Nishabd---Speechless

Some Love stories are never meant to be understood... indeed it is true. Ram Gopal Varma’s film Nishabd, with all its strength and shortcomings, is a piece of quality cinema that talks openly and unabashedly about things and emotions that many would prefer to be flounced under the carpet.

The public may not be kind to this movie. After all, there is no song, no item numbers, no acts of heroism. There is serenity in the quality of the picture. You may feel close to the locations but still... why will u care? The editing is an art. Still, do not care because the story line is something, which may be considered obscene (!!!)

Bodies’ age, feelings don’t. ‘Nishabd’ is the story of a 60-year-old photographer (Amitabh Bachchan) who gets attracted to an 18-year-old girl (Jiah Khan) who is a friend of his daughter. It is the story of mutual love between two people with a huge age gap between them. It is a moving tale of a man torn between his emotions and rationality, between his heart and his mind, between his family and himself as a person. The man listens to his heart, concedes to the girl that he is in love with her. He admits to his wife (Revathy) that he has developed feelings for a girl the age of his daughter. And by doing so he loses the respect of his wife and his daughter.This is the rationale presented by the movie’s 60-year-old protagonist while explaining his attraction towards a teenager. This attraction, though not uncommon, is seldom expressed in real life. And those who express it mostly end up like the protagonist of ‘Nishabd’.

The movie rests solely on the dependable shoulders of Amitabh Bachchan. If not for him, ‘Nishabd’ would have ended up as a average product. His dialogues in the film are plain, but it is the way he delivers them that lends the impact. Many things about his character remain vocally unsaid, but it is his expressions and his glances that make them explicit. He brings out the inner conflict of his character in his body language, his eyes and his expressions. Briefly, it is a performance worth saluting.Jiah Khan is perfectly suited to her role of a girl quite careless about the way she is dressed. There is a sexual undertone to her character in the film but it does not cross the finer line of glamour and obscenity. And her performance of it is not bad for a first timer.

Revathy’s acting is natural. Nasser (as her brother in the film) is effective.‘Nishabd’ goes to prove that Ram Gopal Varma has not lost his magic touch. The eccentric filmmaker is truly the master of his craft. The cinematography and the camera angles are superb.
For all those who love art with amendment, this is the movie!!