“Kahaani” of Vidya Bagchi as an Empowered...

“Kahaani” of Vidya Bagchi as an Empowered Woman

Author Name : Arunita Baul

ABSTRACT

Kahaani is a 2012 Indian Hindi Mystery thriller film directed and co-produced by Sujoy Ghosh that extraordinarily portrayed the cityscape of the City of Joy, Kolkata with all its essence. This film has been much acknowledged in this era of the 21^st Century as it challenges the vision of patriarchy through the portrayal of the female protagonist, Vidya Bagchi, the protagonist’s character is played by the famous and talented Bollywood actress Vidya Balan. Vidya is represented as the female hero here who is parallelly portrayed as the all-powerful Goddess Durga of the Hindu Pantheon. And above all, the narrative becomes all the more distinctive as Sujoy Ghosh beautifully captures various neighborhoods of this remarkable city filled with its architectural and human richness that has rarely been captured in a fiction film leaving behind the sheer chicness of cities like New York, Paris, London, etc. I wish to examine how the director’s cinematic lens romances around every minute detailing of Kolkata as an evolving city ranging from the mundane daily chores of the citizens to the traditional and cultural ethos of Durga Puja, from its royal heritages like the Howrah Bridge, Victoria Memorial to the overcrowded Metro Stations and back alleys of Kolkata. I will also measure the character of the female protagonist, Vidya Bagchi not only through a feminist lens but also as a female flaneur. A Flaneur has always been a man who loitered aimlessly in the streets of France in and around the 19^th Century. But I will juxtapose the character of Vidya Bagchi as a “flaneur” who roamed around the City of Joy with a revengeful purpose twisting the notion of Walter Benjamin’s “flaneur”.

Keywords: Cinema, City, Kolkata, Flaneur, Empowered.