In a magic show, after some brilliant tricks, when you’re totally hooked, if you start finding the secrets behind the tricks, how will you react? The magician is trying his best to make you believe in his magic to take you to his final act, but you know it’s already too late. Kahaani 2 is exactly like that.

First things first. Kahaani 2 is no where related to Kahaani. It’s just another installment in the franchise. Of course it has Vidya Balan playing a fierce woman, this time in other parts of West Bengal.

The story starts in Chandan Nagar with Vidya Sinha (Vidya Balan), a single working mother who takes care of her crippled daughter Minnie. One day, Minnie gets kidnapped and Vidya gets a call from the kidnapper telling her to come to an address in Kolkata within 24 hours to see her daughter alive. Panicked Vidya runs for her daughter but unfortunately gets hit by a car. Inspector Inderjeet Singh (Arjun Rampal) reaches the hospital to take over the accident case but gets shocked to see Vidya who he thinks is Durga Rani Singh. The story goes back 8 years when Inderjeet starts reading Vidya’s diary. The next day, he gets a murder case in which the accused is Durga Rani Singh who looks exactly like Vidya. So, is Vidya & Durga the same woman? How did Inderjeet know Durga? Who kidnapped Minnie? Is Minnie really Vidya’s daughter?

With in 5-10 minutes into the film, Mini gets kidnapped followed by Vidya getting hit by a car and we get instantly hooked to the film. The first half of Kahaani 2 is so gripping that you’ll not feel the 1 hour at all by the interval. Sujoy established the premise brilliantly. Like in Kahaani, he made Chandan Nagar and other places in West Bengal as characters of the film rather than just mentioning their names. He made sure the suspense element keeps growing on us till the interval. But the second half is a total let down for Kahaani 2. We may not know how things lead to the climax, but we can easily predict what’s gonna happen. (Minor Spoiler : The falling moment of Kahaani 2 is when Arjun Rampal gets shot. That’s when I knew what’s gonna happen eventually) That’s the worst thing that could happen for a thriller. There’s too much happening towards the end to sustain the mystery factor but it’s already late.

But what keeps us hooked to the narrative despite its flaws is Vidya Balan. She is nothing less than terrific. Keeping aside the thriller part, there’s a deep emotional thread between Vidya and Minnie which is the best thing in Kahaani 2. Vidya eases through brilliantly in the emotional as well as action sequences. She tried her best to hold the film which is falling apart in the second half. But as I said, it’s already late.

Kahaani 2 is not a bad film. But when you are watching it with the same eyes you saw Kahaani, that’s when the problem starts and the climax makes things worse. You start telling yourself that this film is not a sequel and it’s not fair to compare, but you cannot help it.

I’m going with three stars for Vidya, the little girl and the terrific first half.