Nishabd (2007)

A man, who has been married for 27 years, falls in love with his 18-year-old daughter's friend.

Director:

Ram Gopal Varma

Writer:

Kusum Punjabi (story & screenplay)

Stars:

Amitabh Bachchan, Jiah Khan, Revathy

Cast

Cast overview:
Amitabh Bachchan	...	Vijay
Jiah Khan	...	Jiah
Revathy	...	Amrita
Nasser	...	Shridhar
Shraddha Arya	...	Ritu
Aftab Shivdasani	...	Rishi

Storyline

Vijay lives a wealthy lifestyle in India along with his wife, Amrita, to who he has been married to for 27 years, and a daughter, Ritu, who is now 18 years of age. The family has a vast estate, where Vijay likes to trek around indulging in his sole passion - photography. Amrita, who was an accomplished Kuchipudi dancer, she even won two gold medals, gave up her passion to look after the family. This holiday, Ritu brought along a friend, Jia, to this household. Jia, quite childish, now lives with her divorcée mom in Brisbane, Australia, resents her lifestyle, especially after her mom started living with another man. When Rita sprains her ankle, both Vijay and Jia are thrown into each other's company. Amrita notices that Vijay suddenly starts singing to himself, then bursting into uncontrollable fits of laughter. Then all of a sudden, Ritu asks Jia to leave the household, but is prevented by Vijay. Things spiral out of control when Amrita's brother, Shridhar, arrives for a short visit, ...

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Plot Keywords:

female bare foot | female to male footsie playing | footsie under the table | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

2 March 2007 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Munar, Kerala, India

Company Credits

Production Co:

RGV Film Factory

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Amitabh Bachchan denied in an interview on 'CNN IBN TV show' that this movie is inspired by Vladimir Nabokov's novel 'Lolita'.

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Quotes

Jia: The truth is you are a hypocrite!
Vijay: Yeah, I'm a hypocrite. Now leave.

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Connections

Remake of Lolita (1962)

User Reviews

Little bold and a bit beautiful

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.