.jpg "Nishabdham Movie Review")
Nishabdham Movie Cast & Crew
A haunted house with a murderous past! Isn't that how all thrillers and horror movies start? Well, Silence is no different! However, when a nation-renowned musician gets killed in the same way as a past murder, nailed to a wall, and his aurally & orally challenged fiancee Sakshi (Anushka) is hurt and admitted to a hospital, things start buzzing! The Seattle Police force are on the case and there seems to be dead ends everywhere. What does all this have to do with Anthony Gonsalvez (Madhavan) the musician? What is the case about all the missing women in Seattle? What has happened to them? A family loving Police Detective Mahalakshmi (Anjali) seems to think that something isn't right and she is willing to go to the extreme to find it out! However, at the end of the movie Silence, there will be a question on everybody's lips, "Why"?
A possessive friend Sonali (Shalini Pandey), an understanding photographer Vivek (Subbaraju), a secretive Police Captain Richard Dawkins (Michael Madsen), mix them with a famous musician - Anthony (Madhavan) and a talented painter Sakshi (Anushka), add in a couple of murders and a whole lot of suspense and that's what Silence is all about! What starts out as a supernatural murder mystery, eventually plays out to be a whodunnit story with Maha relentlessly following all avenues! However, the first half grips and holds the viewers' attention while the unravellling second half seems too predictable and stifled. Not enough justification has been given, which could also have been a thought process for the director to not think of the audiences to be gullible but what little was offered was not justification enough for the portrayals!
Coming to the performances, we are seeing the Irandu jodi of Anushka and Madhavan back together after a long time. Anushka debuted with Irandu in Tamil and both she and Madhavan have come a long way since! This is also the first time we're seeing Anushka on screens after Baahubali and Bhaagamathie with a cameo in Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, and as always she proves to be a power packed performer! However, she has little to do with the twists or revelations or who the protagonist is! Slammed? Well, we were too! Madhavan, well what can we say? Like wine, he just gets finer with age! Playing a character around his own age, he rocks! Just his screen presence reiterates why he is loved as much as he is! He essays his role with elan but gets letdown by the writing in the last act! It is even a wonder that Madhavan himself accepted that! Anjali, though she carries the entire movie with her narration, seems a tad of a misfit but she carries her role with perfection! Subbaraju, has proved his worth over and over again with stellar performances but his role seemed to have been written with ambiguity. He has a very good screen presence but there seems to be something missing. The writing takes a peak in the first half but goes for a very predictable letdown in the second. When the audience are set up for a wonderful execution of the screenplay, some familiar villains of Tamil Cinema (stereotypes) return to spoil the fun!
Technically speaking, the cinematography and music are very commendable and Girishh G's BGM should definitely be mentioned! The unexpected twist in the first half, was a huge turnaround but the moment it got predictable in the second half, something better could have been done! The unnecessary family scenes establishing Anjali's character could have been avoided to keep the screenplay taut. The unfolding of the mystery was sort of predictable and lame and could have been done far better. With such a good cast full of able performers, a good sizeable budget and a gripping plot, the team could have definitely done way better! Having touted to be a multilingual, the movie falls way short in terms of dubbing. Most scenes carry lip-sync issues and it starts to annoy beyond a point. Sharper editing could have made the movie crisper! Some plots seem unreasonable and could have come out with better reasoning! The climax was seriously unbelievable! Taking the liberty for a movie is alright but having wanted to cater to audience's sensibilities all along, the climax goes for a toss in that end!
Verdict: All in all, a decent plot with a powerful cast, which still couldn't save the outcome!
