Piecing together the puzzle: Kahaani, Talaash and the complex narrative in popular Hindi cinema

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This article examines the recent emergence of mind-tricking narratives in popular Hindi cinema, such as Kahaani/Story (2012) by Sujoy Ghosh and Talaash/Search (2012) by Reema Kagti, as an illustration of the increasingly transnational and cosmopolitan outlook of popular film artefacts. This discussion addresses wider concerns regarding the continuing globalization of the Indian film industry, and ramifications for narrative, thematic and generic identity in its films, by posing questions such as: how do the above texts negotiate global storytelling norms within a prevailing and historically dominant melodramatic framework in commercial Hindi cinema? What are the implications of these changes, and most importantly, why now?</jats:p>