"Silence" directed by Hemant Madhukar which is now streaming on Amazon Prime starts off with a spoofy background promising much. But gradually as the plot begins to reveal more as it enters that critical phase to focus on the mystery angle following a murder and the unraveling of the truth behind the killing, it looses the steam thereby ending up on a very ordinary note. Uninspiring performances from some of the actors playing important characters doesn't help the narrative either and ultimately it all ends up flat without making much of an impact.
The story is set in Seattle and Woodside Villa, a haunted mansion is from where it all starts. Beginning in 1972 on a Christmas eve where we see a young couple celebrating the night, the mansion show glimpses of the its darker side the very same night. Years later, Anthony Gonsalves, a renowned Cello player and his fiancee Sakshi, a speech and hearing impaired painter arrive at the very same villa (which has now the tag of being called haunted) searching for a rare painting. All the events that unfold from thereon connected with this couple and a few others related to the duo is what that forms the crux of the plot in the remaining portions.
This is one film where I found problems aplenty right from the direction and writing that spilled over to the performances as well. Narrative going back to flashback mode and returning back, continuing the same process multiple times without the backing of a proper script acts as a hindrance to the smooth flow of the plot. Logic at many places goes for a toss. Since the story is set in a place like the United States, a little more sense should have prevailed while detailing on certain key aspects of the murder as the investigation progressed. For a film belonging to the murder-mystery thriller genre, the audience would naturally expect some surprises in the narrative. We see twists and turns but those hardly surprises as it was pretty easy to predict the trajectory of the plot that too from a very early phase in the story.
All the pre-release promo materials showed the film to be bilingual with the Telugu version titled "Nishabhdam" and the Tamil version titled "Silence". But it seems this is ultimately a Telugu flick dubbed into Tamil and Malayalam. That did had side effects on the version that I watched which was Tamil. The positives that I can pick from the whole film is very few and numbered. And one among them is the cinematography. Visual beauty of Seattle helped the frames gets the richness it needed. Another notable aspect which everyone will agree to is the styling and costumes given to the lead characters played by Madhavan and Anushka. Music department headed by Gopi Sundar in my view have done their part.
Least said the better it would be talking about performances . Madhavan who plays the Cello artist was going all well until the second phase in his character appears. And here we see a largely uninterested and tired looking actor and that was really surprising. Anushka Shetty do try her best but it all goes in vain. Again the character of Sakshi is a victim of lethargic writing. Even an actor like Michael Madsen fails to make any sort of influence in the story. The character of Captain looked plain artificial and on many occasions ended up as a comical looking one despite the seriousness of the role. Subbaraju who played the coward Prince in Bahubali 2 was a relief from some uninspired performances. Anjali as the officer investigating the case didn't do bad given the limited scope for her character while Shalini Pandey as Sonali wasn't able to make an impact.
FINAL VERDICT : As a whodunit mystery thriller, "Silence" fails to do justice to the genre as well as live up to its promising cast and premise. The film largely suffer due to poor writing and execution. Add to it, some lackluster acting that too from the people who mattered the most. If it was a theatre watch, I would have been at the receiving end with my patience being tested. But given the fact that these days movie watching is confined to the comfort of our homes, it do helps in situations like the one here as I was able to sit through though my curiosity in the proceedings was lost by midway.
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