ramu’s Lust VS big b’s Love = K Jo wins it!!!
( SPOILERS AHEAD – wouldnt matter anyway. Anyone can guess it.)
Film : Nishabd
Director : Ram Gopal Verma
Cast : Amitabh Bachchan, Jiah Khan, Revathy
The girl wearing a mini-skirt enters the room. Sits on a sofa and puts her legs on the sofa next to her step-dad’s. Her step-dad looks at her legs, the mini skirt is revealing lot more. Girl’s mom enters and asks the girl to sit properly. In the next scene, the step-dad peeps into his step-daughter’s room when she is changing dress. No, this is not Nishabd. But Pedro Almodovar’s Volver.
In Nishabd, Jiah’s long legs are all over the place. Skimpy clothes. Wet also. But Vijay(AB….yes, yes Vijay again) feels love, life & philosophy. No sex. No lust. He doesnt even look at those legs once. And strange, he still feels guilty about it.
Whats more, Big B lectures like an Agony Uncle instead. What he should have done, what he did, what he shouldnt have done.
We all know the story. 60 year old man falls for 18 year old girl. And trust me, the story begins and ends there. Like me, if you have hundred other questions/doubts about the film/story/characters…..just forget it. Ramu has already justified everything with his biggest reason/logic, even before its release….some love stories are never meant to be understood.
The film is more American Beauty than Lolita. But the biggest irnoy is that AB SAYS SOMETHING & RAMU SHOWS SOMETHING ELSE. Why Jiah falls for an old man, the reasons are many…..bad childhood, no dad, mom involved with someone she doesnt like. For her, its an emotional support as well. Someone who makes her feel comfortable.
For AB, its anything u want to think. He is not happy with his married life. His life is dull,boring. Jiah makes him feel younger. But he also doesnt know why n how it happened. In one dialgue he says….jawan ladki ka bus jawan badan hi iska karan nahi hai. But Ramu’s point of view is all about Jiah’s oomph and sexuality. The camera is always focusing on her legs, her body and her gestures that suggests anything but sexuality. AB doesnt feel it. Ramu makes Jiah go wet as well, instead of white sari its some mini white dress. AB sees beauty there. Just good photography there. No lust. No sex.
AB has said many times in his interviews that if there was somthing sexual to it, he would have neveer done the film. And as far as Ramu is concerned, he has always potrayed almost all his heroines in similar way….just flashback and u can remember all the legs….Urmila in Rangeela, Antara in Naach, Nisha Kothari in Shiva, James n many others. The camera views them as sex objects and Ramu has accepted the fact as well.
Nishabd looks like the biggest conflict of these two. Give me hundred million legs and even there i can spot Jiah’s legs. Only bcz each time whenever the camera is on her, its all about legs. And poor AB doesnt even glance on those sexy legs once. Now..enough of those leg-gy talks!!!
The good things…..AB is fabulous as always. Ramu surely knows how to us AB’s silent looks. Check out Sarkar and Nishabd. A comparative study can be done only of AB’s silent looks. They say everything….the killer looks. Jiah is also good and very comfortable with her sexuality, as her character is supposed to be. Doesnt look like newcomer at all. Revathy, Shraddha Arya and Naseer play their parts well.
Background music gives a different tone to the film. And the superb thing about the film is its camerawork. If m not wrong, then its Amit Roy….from close-ups to long shots, everything is beautiful about Nishabd. But at many places, both camera n music is just fancy for the sake of it.The location Munnar helps in building the mood to the core.
Bold film ??? huh….Ramu finally falls into the social norms. Does exactly what u will expect him to do. AB’s daughter leaves him and his wife doesnt want to talk to him also. God!!! what do i do then ? Suicide ? Naah….then what ?? AB decides to continue his life with Jiah’s memories.
Here Karan Johar wins it hands down. I didnt like KANK at all. But if the parameter is boldness, then hand the trophy to K Jo. His characters not only go out and make love in hotel but also walks out of their marriage. Ramu let K Jo only handle the emotions. Better give us underworld stories anyday.
In one scene….Jiah tells AB that he is hypocrite. Says something and does something else. Could not agree more. Nishabd is just that.
Also wondering why poor Jiah was given so less to wear(legs again!!!) when Amitabh and Revathy were covered in there woolens from top to bottom. If not switzerland’s chill, Munnar ki thand to hai na.
Waiting for Balkrishna’s Cheeni Kum now. Ramu thought about making Nishabd after he heard about Balki’s film….he said that in one of his interviews. Hope Balki doesnt make us go nishabd.
But serioulsy how long ?? How long we have to wait for that bold move finally ?? That was the only new thing that Ramu could have done in this boring film. But he could not dare to do that also.
Tags: Medium
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
quote- Also wondering why poor Jiah was given so less to wear(legs again!!!) when Amitabh and Revathy were covered in there woolens from top to bottom. If not switzerland
After watching Nishabd on the first day i remember one famouse sher by Ghalib
bahut shor sunte thhe pehlu mein dil ka,
jab cheer ke dekha to qatra e khoon na nikla…
same goes for Nishabd… I was discussing the movie with fren and we saw a pattern, After Rangeela its was Daud, Satya was followed by Kaun hai and Mast… The Company was followed by Road, Bhoot by Vaastu Shahtra and Naach. The Sarkar was followed by James and Shiva now Nishabd. isn’t it bit strange!!!
surya,
i hope my earlier comment didnt offend u as u worked on this film
and i hope ramu wont give an interview now and say
‘ i am sorry i made a bad film’
rockstar, the genius (and ego) in ramu won’t say sorry. if he thinks he has made a bad film, he’ll say “i made a bad film, but i made the film i wanted to make, and for that i’m not and shouldn’t be sorry”
Striker, u never knw. Ramu is so unpredictable….Recently he said shiva and mohit were his biggest mistake. N the gud thing is he is honest about it. Bt nishabd has that ramu touch in bits n pieces 4 sure.
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as you said, the camera was just for fancy, but i think of it the other way. it was surely not of much effect for about the first 15 mins of the film, but surely i can say it went down well with the movie. only jiahs portions had that funny camera moves and that was quite ok and she was still childlike and thatz what AB likes in her.
though this movie might not be varma’s best. but it is definitely one of his best.
and regarding you mentioning Karan Johar, i don’t think that guy deserves to be mentioned when you are talking of filmmaking.
Phoenixnu, I agree partially about the conflict between what AB says and Ramu shows. But AB does look at her legs once in a while, though not lustily.
It seems like you wanted to see a bold movie and you’re sad that you didn’t get one. I believe Ramu and AB portrayed the character’s dilemma well. Vijay did something that’s not expected of his age and didn’t dare to take it beyond a point. Isn’t it OK to make a story out of it? Does it need to necessarily go further?
@ randramble-
Completely agree with you. I was stunned.
Visually delicious & emotionally outrageous.
People were stunned to see Big B as a loser.
Damn… Revathy took my heart away.
I thought i was fallin’ in love with her. haha.
@Shiva, if it was the childlike quality, then i would also have liked to c that. What i saw was only legs,legs n more legs. If the story is told from someone’s point of view,(in this case, it was AB’s)then i would like to c the same and feel the same, that the chracterhe is experincing. Thats what i mean, when i wrote…AB says something n Ramu shows something else!!
About KJo and films…i also dont think much. But the man has made 3 films and they r blockbusters. Now thats the biggest puzzle…if u can solve that.
@randramble…u can make story out of anything. But if its Ramu,the man who did so many unconventional films and made his mark that way…i would like to c something else. He should be the last person to fall in the trap. I think Ramu could not do it bcz AB wouldnt agree to it. Image conscious…whatver that means!! N Ramu added nothing new to the story.And here’s my logic why the film will not work…those who felt that the idea is nonsense…they would not go to the theatres. And those who will go…they will not c anything new or any boldness there.
Phoenixnu.. exactly what kind of boldness would you have preferred to have seen??
Sexual??
If so, well it was there!!
The film covers alot of undealt issues, and i am glad it didnt focus around sex.
There were other things in the movie too.
Besides, alot of film makers will use the sex angle, but how many are prepared to break it down??
And di you honestly not see the childlike quality??
It seemed very evident to me…She was very individual, yet childish at the same time.
Maybe her torn childhood had that impact on her….
I wanna go and see it again…
phoenixu,
every review of nishabd was mentioning the “legs”. i don’t understand that. maybe people in india are looking towards the movie in a “sexual” way, rather than what it is actually meant to be seen as.
i study in a art school in san francisco…i see nude people all the time. for me, the movie was trying to show what AB was “also” seeing in jiah besides what AB was saying.
on PFC, i find people who watch all kinds of international movies, and also have passion to make similar movies. and lot of those movies have the main protagonist saying something, while the thiniking and seeing of the samething is quite different. and thatz what AB has been shown in the movie like.
and ramu has very clearly said in his interviews before the movie started shooting that it would have sexual undercurrents.
The main problem with Nishabd? It plays DOWN Amitabh Bachchan’s stardom and makes him look like a pervert. You can’t have Amitabh crying for somebody like Jiah Khan. If she gets attracted to Amitabh fine. But you can’t have Amitabh crying for her. That’s lame. People don’t want to see the cool Vijay turned into a loser giving a sermon at the end. When you have a superstar like Amitabh Bachchan, don’t play down his stardom play it up!
Where was the song in the movie??
Gautam,
AB is not a star anymore. Since Lal Badshah, barring Sarkar, there was not a single film which was built over his stardom status.
He just doesn’t sell anymore as a star. He is an actor now. Maybe he just manages to draw audiences attention, as he once WAS a star, but he’s just any other character in a story one the movie starts rolling
Shiva Babu:
You mean RGV, VVC, Yash Raj films etc have entered in to Philanthropy?:)
Who will pay an actor couple of Crors if he has no selling power? Any character artist gets even 1 cror Rs as fees? AB’s fees is more than many so called Star leading heros. His fee in advertisement suggests his market price and his hold on market.
:-w
RK,
haha…yes…he is definitely a star…but as a person or celebrity..
what i meant is…….people don’t go to watch his movie expecting him to act like a star….they now love to see him playing the character he’s potraying…he’s no longer a AMITABH in movies, if you understand what i’m trying to say.
RK, Guess what Shiva means is – AB in his heydays could make even an inane movie like ‘Mard’ a superhit; he could rise above scripts like ‘Gireftaar’ even in an extended cameo. He cant do that kinda thing any longer.
Well, to be fair to him, no actor can do that anymore, I guess – with the exceptions of Rajni and Chiranjeevi can, I suppose. Those days are, thankfully, coming to an end in our cinema.
Shiva I feel you’re dead wrong. Amitabh is
probably the biggest star even now. Check
the ratings of Shahrukh Khan’s KBC vs Amitabh’s.
SRK can’t even draw what 60 year old Amitabh
drew! Its just that directors have forgotten
WHY he is a star….When was the last time we
had a great introduction scene featuring Amitabh? Bunty aur Babli and Mohabbatein!
Do you remember how big a deal AB’s intros used
to be? That was half the motivation for watching
an Amitabh movie! Now directors just show him like it doesn’t matter. He has a very unique face
and looks damn good for a guy who’s 65 so
there’s no reason to play his stardom down.
In movies like Nishabd, you need to show
Amitabh the star, not Amitabh the actor. That
is why the movie is going to bomb!
I don
Awesomely acted, brilliantly directed, poorly written. Good, could have been great. Powerful, surreal and worth a watch nevertheless.
jahan, hope your bout with the *board* went well.
Boards are still on man…going OK- but the first exam was so bad..that I couldn’t help going to watch Nishabd to recover! True blue PFC member, after all…