Nishabd

This movie did not give Mr. Bachchan justice. He is a great actor and I was very disappointed in the movie and there was not much plot to it. Matter a fact this is the first movie I have ever been disappointed in with him in it. It starts out with her coming to his home with his daughter and he is a photographer. He takes pictures of her in the garden has she's hosing herself down. He is a sixty year old man that has nothing to do but to take pictures of this girl. The movie makes no sense. The whole movie is about her chasing him around and her telling him how much she cares about him. Then his daughter falls and he has to take this girl around places so she is not bored and is daughter finds out. I just didn't think this movie was up to Bachchan's standards. He is better than this movie. I always pictured him as an upstanding person and then I seen him in this movie and I couldn't picture him in this movie. The movie didn't hold my interest at all. I couldn't wait until the movie was over. And you won't either.

While early word on this film was "Bollywood's Lolita", it's actually more like a subdued "Indian Beauty". Only, in this case the protagonist is not a loser, but a rather dignified old gent, well-respected and loved by his wife and daughter. The director claims that some of the inspiration for the story came from the real- life entanglement of Ayn Rand and Netthil Brandon, her young male disciple (both parties were married to other people at the time). Could be, but the shadow of American Beauty nonetheless looms over this film.

Amitabh Bachhan has developed a penchant for playing his roles a bit too stoically in his 'second innings' at the cinema (that and his stupid goatee make it look like he's always playing just another side to the same character), but conveys the feelings and emotions of his character reasonably well. Jiah Khan, the newcomer, does better in a difficult role that is deceptively shrill and tacky, but is actually quite insightfully written if you can see beyond the attitude. What is poorly written is the way the relationship develops between the old man and the sassy nymphet, and the roles of the wife and daughter are also under- written. That is especially a shame in the case of Revathy, as she is such a good actress. There is also an over-reliance on blue filters and panoramic shots of nature, and a general tendency to skirt the seamier or more base aspects of the relationship. In other words, "no sex please, we're Indian". Which is odd, since the director is clearly interested in exploiting (to some degree) the physical attributes of our young heroine, judging from the way he shoots her (to be fair, that dilemma has plagued Indian cinema for ages). He just doesn't seem to have the nerve to go all the way with his desires, which makes for an uneven tone for the film's basic story.

On the plus side, the film is devoid of stupid song and dance numbers (a couple of gentle tunes aside), and does pose some intriguing questions (even if the resolutions provided to some of the problems raised, are a wee bit too pat). An interesting experiment, but with not with enough conviction to follow through to the end, it is only partially successful. From a filmmaker like Ram Gopal Verma, more was expected than is delivered here.

"Nishabd" strictly speaking could have translated into the missing link between "Lolita" and "Cheeni Kum". RGV toyed with the media in an attempt to garner free publicity. The provoked media in turn added fuel to the fire. And finally the audience oscillated between speculation and fantasising. "Nishabd" as it finally turned out to be wasn't anything RGV/ media/ audience wanted.

"Nishabd" is a visual treat, you will fall in love with nature. Kudos to Amit Roy showcasing his talent of holding the camera. The background score is engaging. The single song Big B sings is good to listen thought doesn't blend in with the storyline. Technically the movie is brilliant. Every actor gives a calibrated performance. The audience gets an opportunity to see the subtlety which Big B manages to portray on the screen. There are many scenes as per the the conventional Bollywood rules could have dictated to be made as over-the-top. But RGV breaks away from the norm and makes it surreal.

Sadly all the goodness fails to make it a wholesome product. "Nishabd" is good in parts and at a few places it does not integrate with the spinal cord. Better writing and screenplay was warranted to convincingly flesh out the attraction between the pair in question. The audience had a serious disconnect on this front. Jiah Khan's character wasn't fleshed out adequately especially attempting to portray a product from a broken family goes astray on moral front. On the same note the character of the rest of the cast namely Revati, Shraddha, Nasser & Aftab are well written.

When a man falls in love with a girl of twenty, it isn't her youth he is seeking but his own. ~Lenore Coffee

I tried to watch this movie keeping "Lolita" and "poison ivy" out of mind. After all, the 'old man falling for a young girl' is not new in Hollywood by any stretch of imagination. This movie is purely for Indian audiences, many of whom may have never seen "Lolita", and therefore its purpose is to introduce an 'alien' subject to bollywood. So far, so good!!

Nishabd starts well. A young girl Jiah captures her friend's father's heart by being unusually carefree and unbelievably audacious. While her 'take light' attitude is conveniently attributed to her Australian upbringing and a troubled childhood, the scenes showing Amitabh's growing attraction towards her are well presented. Here, i must mention the young actress Jiah Khan. She fits the part completely- physically and phonetically. Using her extra-provocative body language and always-uncrossed legs, she brings to life a manipulative and headstrong young girl with a selfish motive of enticing an old man. Amitabh is reliable, though monotonous, and speaks volumes through his eyes.

Jiah's and amitabh's growing infatuation for each other is pasted against picturesque backdrops of Munnar (kerala) and up to the interval, the movie is very much watchable ( sometimes, entertaining). As traces of sexual tension are clearly visible and the affair being still a secret form the household, you anticipate a path breaking second-half.

This is where things go wrong. By the time jiah and amitabh confront each other with their feelings, the bollywood's morality fever has returned. Nishabd makes the elementary and hackneyed mistake of grouping love and lust in the same bracket. The way the first half is shown, the only conclusion you can draw is that both the protagonists are sexually attracted to each other. Yet, the director identifies these lustful feelings as love and leaves you confused. This is, undoubtedly, done because it would have been difficult to convince the Indian people that the base of an unconventional relationship is lust, not love. Since 'love conquers all' and is much 'purer' and acceptable than lust, people must respect it. For, however important age difference is, love is love and it is OK if it happens to anyone, isn't it? As a reviewer rightly put: "This movie fits the moral envelope, but it never tries to push it." THe movie makes a brilliant point about how an old man's impending death can lead him to unexperienced joys in the world like young bodies, yet it fails to recognize the relationship as raw infatuation. I can understand how important it is for the movie's commercial success to call lust as love, but i expected RGV to be bolder and give us a more radical story.

Nishabd is still not a total disappointment. The photography is beautiful and you can't help but want to visit munnar after watching. The acting is top-notch and Jiah khan is certainly a find. But, above all, nishabd is the latest in the series of bollywood films this year that have gradually taken us toward more relevant and intelligent cinema. Nishabd deserves credit for addressing a bold issue and on the whole, for being a part of bollywood revolution towards better films, though we haven't reached there yet.

In director Ram Gopal Varma's Nishabd,newcomer Jiah Khan plays an 18-year-old temptress who initiates and entices her classmate's 60-year-old father into a complex, inexplicable relationship while she's staying with the family at their hill-station home one summer. Amitabh Bachchan plays the man in question, who finds himself falling for this brash, spoilt teenager who's showering him with the kind of attention he hasn't experienced before. Despite working off a script that borrows generously from the Drew Barrymore thriller Poison Ivy, Ram Gopal Varma makes it very clear he's back in form as he sinks his teeth into what is perhaps his first all-out emotional, character drama. Varma casts a mood of gloominess, a sense of impending doom all over this film, which is reminiscent of the manner in which he'd treated Bhoot. What I like about Nishabd is Varma's conscious attempt to avoid clichés and stereotypes. The affair takes place not sneakily and surreptitiously, but right under the nose of Bachchan's wife and daughter who are just too naïve to read all the signs. When the affair is finally discovered, there's none of that typical filmi-style screaming and shouting, instead Varma treats the moment realistically using shock and silence to convey the sense of feeling betrayed.Admirably, the director's decided not to spoon-feed his audience by explaining every character's every motivation. While it's more or less clear why Jiah falls for Bachchan, you are yourself expected to interpret his reason for responding to her affections. It could be the thrill of physical intimacy to a nubile, young girl. It could stem from a sense of responsibility he feels towards her. It could be a momentary lapse of judgement on his part, or then the result of suppressed apathy he feels towards his frumpy wife. I suspect it's everything put together. Because much of Nishabd is shot in real time - the entire second half to be specific - it does seem too long and too stretched out, especially since there isn't very much happening. But don't be fooled, that's exactly the mood Varma's going for. Remember, Nishabd is essentially about loneliness, and this leisurely pace that Varma creates for the film only contributes to that feeling of loneliness.I suspect most people, women particularly are going to have a problem with the film's ending. As much as I'd like to elaborate, I won't because saying any more here will give away too much. I must confess I had a problem with the film's ending myself, but for another reason completely - I feel it's a cop-out. A compromise ending to a bold, brave story. I could have predicted the ending, and it's no fun when that happens. How I wish Varma had pushed the envelope all the way and gone with a truly bold ending that us regular Hindi-film junkies would never have predicted and would have been totally surprised by! For the most part, Nishabd is watchable because it's held together by a truly awe-inspiring performance by Amitabh Bachchan. Unlike other clearly defined roles that are like a road map for actors while constructing their performance, his role in Nishabd is one that has no reference point. It's a performance that Bachchan creates out of thin air, based on his own understanding of the character. Remember the toughest roles to play are the ones that are too simple, too normal. It's not easy playing an average joe, but Bachchan does it marvelously. Watch him in the scene where he breaks into a laugh in the middle of the night, or watch him in that pre-intermission scene where Jiah confronts him with her feelings, or even that scene where he's singing to himself much to his wife's surprise -- everything from his expressions, his dialogue delivery, even the movement of his eyes! It's difficult to imagine any other actor doing justice to a part so simple and therefore so difficult to play. His co-star Jiah Khan is perfectly cast as the troubled girl who's very aware of her effect on this man. Wearing her sexuality on her sleeve, Jiah sashays in and out of scenes, showing so much thigh, you feel like you're in a mutton shop. Also is it just me or did you also notice that Jiah seems to be suffering from a Sharon Stone complex, she's constantly uncrossing her legs -- when she's standing, when she's sitting, when she's lying around on the floor -- everywhere. I don't think there's a single scene in the film where she's got her legs together. All said and considered, Nishabd is bold even though it doesn't overstep the invisible moral line. It is, nonetheless, an experiment on Varma's part because it's unconventional in every sense - the narrative is not linear, the pace is leisurely and the plot itself is brave. For these reasons I suspect there will be many who will not embrace it. Which is fine. It makes you uncomfortable and shifty and even restless at times. It's everything that makes for a good character study. Give it a try.