Nishabdham review: This Anushka Shetty-Madhavan-starrer is as bland as 'Silence'

Anushka Shetty-Madhavan-starrer multi-lingual Nishabdham aka Silence directed by Hemant Madhukar begins with a gripping intro pushing audiences to the edge, but nosedives into disappointment within the next 30-minutes.  

An Amazon Prime original movie Nishabdham revolves around a deaf and mute painter Sakshi (Anushka) who is a witness to the gruesome murder of her fiancé Anthony (Madhavan) at the haunted Woodside Villa. 

While Sakshi manages to escape from the villa, Seattle Police Department detective Maha (Anjali) and her Captain Richard (Michael Madsen of Kill Bill fame) begins the investigation. 

The case hits a dead end soon but Maha is not convinced with the 'haunted' theory and starts an investigation herself. 

We are introduced to a host of new characters like Sonali (Shalini Pandey) and Vivek (Subbaraju), who exist just for the sake of developing the plot. 

The plot tries to take a different turn when they reveal that Sakshi's 'possessive' best friend Sonali goes missing before the murder. 

While the film hints us of a 'suspicious' Sonali's involvement in the crime, trust me, you won't fall for this 'usual-used-to' technique of filmmaking or whatever you call that! Instead, you will find a film trying to reach the finish line somehow where the writer gets reminded of bringing a 'twist' on the course of it, which eventually fails every time.

The script is so monotonous that you wonder about the significance of the title 'silence' in the film. The narrative too becomes boring often and hits the easy path of a predictable ending. There comes a point that the film is so done to the death but the filmmakers keep bringing up 'unnecessary' twists just to make the audience vexed. 

The film is visually pleasant but there are too many things which we are unable to process. Though Sakshi played a deaf and mute person, most of the characters seemed to have picked up the sign language in a few days. 

The film was meant to be a thriller but was there any mystery?

When it comes to the performance, Anushka Shetty and Madhavan do justice to the characters. Anushka is brilliant when it comes to her first deaf and mute character while Madhavan plays the salt-and-pepper look cellist at its best. 

But did we at least connect to these characters? Not at all! Others are not at all convincing and do not make any impact. 

Now, to the moral of the story -- it is better left to silence that accompanies disappointment.