VIDYA BALAN'S 'KAHAANI'

The Box office success of 'Kahaani' also tells the story of a struggle and success of an immensely talented actress, Vidya Balan. The director and co-producer of the film, Sujoy Ghosh went around with the story of Kahaani, written by Advaita Kala, for a couple of years in search of a producer and not many were impressed by the thriller story with a seven-month pregnant woman as central character.

 He himself had not expected the film to make such a run-away success. Earlier two of his films did not fare well at box office and he was in need of a successful one at the earliest. Sujoy Ghosh’s life it self is a Kahaani. He has an Engineering Degree and also a Management Degree But he chose Media as profession. He was working in Reuters in its South Asia media Division before he came to films out of sheer craze for it. It was a risky act to resign a lucrative job to go to an uncertain territory. Now Kahaani has given meaning to his precarious jump in to the filmdom

 The city of Culcutta long forgotten by other parts of India due to lack of any significant developement came in to lime light with this picture. The Culcuttans themselves are reinventing it by going to places where the film had been shot. The film crew was staying at the Guest house Monalisa in the Sarat bose Road for the shooting and now it has become a tourist attraction drawing hundreds of people. People visit the Hotel and insist to see the room No15 where Vidya stayed during the shooting. Although the Guest House staff patiently listen and answer questions of visitors they do not allow the crowd to visit the room lest it should upset other guests.

Vidya usually does not give emphasis to the aesthetic appeal of a role, she looks whether the character has content to satisfy her talent and it is evident from the roles she accepted in the last two films. One is a glamour-actress' role with item dances, a perilous characterization and if not handled carefully it would have flopped both financially and aesthetically. In Kahaani, Vidya portrayed the role of a pregnant woman which demanded acting prowess to make it successful. Sujoy Ghosh said that Vidya was a character- driven artist and would do all that was necessary to perfect her character in a film.
 There is no doubt that Vidya is an exceptionally talented and committed actress. One need only have to look on her face to perceive the range of emotions it can bring out at short notice.

 Vidya Balan was born on January 1st 1982 in a Malayali Iyer family at Palghat, a border city of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Her parents went to Bombay and settled there at her young age and she was brought up in that city. She studied in Bombay and obtained a degree in Sociology. When she was doing M A she got an offer to act in a Malayalam film named Chakram. The production of the film was stopped mid-way on a difference of opinion with lead star Mohanlal and when again the film started shooting Vidya was dropped alleging that she was unlucky as the film had to stop earlier.

The offers for acting and subsequent dropping continued for several films. Anyone with a weak resoluteness would have left it at that, but Vidya persisted. During that time She, however, got a few ad films and music videos.

Her first film was ‘Bhalo Theko’ a Bengali film. Though it did not make much impact, her next film 'Parineeta' was noted for her performance. Vidya's life between 'Chakram and 'Parineeta' is an example of how determination, hard work and talent pays off in the end.

 Since then she was slowly and steadily climbing up to new heights. She got best actress award for her last film,'Dirty Picture' And now the impeccable performance in Kahaani has put her as number one in Bollywood.

 It is really satisfying that a born actress like Vidya has finally been recognized and reached a stature she deserves, though after a long struggle. I think there is a lot to learn from her long struggle and dedication for art, especially for the young ones in pursuit of success in life.


Images from Google