Hindi
Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh……Predictable story
Sequel is a misnomer for films using a similar or the same title as an older film including, surprisingly, not always successful ones. The use of an old title and, if possible, the protagonist from the earlier film seem to suffice. In Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh, the common factor as in Kahaani (2012) is the lead actor, Vidya Balan, and the film’s West Bengal backdrop. Rest has no connect with the earlier.
Kahaani 2 deals with the much-debated issue of child abuse.
Vidya Balan’s character has a paraplegic daughter, Tunisha Sharma, in her early teens who she has promised to protect till she is alive. Both lead a quiet life in a distant village in West Bengal. Her time is divided between her job and looking after her daughter. Her only wish is to take her daughter to the US for treatment so she can start walking again as she did earlier.
Tunisha also has a past that gives her nightmares. Tunisha has been a victim of child abuse when she was six (played by Naisha Khanna).
Arjun Rampal, the newly transferred cop from Kolkata, enters the scene. As Arjun delves into Vidya’s diary it emerges that Naisha is an orphan in care of her uncle and granny. And, there is something about her family that is making her uncomfortable. Vidya takes it upon herself to rescue the girl.
Rampal has a reason to keep the case away from police record and his seniors.
Kahaani 2 is thoroughly a script of convenience. It is predictable and leaves a few things unexplained at the end. Since it uses the title Kahaani, the comparison is inevitable and, to say the least, this one falls way short of the original.
It is a VidyaBalan film but she is not seen doing any daring-dos here as would be expected Naisha Khanna is impressive. Tunisha does not have much to do and passes muster. Rampal is good. Jugal Hansraj and Tota Roy Chowdhary are okay in support.
The film keeps the viewer engrossed through its first half, but it tends to get repetitive in the later half. What works to some extent is the film’s ‘please all’ climax. With a solo release and coming as it does following a trail of poor films recently, Kahaani2: Durga Rani Singh was expected to take a decent opening which has not happened. In absence of initial curiosity, the film stands poor chances at the box office.
Producers: Kushal Kantilal Gada, Dhaval Jayantilal Gada, Aksshay Jayantilal Gada and Sujoy Ghosh.
Director: Sujoy Ghosh.
Cast: Vidya Balan, Arjun Rampal, Tunisha Sharma, Naisha Khanna, Tota Roy Chowdhary, Jugal Hansraj.
Hindi
Remembering Gyan Sahay, the lens behind film, television and advertising
From a puppet rabbit selling poppadums to Hindi cinema, he framed it all.
MUMBAI: There are careers, and then there are canvases. Gyan Sahay, the veteran cinematographer, director, and producer who passed away on 10 March 2026 in Mumbai, had one of the latter. Over several decades in the Indian film and television industry, he turned lenses, lights, and the occasional puppet rabbit into something approaching art.
A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, Sahay built his reputation as a director of photography across a career that stretched from the early 1970s all the way to the digital age. He was the kind of craftsman who understood that a well-composed shot is not merely a technical achievement but a quiet act of storytelling.
For most Indians of a certain age, however, Sahay will forever be the man behind the rabbit. His direction of the iconic long-running television commercial for Lijjat Papad, featuring its now-legendary puppet bunny, gave the country one of its most cheerfully persistent advertising images. It was the sort of work that sneaks into the national subconscious and takes up permanent residence.
His big-screen credits as cinematographer include Anokhi Pehchan (1972), Pagli (1974), Pas de Deux (1981), and Hum Farishte Nahin (1988). In 1999, he stepped behind a different kind of camera altogether, making his directorial debut with Sar Ankhon Par, a drama that featured Vikas Bhalla and Shruti Ulfat, with a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan for good measure.
On television, Sahay was particularly prized for his command of multi-camera production setups, a skill that made him a go-to technician for large-scale shows and reality programmes. In an industry that has never been especially patient with complexity, he was the calm hand on the rig.
In later life, Sahay turned teacher. He participated regularly in masterclasses and Digi-Talks, often hosted by organisations such as Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna, sharing hard-won wisdom on cinematography, the comedy of timing in a shot, and the sweeping changes brought by the shift from celluloid to digital. He was also said to have been involved in a project concerning a biographical film on Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.
Tributes from the film industry poured in following the news of his passing, with colleagues remembering him as a senior cameraman who served as a rare bridge between two entirely different eras of Indian cinema. That is, perhaps, the finest thing one can say of any craftsman: he kept up, and he brought others along with him.
