Movie review: Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh

Movie review: Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh

Movie review: Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh

Filmfare's rating 3.0/5
avg. users' rating 3.4/5
Rate Movie

critic's rating:  3.0/5


Director: Sujoy Ghosh


Cast: Vidya Balan, Arjun Rampal, Jugal Hansraj, Naisha Khanna, Tota Roychoudhary, Amba Sanyal


Quick take: Vidya Balan aces once more with her acting


Filmfare rating: 3/5



First things first. Kahaani 2 isn't a sequel. Director Sujoy Ghosh wants to make a franchise out of the popular Kahaani brand and this is just another installment of the franchise. Though what Vidya Bagchi did with her life after the culmination of Kahaani would have made a wonderful film by itself, this isn't it. So exit Vidya Bagchi, enter Vidya Sinha (Vidya Balan). She's a middle class single mother in Chandannagar, a suburb lying 35 kms North of Kolkata. She's seen fussing over her teenaged daughter (Tunisha Sharma), who is paralysed from waist down. One evening, as she returns from work, she finds her daughter gone and she herself gets into a coma due to an accident. Her case is assigned to hot headed sub-inspector Inderjeet Singh (Arjun Rampal), who comes across a diary searching her home. That leads to a flashback identifying her as one Durga Rani Singh hailing from Kalimpong. How the two strands meet forms the crux of the story.


The first half, shot in Kalimpong, is haunting and tension filled. We see Durga, who works in a school, trying to befriend an unusually silent Mini (Naisha Khanna). Durga was abused as a child and she starts suspecting Mini to be another such victim. You are moved by Durga's determination as she tries to connect the dots. Her scenes with Mini's creepy uncle (Jugal Hansraj) and grandmother (Amba Sanyal) are like something out of a Hitchcock film. Its when the film shifts from the flashback to the present, that it loses its edge-of-the-seat quality. It becomes formulaic, Bollywoodish and a tad predictable.


Vidya Balan, needlless to say, is a treat to watch. She might have three costume changes at most and sports a heavily battered face as an accident victim most of the film but makes you forget all that with her superlative acting. You're rooting for her maternal instincts from the first frame to last. She doesn't put a foot wrong and her mad act in the climax is just amazing. Arjun Rampal, where he's restrained and internalising his character is excellent. It's when he's made to become a regular filmi inspector that he sounds unconvincing. Jugal Hansraj has also done justice to his character. 

