If you have been a regular follower of this blog, you surely know about Subrat. If not, you can read some of his old posts here, here, here and here. So as we all discussed Kahaani, we realised there’s more to it. And who better than our favourite Prof. Saab to do the dissection. Was it just “if you can’t convince them, confuse them”? Or was there more?
Read on, scratch your head and do put your comments. And read only if you have seen the film. Otherwise it wouldn’t make sense. SPOILER ALERT – DON’T GO AHEAD if you haven’t seen it yet. Go and watch the film and do come back. It will be fun!
It is a rare film that receives both critical acclaim and box office success. Kahaani seems to have managed that. The central cast and the editing have earned well deserved praise. Kolkata has been lovingly shot and, as many reviews have noted, is almost a character in the film. A lot of people have called it a taut thriller. This is where our paths diverge. For me, Kahaani is as much a taut thriller as Golmaal – 2 is a cerebral comedy. I admit it was nicely paced but a taut thriller has to satisfy a more fundamental criteria – the plot should make sense. It didn’t make the cut for me. I have watched it only once and I am ready to admit I might be wrong on this. I guess the best course of action is to put my reservations on the plot here and seek your responses. I have left out a couple of issues that have been discussed on other blogs which bothered me as well; namely, Vidya’s recollections of her husband had Milan Damji and the fact that Vidya was introduced as Vidya Venkatesan Bagchi at the start of the film. I can live with these as I did with such chicanery in that other ‘taut thriller’ A Wednesday.
1. Please help me explain the motive of Bhaskaran (Dhritimaan), the IB Chief. He was complicit with Milan Damji or may have even been the kingpin. Why did he then send Khan (Nawaz) immediately to Kolkata the moment he heard someone enquiring about Milan Damji? Nawaz is portrayed as a competent officer and wasn’t complicit. So, why was he digging his own grave by sending him over there? Instead, he should have been trying to provide as little help to anyone trying to enquire about Milan Damji.
2. Why did Bhaskaran approach Darshan Zariwala (the retired IB officer who had trained Milan) and ask him to come back to IB to nab Milan? Not satisfied with #1, he wants another of his good officers back to get hold of Milan Damji. Don’t tell me he was keeping up the appearances so that no one suspects him. This man seems to be suicidal.
3. What kind of investigation had Nawaz done the first time around? He hadn’t even spoken to Agnes (the HR lady of National Data Centre). Had he done so, he would have found the dusty file of Milan in that old, abandoned office and his address long ago. Didn’t Darshan Zariwala know anything about Milan while training him to help Nawaz in his investigations? I mean before Milan turned against the system, the IB should have had a good idea of where in Kolkata was he staying etc. Also, why was Milan Damji working in National Data Centre under his real name?
4. After hacking Shridhar’s computer and copying all the files, the only file that seemed odd was the file that Bhaskaran’s number stored (ha ha) cryptically. This file had Bhaskaran’s number in an alphabet code. Shridhar could have stored Bhaskaran’s number in his own phone and named it ‘chimpu’ for all I care. And, what’s wrong with Shridhar having Bhaskaran’s number. After all, the IB seemed to have been sending their officers to NDC quite frequently and it’s normal for Shridhar to have known Bhaskaran. So, how did Nawaz conclude only the basis of that stupid cryptic code that his boss is the brains behind it all? And, that moment when Nawaz dials that number and find ‘Bhaskaran Old’ flashing on the mobile screen was classic. It was that ‘Sirjee’ moment of Kaho Na Pyaar Hai (another ‘taut thriller’?)
5. Didn’t Nawaz keep his boss in the loop during his stay in Kolkata? Then, Bhaskaran would have known that Nawaz is now using a pregnant woman to get to Milan Damji and eventually to him.
6. Why was that HR lady who replaced Agnes so happy to help Vidya and Rana in sneaking into Shridhar’s cabin? She knew the previous incumbent (Agnes) was shot dead after trying to help Vidya. Another suicidal character? And, what kind of a IB haunt is the NDC where there is a lone guard at the entrance while there’s a rear exit unguarded?
7. Why did Vidya kill Shridhar? It was made to appear she did it deliberately so that he wouldn’t be interrogated by the IB directly. But, Vidya and Rana were originally planning to hack into the computer, steal the data and scoot. In which case Shridhar would have lived and Rana (who was working for Nawaz) who would have asked Nawaz to pick him up for interrogation. It was Shridhar who had made sure he would get a message in case someone hacked into his system. This led him back to his office and then to chase Vidya and Rana. It was a convenient thing to show that Vidya planned on killing him when she had no control on Shridhar chasing them after they had hacked into the system.
8. How was Bhaskaran convinced that Vidya had gotten some files from Shridhar’s computer that would lead her to Milan and eventually to him? Why would then Milan come for collecting those files?
9. Why did Bob Biswas kill Agnes? She knew nothing and all she would have gotten is an old file of Milan Damji that would have shown to Vidya that Milan looked like Arnab Bagchi (which she knew) or Milan’s address in Kolkata. In any case, if Bhaskaran was the one ordering the hit (through Shridhar) they should have known there’s hardly anything more Agnes would know about Milan (after all, Shridhar worked in NDC) so what was the point in shooting her. Also, didn’t Shridhar know that there were old employee records that might have Milan’s document in them? It seemed silly not to get hold of it when they were covering Milan’s tracks
I can go on with a few more. May be you have the answers. May be we should all make leaps of imagination to bring credibility to the plot. May be I should watch Kahaani again. May be, one day, we will make a genuine taut thriller.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 
Humare desh mai jaisi filmein banti hai.. Us scenario mai “Kahaani” is really commendable.. Mostly due to the Cinematography and the Performances.. But I agree it could have been so much more… Sujoy jee.. Thoda story bhi dekh lete sarkar.. to Film kuch aur hi ho sakti thi{A TWIST IS NOT ALWAYS EVERYTHING}… And yes, there are few more loop-holes than the one’s mentioned but here.. But as we live in hope.. Last thing I too hope and wait for the day we will make a Geniune thriller{apart from the One’s Sriram Sir makes}….
The moment the film discloses that Vidya is the wife of an Ex-IB officer who was killed on site of a terrorist attack (was that an accident or an planned event?) and no one has a clue as to who she is in spite of a heavy background check on her photo with her (fake) husband, I just did not care anymore.
Is it like this?Darshan Zariwala knew that Bhaskaran was the man behind and that is why he trained Vidya in his own way to utilise the system to reach milan damji,as once he mentioned tha he trained Milan and be traced by Bhaskaran>
1) In the movie no where it’s shown, that Bhaskaran is sending Khan to Kolkata.. Bhaskaran
asks him “so what happened, if she got shot.. its local police station matter” (something like that). Not immediately, but later he sends Khan to protect files of Milan which was to him, sridhar and milan really important
2) He already had his plan with Vidya to execute Milan by deceiving cops, NDC,IB
employees. So of course Zariwala was faking that he won’t join and come back to IB to nab
Milan as he already had better plan with Vidya
3) how could he spoke to Agnes? She was dead already when he arrived at Kolkata. That
answers your first question. Milan Damji wasn’t a terrorist when he joined NDC. Later all that
happened, so keeping his name, personal details etc was important to him.
4) His boss was already not happy of khan going to Kolkata, he was insisting him to not waste
time and come back. Vidya fakes that call with Bhaskaran, as khan tells her to say to him that
she has got data of her in Sridhar’s system and wants government help. Later, vidya gets a
call from Milap asking her to meet him if he wants to see her husband alive. So that’s how it
happens
5) & 7) you answered yourself
6) are you sure that ‘Sapna’ was HR manager? looked more of Receptionist to me. As Agnes
(hr manager) office was opposite to where she was seating in open area.
8) again.. as Vidya says i got your old number from Sridhar’s system. Bhaskaran knew she
wasn’t lying. And Bhaskaran was sure that a pregnant lady whos searching for her husband for
a while would definitely meet Milan. basically the idea was Milan will shoot her and take the
files and get away
9) She didn’t get the old file..( not only photo, old file had all the records of Milan) if she did,
she would know what Milan Damji is all about and what NDC employees have been trying to
hide(restrict) she was trying to get access, but the system was showing ‘restricted’ all the
time. Afterwards Tyagi(supervisor NDC) who came to knew that Anges is trying to access the
file. He contacts sridhar, sridhar-bhaskaran and then that’s how later bob kills her
1. It was shown
2. I don’t think you understood the point I made
3 – 9. I am afraid you have no idea what was happening in the film
you know nothing spankarooniee. please don’t comment if you didn’t understand the movie.
al valid points .. n yup there many of those …
it shows that v hav lowered our cinematic standards .. with this . dirty pic+agnipath declared as hits n cults .. i wonder where our industry is heading … its not dat KAHANI is absolutely pathetic but its just that it took too much liberty ..n i think, that liberty has been granted by our very own audiences..few more cinematic points I noticed about kahani are
1) story line is too linear , i mean they didnt explore other aspects of vidya or her loss of husband n child. may not b d exact aspects that i mentioned but somthing whcih will add the emotional quotient of d movie. something which is lil outside vidya’s quest… i m still thinking what it cud hav been
2) editing n camera is also linear throughout d movie, right from d beginning when vidya arrives at d airport till she kills milind, it has been d same edit cuts n camera movements. i genuinely feel that their cud hav been lil break for d routine camera n edits pattern. at least when investigation is not progressing fast or may b when police officer is falling for vidya , u kno things like dat which r changing d mood of d film …
dats it ..
over n out
Pratul, I believe we need to take into consideration the audience that it is meant for. I am pretty sure you will agree with me that this one scores brownie points in comparison to most Bollywood Thrillers. The whole point is it managed to hold us to our seats and get us interested enough to notice; while it absolutely enthralled a majority of audience; who are little exposed to anything other than current bollywood flavors. This is a very good, in fact, a neutral point in showcasing what movies could be to typical Indian audience.
I guess there are quite a few loopholes and definitely scope to get better; but hell, it has to start somewhere! This is as good a beginning as it comes.
Besides, I am not too big a fan of movies like The Dirty Picture. In fact, I haven’t even cared to complete this flick but it also is a good initiation into character portrayals and life depictions!
I hundred percent agree wid u. I can get 20 more loop holes in d script. But u knw wht this is d start, n its good. I m sure that d script was more intellegent bt d studio heads brought it down, calling it 2 intellegent. I myself m a filmmaker and a writer. I love pschology thrillrs. I hav been going studio to studio. Wih my two scripts, both of which receive same expression: “kuch samajh nhi aaya yaar” “kon dekheg yaar itni dimag khrab krne wali film” “kya ladki nhi hai, fir kya ghanta dekheg koi”. D most rspctd rspns gor was: “bhut tensed hai. Too intellegent fr our audiance. See here dabang, housefull, golmaal retrn films mak 100 carores. Indian audiance wants smthng light. If u can tone down ur script, make it smthng tht demands quiet less mental exercise, thn may b we can work it out.”
So see its nt filmmakers prbl, its wid those who finance d films. Who still r paan chewing men. So i feel its also d audiance who is responsible fr poor cinema growth. Though u can never blame audiance. Bt had films like fight club, social network, memento, black swan, inception, pulp fiction, adaptation, etc had done great business, the producers and distributors in india might hav approved to make intellegent films.
Answer to 6 is because she was freaakin hawwt
No one is going to read all the nine points..I did….let me tell you they are too many and sometimes contrived. There is no single solid point that will make the reader go, ‘Ya, he is right! What about that?’. Weak post. Kahaani 1- fightclub 0.
How can you say no one will read the nine points when you have already read them? Factual fallacy. Weak post – I agree
Nine Answer from (you can say) Kahaani Fan
Bhaskaran motive of sending khan to Kolkata: to prove his point that their no use wasting time on such cases. The metro case has been shut 2yrs bck and Milan Damji is not reachable. He himself never had a clue about Vidya so he knew about his associate, but not about the girl who was sharp.
2 Yes your right, bhaskaran approaches darshan to make his appearance as a clean officer. (Boss your watching a bollywood movie yeah scene se who clean appear ho jatah hai )
3 Nawaz first round of investigation won’t have helped you see theirs a trauma around the city with such ratio active gas attack and you feel they would utter openly. They already had their address why they needed to search that dusty place (rana has mentioned in the scene). Milan Damji was an India Intelligence agent.. Not tom cruise of Gost Protocal so he can have same name for both.
4 Have you really seen the film?? See it clear from the bhaskaran approach darshan Zariwala scene that darashan has a suspicion of involvement of bhaskaran with Milan damji. So it was an idealistic Tukka by vidhya and darshan that worked nothing else ..
5 IB officers get freedom of working on their case without any interference. Bashkaran ignored to prove case was now north worth ultimately you know what happened.
6 You see a police officer and a pregnant women can emotionaly get things done so I think that why she helped. See everything can’t make sense so this much is okay one unguarded door can be ignored for coz audience din care about that .
7 Vidya kill Shridhar coz he was equally responsible for the metro tragedy as he supplied the poison. If Shridhar was not killed by vidya there would be long interrogation session and would have slowed the film.(But one thing the style and accuracy she shot should have raise the eyebrow of the police as a helpless pregnant women can’t do such stuff)
8 Bhaskaran convinced that Vidya had gotten some files from Shridhar’s computer that would lead her to Milan and eventually to him. It’s simple agar maan mei chor hoo toh daar toh lagtah hi hai na ? so the fear of get caught made him make such decision . As shridhar was dead and he had now ultimately ine person left that he could trust Milan.
9 Bob Biswas kill Agnes as shridhar wanted to be on safe side he din want to take any chances with Milan case. But it worked on the opposite side making the case complicated and confusing. He was not in an HR department so when he came to know about it he acted.
I just wanted to tell you that the Film Kahaani is really doing well ,when I went for it yesterday 9:45pm cinema (Thursday) it was housefull and people enjoying it .. The main motive of the film is to deliver a good film and sujoy da did that.. so we should appreciate his hard work.
We cannot say that Kahani is close imitation of Taking lives an English film, directed by D j Caruso staring Angelina Jolie and Ethen Hawke( Actor of Before sunset and Before sunrise). Still Kahani is excellent example of copying any film.
But still it created identity of its own
1. 2 and 3. – I’m afraid are contrived. Listen, I can justify ichhadhari nag and nagin stories on such basis.
4. “Idealistic tukka” (what a term, take a bow), as you say, is everything in this world. Technically, God is also an idealistic tukka. You have discovered the internet age equivalent of Occam’s razor
5. Khan was keeping Bhaskaran in the loop initially. It was conveniently droppped in middle. You say – “IB officers get freedom of working on their case without any interference” – like you work for HR Dept (Employee Relations cell) of the IB
6. “Idealistic tukka”??
7. By this logic, she should also have killed Bhaskaran
8. Another “idealistic tukka” by Vidya?
9. You lost me there, totally
You write: “The main motive of the film is to deliver a good film and sujoy da did that.. so we should appreciate his hard work”.
I agree and I am happy for Sujoy Ghosh and his team. Pointing out flaws in the film doesn’t mean that I or anyone on this site is trying to belittle the efforts of the filmmaker and his crew. I care deeply for films to watch them with my reasoning faculty switched on.
Good Points.
I had mentioned these in my review.
1) “It seems a bit odd that they kill Agnes just because she tried to access a record and gave some information to Vidya.” which is also mentioned in the post.
2) “It also seems odd that there would be records that they can get from the Blood bank and the doctor a few years later when all his records are supposed to have been destroyed.”
3) “Surprisingly they kill other people but let Vidya off with just a scare.” If Bob had killed Vidya that would have been the end of the investigation.
4) “A killer who is being chased does not shoot at the cop despite having a gun.”
Link
Q9) Tyagi is on leave the day Agnes calls Vidya. Tyagi gets to know and informs Sridharan. Sridharan get Bob to kill her. Agnes meets Vidya before Bob. The whole idea is to not disclose Milan Damji at all. Need to watch it again. Just a hypothesis
this movie lost it in the end…it could have done a real smart thing, that is not disclose vidyas real character or her vengeful motives. First n foremost, imagine you r trying to hide a terrorist, (for exagerrations purpose imagine ajmal kasab or his indian mentor) So now out of the blue someone is asking questions about a look alike of ajmal kasab….are we living in fantasy? even twins rarely look like each other unless they r identical….if im trying to hide some one or something n sum1 comes searching for a look alike…damn ill smell rat unless i am stupid n have iq of 80. On top of that there was a pregnant lady who lost a kid in the incident caused by your hidden terrorist, wldnt every1 be knowing about it. our media would have covered her lost baby even more then baby falak. So the low iq ib chief first doesnt smell rat, sends a stupid inspector, goes asking for help to a guy who retired smelling rat, n even sends the terrorist to recover the documents. Damn he could have sent any other sharpshooter or contract killer to recover the documents instead of the same person whom he is trying to hide. If i were the IB chief, i would have gone n shot the milind damji when sum1 comes looking for a lookalike of him…. n covered my ass….haha
Some questions you have raised have answers and some dont … but the bigger question i cant find an answer to is … Did Sujoy Ghosh and Advaita Kala actually write this movie ???
I liked the movie but just cant accept that people who have written / made Jhankaar Beats (above average) , Home Delivery , Aladdin , Almost Single and Anjaana Anjaani can even think of a story like this !!!!
1. Bhaskaran didnt send Khan. Khan decided to come on his own when he found out Agnes was trying to open Milan Damjis file.
2 ?
3. Vidya managed to coax the kid at the tea-stall to identify Sridhar. Khan couldnt do that. As he himself admitted, no one suspects a pregnant lady.
4.Hello, no one knew Sridhar was connected to Bhaskaran
5. Why should he? Doesnt khan as second-in-command have the authority to work independently?
6.?(maybe Rana seduced her?)
7.Vidya’s killing Sridhar was not pre-planned. By the time Khan would have interrogated Sridhar, Vidya would have reached Damji.
8. Maybe he didnt want to take any risk and thought Vidya was harmless. He and Milan were in it together, so he sent Milan.
9. Again, maybe Bhaskaran/Sridhar didnt want to take any risk.
1. – I don’t think so
2. – I don’t know what you mean by putting a ‘?’ there
3. Khan hadn’t even reached that address
4. The question is so what if he knew. How does that automatically makes Bhaskaran a suspect?
5. He did initially and then it was dropped conveniently. You seem to another member of the Employee Relations cell of the HR Dept of IB. Very keen to defend the empowerment of IB staff
6. Contrived
7. That’s the point. It was shown as if it was pre-planned
8. Refer to my reply on Comment # 6. This is “idealistic tukka”.
9. Same as above
Exactly. I had also thought some of the points you mentioned. Like the first one. Why would Bhaskaran send Khan or let Khan (if Khan was independent to carry his own investigation) go to Kolkata if Bhaskaran himself was involved?
In 2, you asked why would Bhaskaran try to dig his own grave by asking Vajpeyee (the guy who had trained Milan) to come back to IB for one last assignment that too about Milan (what could be this one last assignment). I feel this scene was forcibly inserted in the movie just to explain vajpeyee’s importance in the story and to explain later that how he sent Vidya on a secret mission. (But this was also the scene one could guess, i did, that it was Vajpeyee who is somehow very important in the story and might have sent Vidya to find Milan. Otherwise why show a super IB officer in just one scene?
And like you mentioned in 5, Khan actually kept his boss in loop. You can remember that Khan called Bhaskaran after his first meeting with Vidya and he told his boss that the pregnant lady had confused her missing husband with Milan. Bhaskaran at that point instructed Khan to shift focus from the pregnant lady. One hypothesis can be that Khan had doubts on Bhaskaran and he wanted to carry out a secret investigation from this point.
Agnes wasn’t interrogated by Khan during the first round investigation when Milan disappeared. Remember, Agnes spoke about some people came looking for Milan and flashback showed Khan. Agnes didn’t say about she being interrogated, also didn’t know who those people were. It is a huge hole. If an employee disappears, HR is the first place to look. Khan, second in command in IB didn’t. Strange.
Vidya killing Shridhar raises a few doubts. If shridhar would have survived, IB would have reached Bhaskaran through Shridhar. In that case, Milan would have smelled trouble and disappered from the whole plot (thanks to his IB training). But Vidya (and Vajpeyee) wanted to kill Milan. So Vidya must have planned Shridhar’s killing. Then how? Was it part of the plan when Inspector Satyoki was asking Vidya to do the hacking fast and Vidya was saying “bas thoda aur”?
There’s no problem in Bob killing Agnes. Shridhar might have felt threatened on the news that some one is trying to open Milan’s file. He also ordered the doctor’s murder as the doctor was going to look into the old files that could have led to milan. But that raises a big question. If just exploring Milan’s file cost Agnes her life, Shridhar could have killed Vidya as well instead of threatening using Bob. May be, Shridhar felt that Vidya is actually searching Arnob and will fear after being threatened. When she remained on the case, he sent Bob again, this time to kill her.
Great points. I can see you watch films intently. I believe how one watches films reveals a lot about a person
There is one contradiction.Assuming that Khan tried to investigate secretly, how is it that Sridhar or Bhaskaran come to know about the doctor giving some leads. Rana kept Khan informed about the leads but Khan kept Bhaskaran in the dark.So how did Bob Biswaas ultimately kill the doctor without Bhaskaran knowing about him?
Too much effort to analyse and dissect the film. Not worth it. Anyway none of the points you mentioned indicate a massive loophole… not to me at least. It’s an entertaining and engaging suspense thriller. Enjoy it as it is.
Thank you but it wasn’t a lot of effort. I didn’t go the theatre with a notepad in hand. I enjoyed it and I found flaws in it. The two can go together.
Bhai sahab.. ‘Kahaani’ mere liye sirf ek convenient film making hai.
yeah it is as taut a thriller as a Wednesday!!! there are more points to ponder as well.
wtf fukk wouldnt the assassin just kill off vidya and the officer.
too many ‘thriller’ cliches but defnitely better crafted.
and whatever happened to competent officer khans background check on vidya?
Yes, a point made by many others too
Gosh get a life!!! All your questions are silly!!! You just cant seem to be able to accept the fact that Bollywood finally has a movie that has reached the top 15 of the IMDB list and be happy about it! you just have to sulk!
When you write “get a life”, are you suggesting it is available on sale somewhere? I agree with your point on all my questions being silly. But the moderator of this site has a thing for silly questions. I am delighted with the film’s success. I am not sulking. These questions possibly suggest I am a bigger fan of Kahaani than you are.
Let me also pose another silly question to you – In Delhi Belly, Imran Khan is shown having a Ladakhi surname at the end of the movie. Why do his parents (who appear in a few scenes in the film) are then shown like typical Punjabi middle aged people? Such points, unfortunately, catch my attention.
ROFL.. for ur reaction to “get a life”….. Love ur puns n comments…BTW i too enjoyed the movie n was equally bafled at the liberties the director took in his story telling… Wish life (the one available for sale) gave us such freedom 🙂 in real life too…..
Subrat, there are some valid points you make!! I guess I will try and answer them as far as possible!! But this is more a guesswork and may not be how the director thought it to be!!
1) Bhaskaran never sent Khan in the first place. Khan mentions to Bhaskaran that, Agnes was killed and that the reason was connected to Damji. He therefore assigns himself the task to find out more about what was going on (An ulterior motive that Khan wants to catch Damji). Also think about it this way, if Bhaskaran has assigned Khan to find out more about Damji, then Bhaskaran has the authority to keep Damji informed that someone was after him and warn him to stay away and go underground!!
2) Bhaskaran asks for Zariwala to make it look as if Bhaskaran is innocent and is also with the IB in wanting to find Damji. This is to save his face and lend himself some credibility in case Damji got caught. You could apply this to him appointing Khan as well 🙂 I agree with you that this screenplay between Khan and Bhaskaran could have been etched out better.
3) Let us assume that as you say, Khan was assigned to this investigation of Damji. We are not told that Khan was given all the information neccessary by the IB chief to carry out the investigation thoroughly in the first instance or as you say when Khan was investigating this case before Vidya or Bida 🙂 came to this case!! So there is not a chance that Khan would investigate Agnes to find out about Damji!! Also, why would’nt Milan Damji work under his real name. How would one know whether he was Milan Damji or whatever name he is, that he was working for the IB. I know of IB agents working under their real names. Its their work identity that is protected, not their names necessarily
4) You seem to suggest in the earlier point that, IB agents shouldnt work under their real names. So now you seem to be convenient with Shridhar (real name) working for IB under his real name and also to have his real bosses number (Bhaskaran) in his cell phone. And under what assumption do you say that the NDC is a IB spin off. NDC is some organisation for data warehousing and possibly a government org which has an attached purpose. Also, IB agents work for different govt agencies under real/fake names. This dosent mean that a particular Govt center is a IB spinoff or hideout. If Shridhar decided to keep his bosses number cryptically in his cellfone under the name of Chimpu or his computer with some alphabets it shouldnt matter. If he had kept the number in his cellphone and if he was ever caught, it would be easy to trace this back to Bhaskaran or the IB. Or in another case, the director could have shown that his cellphone was hacked. You would have then said he should have kept it written in his notebook.
5) The answer for the 5 th question is available in your 1st question, that Bhaskaran appointed Khan to investigate about Damji. This is simple because, Bhaskaran would know about the pregnant lady Vidya investigating or enquiring about Damji as soon as the records were accessed by Agnes, thereby triggering an alarm with Sridhar. Thereby appointing Khan to investigate what was happening. So the question of keeping his boss in loop does not arise. It is not shown in the movie as well whether he was keeping him updated or not!!
6) Where did you guess the role of the lady who helped Vidya and Rana? This wasnt available anywhere. Also why wouldnt she help. What if she wasnt fearful of getting killed. It isnt pointed out in the movie anywhere that the lady knew in detail about Agnes getting shot because she was trying to help them about Damji. Also, Vidya could have made the lady an offer she couldnt refuse or could have threatened her.
7) Vidya killed Shridhar for a very simple reason. She had found out from her help with the Chai delivery boy that Shridhar used to meet Damji. I dont think it was shown that she planned and killed Shridhar. She just managed to kill him in the spur of the moment and she got lucky or got an opportunity. She could think through these things being trained and intelligent (trained by Zariwala)!!
8) Bhaskaran is aware that Shridhar had things/files/info about Milan in his computer. In order to save his ass and because he is involved, he asks Damji to take matters in his own hand. Damji we know is a master technician in hiding out and as well as well trained to kill. Bhaskaran is never aware that Vidya has been appointed and trained by Zariwala to be a killing maching. He falls into the trap that we all fall under that Vidya is a pregnant women and is vulnerable to being killed. So why not send Damji? He had already failed with sending his assassin to kill her earlier.
9) The IB/Bhaskaran has learnt that anyting related to Damji be wiped clean. They made mistakes earlier by not clearing the old files of his in NDC and also other remaining evidences. Any person/thing would have to gotten out of the way, even if the person had only very little information.
I guess, I have tried my best to answer as clearly as possible. I may have made mistakes at places or put my own assumptions/understanding. It would be great to know your thoughts on the same.
Ummm…how did V(B)idya know about the Peacock at the Guest House?
5. How do you think Dr. Ganguly was killed? Rana to Khan, Khan to Bhaskaran, Bhaskaran to Shridhar, Shridhar to Agent.
7. Did Vidya know that Rana works for Khan?
Exactly! Exactly! Exactly! I just saw it today and am so glad at least someone backs up my feelings about this movie.
You nailed it buddy. For a thriller/Mystery to be satisfying it has to a) confuse us thoroughly and then b) tie the plot up in a way so that when the viewer thinks it through everything falls into place and all the confusions are reasonably explained and the viewer can marvel at the director’s ingenuity and slap his maatha and say….wow!!! so that’s it!! How come I couldn’t think it through!!!!
Unfortunately, Kahaani is an excellent film that managed to confuse me but when they tied the whole thing up it left me feeling cheated because I could clearly see that the story was bullshit and the director had fooled me with a fantasy. The director created so many confusions that he couldn’t explain them through a credible story that had internal logic.
For me too, the use of fake flashbacks is not an issue at all, but couple of things that just refused to go were:
a) I am hiding a terrorist. I know where he is and I know he has never been to London, yet when a lady comes up claiming him to be her husband, I- the head of Indian intelligence don’t smell a rat…not only that I send the same guy (a supposedly well- trained agent who after commiting a major crime stays on in KOlkata instead of dissapearing into the great wide world or friendly foreign capitals….) to retrieve some important files from her….Even worse, the terrorist himself knows that the woman is lying and the picture photoshopped (since it’s his picture and he has never married this owman nor been to London with her) still says I will return your husband to you
b) Apart from this Big stupid thing….so many others including the ones you pointed out- I mean what sort if background check did khan do on vidya bagchi? why did bob kill agnes- I mena the IB has pinpointed Damji as the culprit and would presumably have checked out his records at the datacentre, then what the hell could anyone including agnes have gotten from his employee records? How come Bob pushed her the first time even before he got the MMS? Why the hell did Vidya have to kill sridhar? Why was bhaskaran so keen for khan as well as the retired guy to follow up on the case???…….UGGH!!!!
I call Bullshit!!!! Fool me fairly and leave me with a ending that has me smacking my head in disbelief saying WOW!!! Thats awesome! How come I never saw that…don’t leave me saying bullshit! The director or writer plain cheated me with an unbelievable story…..
I mean, don’t get me wrong- Its a wonderful movie and created some real tension….BUT BUT BUT….IT COULD HAVE BEEN GREAT!!!! and for a supporter of Hindi movies therein lies the tragedy and frustration with this movie.
1. she doesn’t claim MILAN DAMJI to be her hubby; it is Arnab Bagchi who she’s after (who happens to share likeness with the former). When Bhaskaran hears Khan talk about Damji’s case being reopened in Kolkata, he’s scared shitless; he’s hiding him for godssake! He sends Khan, his most able officer to neutralize the proceedings an suppress the matter then and there. Doodh ka doodh aur paani ka paani. This also partly answers why Milan Damji is fooled into believing that someone who looks similar to him has disappeared, and hence later into the movie, he blackmails Vidya in return for her husband’s life.
2. I’ve answered the why-did-agnes-have-to-die part in an independent comment. As for how Bob pushed her without getting an MMS, HE HAD ORDERS ONLY TO THREATEN HER, so as to get her off the trail of the case, and eventually to the root of it, i.e, Bhaskaran. And, why did Vidya have to kill Sridhar? BECAUSE, EINSTEIN, SHE WANTED TO AVENGE ALL THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE TERRORIST ATTACK THAT KILLED HER HUBBY!
I have one big doubt:
In one scene Rana is shown as giving one Bengali saree to Vidya Balan. And in the climax she is wearing that saree. Now my question is, Rana only gave saree to her. Where and when did she get matching and fitting blouse and lehanga for the saree ?? 🙂
I have bee thinking the same !! :p
Am grudging tht too… The director cut my scene helping the hawwwt vidya with the same… :p
I think Aamir Khan has a soft corner for Tibetan names. Phuntsok Wangdu in 3 Idiots? If he remakes Disco Dancer, the song would change into “Jigme, Jigme, Jigme.. Aaja aaja aaja.”
I love silly questions.
check this if you have the time – http://beyalora.blogspot.in/2010/06/things-i-learnt-from-prakash-jhas.html
Agree with most points you made here, sir. And I enjoyed the movie as well. It was very different for a hindi movie and even if at times highly implausible, it kept me on the edge. But…
Additionally, I had some questions too (I might be wrong..pls correct me):
1. The poisonous gas (shown in the beginning) is supposed to spread only when exposed to air. It wasn’t a timed explosive. So, unless the whole confusion of the lady leaving the bottle in the bag, the other one forcing her to take it, and the bottle finally falling, was a planned one – should we assume that had nobody bothered about the bag, and if the cleaners had found it, the bottle might even have been discarded by the cleaners at the yard, where it would’ve maybe killed just a handful of people, and not hundreds, in the coach? What kind of planned attack is carried out in this manner, I fail to understand. And even if we assume that the terrorists wanted to carry out a ‘neutron’ bomb kind of approach where no damage is done to brick & mortar, but only humans..it’s a little far fetched. In my limited knowledge, I don’t think there is any terrorist on this planet who cares about these things..he just places a goddamn bomb (yeah, maybe timed) under someone’s ass and walks away (or gets killed if he’s suicidal), or just points an automatic m.gun and shoots blindly without bothering about numbers or people. Period.
2. Why’s the IB chief in on this in the first place? And who’s the main terrrorist outfit? Surely bhaskaran and milan aren’t the ones owning the outfits..it doesn’t work that way. And terrorist outfits don’t allow these things to happen. I don’t think any terrorist plays the ‘bofors’ game with governments..they’re usually highly isolated, and their motives are pretty clear; they rarely negotiate. But even so..I still don’t see the point in how an IB chief is involved. Maybe someone (you) can explain that to me..I didn’t see a point there.
3. In international terrorism, espionage and such high political power play, there’s no such thing as ‘nobody gets scared of a pregnant lady’. That was possibly the lamest possible reason for the IB guys to play along with her.
4. Everyone was busy looking for Milan Damji’s files (Like our friend Khan says “Milan, Milan, Milan”), hehehe.. but tell me something MR. Khan, why on earth didn’t you bother employing a parallel team to do some background check on our great mr. Arnab Bagchi?? You decided to ‘use’ a ‘pregnant’ woman just on the basis of a missing person’s report in some police station? Arnab ka Background check kiya hota to pata chalta ke ‘arnab bagchi to hai hi nahi’….hahaha..bus, kissa khatam, kahaani wahin pe khatam. But oh well..I guess this is Bollywood and going to such lengths will kill the story right then and there.
5. What was that about the ‘running hot water’ boy at the guest house wearing the same shirt as that school-boy? kuch samajh nahin aaya…was it implied that he went to the same school? What was the point?
6. Why’s Vidya balan trying to wipe her finger prints when nobody’s bothering with a background check on her anyway? And are the cops so dumb as to go looking for her prints only in the room? The bottle she drinks, when she places her hands in various places in rana’s sumo, at myriad other places outside the hotel 😛 heheh..
7. I’m not a great expert here, but when she fell after watching her ‘real’ husband in the mortuary, the fall didn’t look so strong as to abort the baby.. Come on, yaar…it takes more than that to kill a fully grown baby. The body protects it well. Just by fainting and falling, that too on one’s back doesn’t kill a baby. But this is nitpicking, I agree 😉
8. The last 10 – 15 minutes of the film, the entire ‘come to this place if you want to see your husband alive’ thing was too too contrived and filmy..it won’t have happened in the first place if they’d done a background check on her.
9. Last and most important. Won’t Khan have seen Vidya if she was an ex IB officer’s wife? Itna secretive rakhte hain kya IB officers apne wives ko? They’re also employees of just another organization..haan the work they do is a bit different, but i’m sure they would know about their colleague’s spouses, if not everyone’s. COME ON…. ( Again, I might be wrong here, maybe they explained this point in the movie, and I missed it).
All in all, despite all these questions..I enjoyed the movie. Kept me glued. Well done, Sujoy Sir…a sincere effort. Hats off! 🙂
Also, why didn’t Bob kill Vidya at the first go? He was ruthless with Agnes, with such high profile terrorism and their backs to save, did they just get emotional for a pregnant woman? Hard to believe!
he didn’t dare kill her at the first go because she had his file on her, he wanted to gain possession of it before killing her.
[…] twist, sometimes the logic is trampled upon. I am not even talking about all the nitty gritties which has already been pointed out. I am talking about the basic premise. (Major Spoiler) The IB chief of India planning a terrorist […]
Precisely @ Kahaani | Who wrote my screenplay – Pls read my point no. 2…
Movie certainly was full of plot holes. The pace of the movie was its strength. Still some answers from me to your questions would be:
1) Bhaskaran’s motive was to curb any investigation on milan damji. That can be assumed to be the reason why khan was sent to kolkata – to stop any damage from happening.
2) Bajpai was one man who could have blown the cover of Bhaskaran. Bhaskaran might be suspecting that Bajpai is cooking something under the wraps to nab Milan Damji – after all he killed his 2 favourite disciples. Hence by bringing Bajpai back Bhaskaran can keep an eye on him.
3) Rana actually says that “Khan and company wouldnt have left much to find in the house” earlier inhabited by Milan. And all vidya finds there are tea glasses. Now leading those tea glasses to finally the man behind the plan was i think way too simplistic
Agree with everything else. I think the biggest and most glaring “duh” moment of the movie was really the mobile phone number being stored as an alpha code. Why the hell? And that was the clue that lead to the final nabbing of the bad guy. Reminded me of diamond comics spies 🙂
I have written about it in my article on the movie too.
I think the director probably had the following logic in mind. There could still be holes.
Vidya’s motive:
Find Milan Damji as a part of Bajpai’s secret mission. She had to fake her pregnancy and come out with a story of her missing husband to get the help and sympathy of the police department and common man . Imagine when she was praying to Paresh Pal (police informer) for information. That guy also got fooled! Not to speak of Satyaki Sinha, the middle class minded single police officer, who had an awe in front of such a beautiful, bold but helpless lady! Vidya at that time didn’t know that Rana was connected to Khan but she knew from the very beginning that IB officers are also linked in the crime. As a secret agent she has no reasons to trust Khan and when she realized that Rana is working for Khan she had to kill Sridhar so that everything stays in her control. Later from Sridhar’s files she came to know that Bhaskaran is the culprit.
Bajpai’s motive:
He was assigned the project to choose three common man and train them for an anti-terrorist squad. One of them was a software engineer Arup Basu, another was an NDC employee Milan Damji and the third one I am not sure (I had a question for the director here, but it could be the guy who got killed in the Tram station. In that case, to choose two employees of NDC as secret agents was a real bad idea!!! ). The director gave a hint that most probably Bhaskaran didn’t have a clear clue about the details of these three individuals. Bajpai saw that Milan was sold and someone (he probably guessed that it was Bhaskaran) from the top IB officials has been helping Milan. Frustrated with this situation he announced retirement and planned a secret service outside the realm of Bhaskaran to send Vidya Venkatesh for finding Milan Damji while creating psychological pressure on Bhaskaran! “tumhare office main koi aisa hai jo Milan ki madat kar raha hain!”
Bhaskaran’s motive:
He has been helping Milan. For whatever reason he was working for the terrorists. There could be tons of reasons for that but we know now that his integrity was sold. When he heard of Agnes Demelo’s death he was not bothered, but when he heard about Agnes trying to access Milan’s files he had to bother. Also there was a pregnant woman inquiring about her husband and he had to know who this lady is. After all he is the one who has closed the investigation files. He did send Khan to cover up the case, and when Khan assured that the pregnant lady is harmless he wanted Khan to close the file and return from Kolkata. When he got the phone call from Vidya he pretended to know nothing and said that she can contact his local office. He then called up Milan and asked him to settle the case. He also was trying to cover up Bajpayee by asking him to come and join since then he would have more control on him and he himself can also have a cleaner image.
Khan’s motive:
Khan is an honest IB officer and he tried hard to find out Milan Damji and failed. He was sure that someone from the intelligence was helping Milan. When Agnes was murdered he found another way to open up the case. He calmed Bhaskaran saying that the pregnant lady is harmless. He did a background check to see if she is genuine. I am assuming that her passport carried her maiden name Vidya Venkatesh and didn’t have the name of her husband. We should remember that they had a secret wedding. She was actually a software engineer in London and came from there to Kolkata. He felt that he should use Rana and Vidya (pregnant woman se kisiko dar nehin lagta) to get hold of Milan. If he went to do the investigations the enemy side will be cautious but for Vidya people will not care much, given the fact that Bhaskaran was being told by Khan that she is harmless. Khan didn’t know anything about the secret mission that bajpayee masterminded.
Some questions.
1) Agnes was looking for Milan’s file. She asked Tyagi and Tyagi told Sridhar. Sridhar contacted Bob to kill Agnes and go and get the file.
2) Sridhar and Bhaskaran made every effort to erase Milan’s record but there were some loop holes. If Khan could do a full strength investgation two years back he could have easily gotten the file and doctor’s records but he was discouraged and prevented from doing a full scape independent investigation. Vidya didn’t have that problem.
3) How Dr. Ganguly got killed remained unanswered to me. I mean who ordered?
4) Why wasn’t there any news in local media on Agnes and Dr. Ganguly’s killing remained unanswered.
5) I am assuming that Arup two years back stayed in the same hotel and that’s how she knew about the peacock and the address and other stuff about Monalisa guest house.
6) Bhaskaran needed to get the files from Vidya and kill her. He should have appointed a contract killer to kill Milan, get the file from Vidya and kill her. However I am assuming that time was short and given the fact that both Sridhar and Bob are killed, Khan has been aggressive, and Vidya and Police have evidence he took the easier method. After securing the file he must have gotten Milan killed.
boss.. watch the movie once again… i think there are bigger loopholes in the script.
please post more
Ah, another thing. This is nitpicking, but in the larger scheme, just adds to the ‘plot-hole’ as one of our friends pointed out here.
A lean and fit Rana got outrun by a pot-bellied Bob, who while running couldn’t even hold the pistol properly? At many places Rana is shown close enough to be able to jump and nab him, but he doesn’t. And ultimately…the most predictable thing happens…
Aakhir kyon?
because, as the movie would have it, Bob kept creating obstacles for Rana as he pursued him. It was key to the plot for him to die, just as much as it was convenient.
This is a ridiculous discussion.
Watch a film , liked it, forget it.
If you start looking at any film in the world, you will find out many mistakes.
FOR EXAMPLE:-
Sholay :- gabbar was not able to defeat JAI n VIRU…… how come???
DDLJ :- The last picture which amrish puri sees in the climax of the film ….. who clicked that picture?
etc etc…
GUYS take a chill pill…. the movie which entertains you while you watching it… is worth it….
after any film ou can have 100 questions…..
How does it matter anyways…..
enjoy the movie….
Yes, I’m sure you enjoy any brown color sweet, which the shopkeeper sold to you telling it’s chocolate.
Entertainment is fine sir, but is it a crime to ask for a few authentic things in a story? And is it so difficult for a movie-maker to give it to us? Nobody’s taking tension sir, we’re all chilling out. It’s a matter of a little authenticity, that’s all. And it’s healthy discussion. It only proves that the indian movie-goer is getting smarter. And nobody should take us for a ride in the name of ‘entertainment’.
Next time, try doing the chocolate trick I told you, on a kid, yours or someone else’s. And then take a chill pill. Let’s see. 🙂
1. and 2. Well, it is a fairly modest leap of suspension of disbelief, but Bhaskaran was both a seasoned Intelligence head and a conspirator for the longest time. My guess is that he *knew* coaxing Bajpai back to the case would yield nothing, as he might have judged by the latter’s obstinacy to work on it before. So he was merely playing the part of a good double agent. My point is not infallible, but still a cop-out of an explanation. As far as sending Khan to re-open the case is concerned, it was again the latter who came running to him to do so; the orders might have been Bhaskaran’s, but the initial prerogative was of Khan himself. Moreover, it would have looked rather suspicious if he did the contrary, Khan being genius and all.
3. Tricky one, this. I won’t defend it for the heck of it, but maybe Khan did get to the file but could not get past Damji’s address (located in a hellhole of a neighborhood, btw), which might have discouraged him (like it did to Satyaki, when accompanied by Bidya madam) to pursue it further, unlike Bidya.
4. Bhaskaran’s number (encrypted, mind you) found at the BOTTOM of a top secret corner (which was revealed only after what seemed like days of skillful extraction by Bidya) somewhere in his PC is enough to arouse suspicion. It is a fairly plausible lead, given that it was only AFTER Khan called and Milan called Bidya that Khan came to any concrete conclusion. A leap of faith too many on my part, or is it?
5. Point hai, but I think willing suspension of disbelief does cancel out the possibility that Bhaskaran paid much heed to Bidya’s involvement, and maybe, just maybe, Khan kept even Bhaskaran out of the fray? Weak point, I do acquiesce.
But, let us suppose that Bhaskaran DID know of the Bidya-police nexus, still he went ahead with it, and told Damji to arm-twist Bidya into putting the police offtrack, under the threat to her husband’s well being. I thought this was actually the unsaid reason why Bidya gives the cops the slip at the street pandaal fracas while *going* to meet Milan, not returning after killing him; because she thinks (or makes the audience believe she does) that police involvement will put her non-existent husband’s life in danger. I think Bhaskaran trusts the woman to make a deal with Damji to lead the cops astray.
6. She was helping the effing cops, what else do you expect? There ARE people who place right over might, and will undergo the risk to their life to help the nation implicate and prosecute a defector, right? And about the building, well, it was a masquerade department; it is MEANT to be laxly guarded and is made to appear like any other official building.
7. I cannot remember any mention of a pre-planned ploy to kill him. Point out to me if i missed it. I guess it was just that she found a window of opportunity to off him and still make it appear as if it was an act of self defense.
8. Well, she talked of incriminating evidence in a confident manner, stating what Bhaskaran knew to be true. The latter might have been taken by surprise and believed her lock stock and barrel for that reason.
9. Again, I agree with you for the most of it, but there can again be made a leap of suspending disbelief that Agnes had been piqued by her being denied entry to the files of Damji. Maybe if she wasn’t taken care of, she would have gotten to the bottom of the whole thing and outed the truth eventually. But then getting Bob to fetch the file before and then doing away with her is the logical chronology to be employed. Well, you have me clean bowled on that too.
Somebody when making a ‘thriller’ should atleast research the basics. IB has no ‘Commander in Chief’ and ‘2nd in Command’ posts. The highest ranked officer in IB is DIB(Director Intelligence Bureau).
Secondly, the way Mr Fancy Khan(Nawazuddin) was running around with his hilarious ‘investigations’ overpowering the local authorities, it never happens.
Whatever undercover ops are done by intelligence agencies are also because they have no jurisdiction over local authorities in matters relating to investigations. IB cannot even make arrests on their own.
This is not ISI of Pakistan.
Answer to Point No. 2. I know MM might not agree but you know this is like the biggest problem of watching thrillers on visual medium. We people who are now seasoned viewers of thrillers right from the days of Byomkesh Bakshi to Castle are easily able to tell the whodunnit even before the police. That is because filmmakers show you all the characters and (more often than not it’s the one who is showed for the least amount of time -:P). But the problem a film maker suffers from is he needs a way to at least introduce all characters to you. This scene was for the Director was a way of introducing Darshan Jariwala’s (Bajpai) character to you. And yes I agree MM they could have shown in a better way other than the lame ass way of showing Bhaskaran approaching Bajpai.
Also I agree with the explanation which Celluloid Diary makes for this and I quote – “Bajpai was one man who could have blown the cover of Bhaskaran. Bhaskaran might be suspecting that Bajpai is cooking something under the wraps to nab Milan Damji – after all he killed his 2 favourite disciples. Hence by bringing Bajpai back Bhaskaran can keep an eye on him.”
Answer to Point No. 4. Without losing your temper I will ask you this. Do you think Bajpai had an iota of shaque on Bhaskaran – Possible right ?. He even mentioned that there is a mole in the system and he won’t come back to work because of that. So it’s possible that he had a shaque on Bhaskaran and Vidya was also in on it. Obviously we people who know computers can tell that Vidya couldnt have for all certainty checked the whole comp and only found that alphabet code that led to Bhaskaran’s number. The only think I can think of it Bajpai had shaque on bhaskaran and he asked Vidya to to do this as a check. And no it’s not an idealistic tukka. I am trying to give a logic and hope the writer can at least give his opinions on this rather than just dismissing it.
Answer to Point No. 7. No it wasn’t shown as if it was pre planned. When they – sinha and vidya were running away, sinha tells vidya for the first time that he has khan in on this. Vidya is obviously surprised as is clearly shown. Now from the premise I have shown in my previous entry it is clear to me that Bajpai had a shaque on bhaskaran and vidya couldnt trust Khan as well because he for all she knew be an accomplice of bhaskaran. So she had to kill Shridhar so that they can eventually contact bhaskaran and call damji and kill him. Bhaskaran had to send damji and not just any other contract killer because time was of the essence. Khan was already closing in and Bob had failed. She was playing khan once she knew of his involvement with Rana. It wasn’t khan telling vidya to call bhaskaran but it was was vidya inducing khan into telling her to do that. I DON”T think it was planned or she would have killed shridhar. She would have tried to get damji’s info from Shridhar’s file. If shridhar would have been caught he would have told info about damji to Khan who according to vidya might/might not be working with bhaskaran. she didn’t any other choice but to kill shridhar. It was a split second decision after the revelation that sinha was working for khan. Just a thought guys.
Also Dibyasundar Nayak’s vidya stalling time so that shridhar comes back also might be the answer to Point No. 7. Multiple theories eh ?
On Answer Point No. 5th Umang’s point makes sense. “How do you think Dr. Ganguly was killed? Rana to Khan, Khan to Bhaskaran, Bhaskaran to Shridhar, Shridhar to Agent.”. So according to Umang – Khan was actually keeping Bhaskaran in the loop. Not sure but interesting point. Actaully Ganguly is a mystery. The records on Damji should have been removed way earlier.
Someone needs to answer Phatichar’s questions as well. No.1 – Very Interesting and Baffling. I need answer to this for sure. Very Good Point. No. 5 – Running Boy’s T Shirt- Swan – What was the point ?.
Agree with D Pac – Where did Khan fail in his Background check with Vidya. Why did they even mention that. If they wouldnt I wouldnt have thought about it. Also may be a background check on arnab bagchi should’ve been done.
For rest of questions I agree with answers given above by various people. “6th” is still a mystery. BUt I really want to know. A simple thing could be because she is just an HR/Secretary and Sinha is a Police Officer so it figures the law prevails. But I don’t know the need to show Shridhar asking her out for Coffee and showing Sapna played by sexy Pamela Bhutoria. Director definitely suggesting something. Don’t know what.
MM – I have visited this blog for the first time. Very Interesting work. I had a mystery in mind about why Vidya killed shridhar which is what I googled and your blog was the first and the only entry. Good work.
Basic End Thought : If you cant convince them confuse them and confused fellows will come back just like it happened with Usual suspects. Sleeper hit !. Also I think Dirty Picture factor worked in this movie’s favour.
i think rather than analyzing enjoy the movie it a great piece if movie made you glued to your seat then its a good thriller
[…] […]
I watched this film at the suggestion of an Indian guy. I have seen so many thrillers and was hopeful for my first Indian thriller.
Let me cut to the chase: this movie is pathetic. It uses lack of information and intrigue to try to get you to stay involved with the film…to stay guessing. But all the points listed on this blog and more, are an indictment to the author/director who clearly did not do the necessary homework. And that train scene was only added to give a cliffhanger intermission (a factor that is worthless if the film ever was shown in the US, since we don’t have intermissions here!) Either way, this scene is entirely not believable.
A NOTE to movie-making friends in India: This is 2013. You have access to all films worldwide and you can see how decent ones hang together (eg: Tell No One). If you can’t take the time to ensure that the script has structural integrity, then please don’t make your movie. You know what they call people who write stories that lack plot integrity? Bad writers. And you know what they call the movies they create from such stories? Bad movies.
Kahaani is a classic bad movie. Don’t even bother to watch it.
If you want alternatives, here is a list of 100 better thrillers. Notice Kahaani didn’t even make this list: http://www.imdb.com/list/FaCII_zRFy8/
Sorry if this has already been discussed in the numerous posts- but what was the motivation for the gas attack in the first place. Why did they do it? Was it an accident? Was it supposed to be a coincidence that the nosey woman spilled the milk? Was the mother transporting it deliberately or without knowing? What if the nosey woman hadn’t spilled the bag – there wouldn’t have been an attack. Then what would have been the point of it existing there on the train. Unless the mother had been told to cause the attack, but then got nervous and walked away? Maybe the milk bottle was supposed to self destruct eventually…? Maybe the nosey woman was a derailed secret agent?
By the way, I loved the film. I just need to know what was the motivation behind the gas attack as they never explain!