Kahaani

Year: 2012
Genre: Thriller
Direction: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chatterjee, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Rating: Excellent

Kahaani is a thriller movie. The plot revolves around a pregnant lady (Vidya Balan), who comes from US to Kolkata in search of her husband, who she believes has gone missing while on an assignment. She lodges a complaint with the local police and seeing that police is of no help, starts the search by herself. Seeing her determination a police inspector joins her with the search. Further we see how both of them together unfold mysteries and are able to create links of why her husband went missing and what his connection with a poison-gas attack in a Kolkata metro was. They slowly identify people behind the crime and are able to infiltrate to obtain more data. The final scene is the best as this is where the story turns around and audience is thrilled. The twist is a totally unexpected one. While watching you keep developing many possibilities of what could have become of her husband. But the twist seemed too fresh and exciting. Though the final scene has been compared with some foreign movies, it seemed to fit the plot well and is very fresh.

This thriller is one of the best ones I have seen in Bollywood yet. The film makind techniques used also are nice. The colors have been kept natural. The makeup is minimalist. There is no feeling of any created sets in the movie. Everything seems to be shot in natural locations among the unaware crowd.

Almost from the beginning of the movie, one gets a feeling of being involved in the movie and being at the places shown. As the plot gets serious, we also get curious of the mystery.

Vidya Balan's performance is highly commendable. She has portrayed the character with ease and naturally. Her body language is also one thing to be appreciated. Vidya has taken extreme care of her walking, facial expressions, and other movements to make the character realistic.

A must watch!

Black Swan

Year: 2010

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Direction: Darren Aronofsky

Cast: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis

Rating: Good

Black Swan is the story of a ballet dancer with a dance troupe performing the 'Black Swan' for the opening season. All through her career she had been an extra. But now that the lead dancer has been removed, she has chances of becoming the new Swan Queen. To be the Swan Queen, she has to dance as both the White and Black Swans with ease. The White Swan comes to her naturally. Black Swan seems to be a bit of trouble as she is a perfectionist and is scared to let loose of herself to become the Black Swan.

All through the movie we see how earnestly she tries to become the Swan Queen, the hardships, revelations, a very dominating mother, hallucinations, and how finally she transforms into the Black Swan on stage.

Portman has done a truely wonderful job. I have no idea of how ballet is and haven't observed one before. But her moves seem perfect and like those of a seasoned dancer.

The movie is shot almost in shades of white, grey, and black. These shades seemed to portray the moods and sadness of Portman's character effectively.

There are some scenes where I had to literally close my eyes fearing what would happen next. One of those is where she pulls out the loose skin from the back of her finger nail. Another one was when she goes to meet the old Swan Queen in hospital. Even the scenes where she quickly nips off her nails with scissors seemed scary to me :-D

All said, I liked the movie. Though there are no bright colors, romance, or action to keep you entertained, the dance sequences, and story does keep you glued on. A good watch.