Kahaani (English: Story) is a 2012 Indian thriller film directed and co-produced by Sujoy Ghosh. The film features Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chatterjee and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in lead roles.Made on a shoestring budget of INR8 crore (US$1.6 million), Kahaani was developed by writer Advaita Kala, as a memoir on the city of Kolkata. The film explores themes of feminism and motherhood in a predominantly male-dominated Indian society. Filming took place on the streets of Kolkata with Ghosh employing the art of guerrilla filmmaking in order to avoid unwanted attention.[2] Ghosh has admitted to using several allusions to Satyajit Ray's films such as Charulata (1964) and Aranyer Dinratri (1970). Additionally, critics have compared the twist ending of the plot to the Hollywood films The Usual Suspects (1995) and Taking Lives (2004).
