Shabd (2005)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Crappy film

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Shabd is a 2005 film starring Sanjay Dutt, Aishwarya Rai and Zayed Khan. The film is about Shaukat (Sanjay), a writer who is going through a rough patch because his last book did not do well. The criticisms about his book has really gotten to him and he is struggling to write another book. Unable to find inspiration elsewhere, he looks towards his wife Antara (Aishwarya), a college teacher. When a young and handsome new teacher Yash (Zayed) joins the college and shows interest in Antara, Shaukat encourages her to befriend him to find more inspiration for his story. However, as his wife becomes closer to Yash, fiction and reality start to resemble one another.Shabd is a strange film. I've always liked irony in films. Shabd, though, is ironical in not a very entertaining or appeasing way. It's kind of bizarre. It's not just a story about a husband encouraging his wife to cross the line into infidelity for the sake of his book, it's also about a man who actually believes that he can control people's lives through his writing. Although some of the language was very nice and well written, Sanjay Dutt appears as a mad man throughout, talking to himself constantly, and allowing himself to forget his identity as a husband for the sake of writing another successful book. It's sort of like he chooses success over his marriage, his wife and their honor. And his wife strangely goes along with it till the very end.I actually enjoyed Aishwarya's performance in this film more than anyone else's. Sanjay's performance felt a little too forced to me. And Zayed unfortunately overacted. In some of the scenes where he lowered his voice to a tone he believes a romantic hero sounds like and his puppy sad eyes actually made me want to laugh. He tried too hard. Aishwarya on the other hand was very good. She performed very honestly and really got Antara's sincerity and naivety across well. I highly doubt that anyone else could have made that character work. She hit a great balance in this film with an avatar that's a combination of sensuous and innocent. Without her beauty and portrayal, I'm sure Shabd would have lost the very little credibility it has as a story.At the end of the film, I really wasn't sure what exactly it was I watched. I can't quite fit this film into any main film genre. It's definitely not a thriller drama as described. It's more of a surreal film — not in its imagery– but more as a concept. I think what the writer and director went wrong with Shabd is that they wanted those surreal elements in the film but they also wanted to make a film that would fit the typical Bollywood cinematic experience, probably to attract the masses. But they diluted what could have been a well made, shocking art film. If they had taken the story a little more to the edge and removed the commercial elements (and tweaked the ending), Shabd could have been more influential, more disturbing.This might sound contradictory to the beginning of my review. It's not that I like or approve of Shabd's plot. But the way that the film was made left little impact on me as a viewer. At the end of the film, I just brushed it off as silly and inconsequential. When I think about it though, the story is very unique and so much could have been done with it. But art and commercial don't really mix. In order to work, they need to be kept separate. Shabd should have been an all-out art film. Having said that, I do appreciate that they got some big names involved in this project and tried something out of the ordinary for Bollywood.

In the movie Sanju plays a writer who has a writing block, something which seems to have stuck the writers of the film too. The film is unusual but sadly fails The characters are unique but sadly could've treated better. The scenes between Zayed and Ash are treated very amateurishly, their bonding over Sardar Pjs are terrible. The story starts off well but slowly gets so weird that it makes you cringe. On the plus side, the scenes between Sanju and Aish,their complex love story does have it's good moments but totally due to erratic writing it falters.Direction by Leena Yadav is letdown due to it's writing Music by Vishal Shekhar is good, Sholon Si is the best song, other songs are good too though some wrongly placed.The best asset of the film is Sanjay Dutt, Often known for his Bhai roles, it's nice to see him dare to do out of the box roles In this film though he gets a confusing role, he does a great job as usual and plays the character superbly. Aishwarya Rai too acts well Zayed Khan however is a miscast, the actor with his Srk Hangover hams badly especially in emotional scenes. Kamini Khanna overdoes, Sadia Siddiqui is superb as the servant, rest are okay

Words and misdeeds!Shabd Dir- Leena Yadav Cast- Sanjay Dutt, Aishwarya Rai, Zayed Khan and Sadia Siddiqui. Written by- Sutapa Sikdar and Leena Yadav. Rating- *The only thing worse than a brainless mind-numbing movie, is a brainless mind-numbing movie that pretends to be an intellectual and aesthetic one. Debutante writer-director Leena Yadav(she's even edited this tedious fare) must've thought during the filming that she was making something novel and riveting. Sadly, thoughts and intentions don't always translate into shabds and deeds! So what we have is in fact an over-boiled egg that's not only unappetizing but also comes without any salt to taste!Shaukat Vasisht(Sanjay Dutt) is suffering from a writer's block after his follow-up to his Booker prize winning Mindscape has been ripped apart by the critics. Actually, 'Mr. I type my novel on an antique typewriter wearing an Armani' is so consumed with desperation that he's unable to notice the fire in his Looker prize winning wife Antra(Aishwarya). Tch! Tch! Anyways, our dude looks like a writer finds his inspiration in Tamanna, his creation of a woman that wants to break free and live her life. To make his story as real as possible, he encourages Antra to don the garb of Tamanna and allow the overtures of a besotted cad, Yash(Zayed Khan). He even convinces Antra to hide her marital status from Yash. The problem begins when Tamanna becomes Antra and the lines between fantasy and reality become thinner. Shaukat soon realizes that Antra and Yash are not his creations whom he can control as he wishes. You must be thinking that the premise sounds oh so abstract and imaginative. Don't let it fool you though! This is an imposter posing as a highbrow! The film is full with passages that appear to be poetic but are actually drab monologues packaged in the baritone voice of Sanju baba. The proceedings get so repetitive and soporific after a while that you feel tempted to doze off. But what stops you though are the beautifully written(Vishal Dadlani and Irshad Kamil) and composed(Vishal-Shekhar) songs that are scattered through the running time. Also, your heart goes out to Sanjay for performing his part with sincerity and input. For him and the composer duo- what a waste! Aishwarya keeps switching from disinterested to overly dramatic, and she does both acts unconvincingly. And somebody please tell Zayed that his Shahrukh act just doesn't come together. This dude needs to go back and learn the basics. And yes, what was the casting department(if there was any) thinking when they narrowed him for a college professor? Sadia Siddiqui is engaging as the housemaid and brings some life to the events. One can't deny that the intent of the maker was to make something different. But Leena should've probably developed the plot a bit more. The relationship between Shaukat and Antra is left undefined as are the characters themselves. For a story that revolves around three characters, the characters have to be delineated with unambiguous clarity. One cannot be commended just for being bold and different. Being bold is not always beautiful! - Abhishek BandekarRating- ** Poor ** Average *** Good **** Very Good ***** Excellent6th February, 2005

Pritish Nandy Communications is doing well as this is their seventh movie within a span of three years. Though this is the first movie with prominent stars otherwise only Chameli had a star like Kareena Kapoor. Getting to the movie, I think it was a nice attempt. Sanjay Dutt, Ashwariya Rai, Zayed Khan and all other actors perform their role honestly. Especially Sanjay Dutt should be given some credit as he was being seen in a different role after a long time, otherwise for the last five years, either he was seen as a comedian or a bhai (underworld man). The songs were also nice. What was unique in the movie was its script. But I do not appreciate it because ( I think) there were some flaws in it. May be the director wanted to make a sequel of the movie because the story was not complete yet as viewer do not know what happened to Yash and how Antra saves Shaukat. Another thing is where had the last page of the story gone. Was Ashwariya acting in front of Sanjay when she was weeping that Zayed has written that he was going to die? All these questions were unanswerable for me after I watched the movie.