Story
Vijay (Amitab Bachchan) is a wealthy 60-year old renown photographer who lives with his family in a hill station. His family consists of a wife (Revathy) and a daughter (Shradda Arya) who is studying in a near by town. His daughter comes to her hometown for vacation and she brings along her pretty friend Jiah (Jiah Khan) whose divorced parents live in Australia. As Jiah starts spending her holidays, she develops a liking towards Vijay. Vijay too has good time with Jiah. Her liking converts into infatuation/love and she proposes to Vijay. The rest of the film is about the consequences of Vijay accepting her proposal.

Actors performances
Amitab Bachchan did an exceptionally good job as an old man falling into love with an 18-year old girl. His histrionics during the scenes where he ponders over what he has done is pretty good. Jiah Khan fits the bill as the teenager who has hots for an elder man. She also portrayed the role of neglected rich teenage girl who does not care about anything that is traditional very well. Revathy is good as wife of Amitab. Nassar plays a crucial role in this film. Shradda Arya is good.

Story - screenplay - direction: The story of the film is little similar to that of Hollywood films like American Beauty, Lolita and Poison Ivy. Screenplay of the film should have been better. Ram Gopal Varma who has great commercial sense has dabbled with a subject that has limited or no appeal. And casting Amitab Bachchan for this role is going to be a big risk and most of the people might not want to see Amitab in such a role. Direction of the film is adequate. It is very important in films like these to show the emotional bonding between 60 year old man and 18 year old girl very strongly. But the emotional depth could not be effectively brought out on the screen in Nishabd. The narration of the film is pretty slow. The following scenes are well captured -

1. Scenes projecting Amitab’s inner turmoil.
2. The way Amitab laughs incessantly in one episode.

Other departments: Cinematography by Amit Roy is excellent. He captured the lush green locales of Munnar in a visually pleasing style. Background score by Amar Mohalle is ok. Dialogues are good.

Analysis: Ram Gopal Varma tried a bold theme with Nishabd. Though he narrated the film in a classic way by infusing sensitiveness into the subject, the much needed emotions were not well established. Hence the film appears very slow and boring at times. On a whole, Nishabd is an unappealing film for a common moviegoer. The fate of the film depends on how multiplex crowds take it.

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