
Languages: Hindi, Bengali, English

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