Just when you thought the old geezer couldn’t possibly have any surprises left in the bag, Amitabh Bachchan has walked into a controversy for the part he plays in the new Ram Gopal Varma film Nishabd. 
The photo to the right says most of what you need to know. Big B. plays a 60 year old man who falls in love with his daughter’s eighteen-year old friend (played by newcomer Jiah Khan). He’s tortured about it, but it appears that nothing untoward happens between the two of them. Still, his wife finds out, and I gather from reviews that the film after intermission becomes a typical family melodrama — guilt, shame, etc. While the general scenario is roughly similar to Nabokov’s “Lolita,” the story is actually quite different: there’s no abduction, no marriage to and then murder of an inconvenient mother, and no insane cross-country chase involving witty pseudonyms. On the whole, the film seems to be an order of magnitude less twisted than Nabokov. (And that’s probably a relief.)
As for the quality of the film? Not great, by most accounts. (I haven’t seen it.) The best review I’ve seen is Baradwaj Rangan’s (via DesiPundit), and he is far from thrilled. He says Nishabd isn’t as good as Naach, which means it must be truly bad, since Naach was itself pretty crappy.
Congress government party officials in Uttar Pradesh want the film banned, on account of it being “against Indian values.” But does it really make sense to ban a film for flirting with a taboo — and not crossing it? We’re in strange territory here: somewhere between Minority Report and the Immaculate Conception. Anyway, it’s yet another example of a plea for censorship that is incoherent.
There has been a major protest in Allahabad over the film, where protesters have claimed the film is bringing in “Western values.” And here it might be noted that while Nishabd does seem to have a western feel for it, India does have a tradition of mature men and young women (or girls) getting together — it’s called child marriage. (That, incidentally, is a subject that the great V. Shantaram condemned some 70 years ago, in his film Duniya Na Maane. So this is not a new thing).
How does banning officially work? What are the guidelines? Anytthing in the public doamin? Does anyone have any thoughts on why/how ‘Black Friday’ was banned?
Sillymidoff, As I understand it, Black Friday was banned because it represents people who have been accused of being inolved in the 1993 Bombay blasts — the accused said it would prejudice the case against themselves. (link)
Ironically, Bal Thackeray is saying he might try and have the film banned again for not being hostile enough to Dawood Ibrahim. It would be truly impressive to have a film banned for being both too hostile and too sympathetic to terrorists.
I actually wrote a short article on Indian censorship for Himal Southasian a few months ago. The focus there is a little different (it would relate more to Black Friday or Parzania than to this film), but it might answer your question about how it happens technically.
My feeling’s are exactly like Manish’s @ ultrabrown. If you are going to venture in that territory, do it with courage and heart. At some point, you are not a child, and such topics you should be dealt like an adult (post 18 +). If you do a la Lolita, then be like Nabokov.
I haven’t checked Peter O’Toole’s Venus but have read amazing reviews, and checked out the trailer. That is an amazing May-December tale.
and written by Hanif Kureshi….
“I haven’t checked Peter O’Toole’s Venus but have read amazing reviews, and checked out the trailer. That is an amazing May-December tale.”
Peter O’Toole’s role in Venus has the potential to just be a dirty old man lusting after a much younger woman – but his performance and charisma (primarily) and the script elevates it to something more, something more than just sleaze or a creepy obsession. It is a very nuanced portrayal of an older man’s approach to life and of a very difficult emotion to portray without it being pure lasciviousness or pedophilia-like, devoid of charm, emotion. not many actors would be able to pull it off so superbly.
haven’t seen nishabd, but the trailers didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
of course, the original lolita is often seen as a metaphor describing the relationship of europe (humbert) with america (dolores haze). the formal and educated intellectual humbert seduced and destroyed by the young beautiful dumb and vulgar delores. the wild unconstrained capitalist america being more in touch with nature than the old world.
this is clearly what Ram Gopal Varma is saying (except replace europe with india) and thus the extreme reaction form the traditionalists and socialists.
of course, i’ve never seen this (or any other) bollywood film. but i can tell all this from the picture. plus, not knowing anything about a subject has never prevented me from being right in the past. i’m american, obviously.
Thank you Amardeep those links (#2), clarified things for me. Do you think they might release it after the 93 bombing case is closed? Or would they have to shoot an epilogue in which Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Menon end up in Gunatanamo? Filmiholic (#4), I love HK but every now and then he’ll make a movie like “The Mother’ which worries me. Let’s hope this one jump starts his career.
Sillymidoff, just to be clear — Black Friday has actually been released in India, and mostly without controversy. The film focuses more on the bombing and less on the communalism issue.
I would love to do a double feature some night with Nishabd followed by Duniya Na Mane, though a V. Shantaram film may be nearly impossible to find in a typical desi video store.
But Amardeep, it is the May-December romance, not marriage, that attracted all that controversy over Nishabd. I haven’t seen it yet, but I give credit to RGV for bringing something that has been a part of any society out of the closet.
Floridian, yes, I know. I was responding to the idea that this film is somehow a representation of “western values.”
I wasn’t even born the last time the Congress had a government in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress holds less than 30 of the over 400 seats in the UP legislature. And Bachchan is a langotia yaar of Mulayam Singh, the UP chief minister, so no Amitabh film is going to be banned in Uttar Pradesh.
The protests are probably to embarrass Mulayam Singh: the state elections are round the corner. Also there was talk of Amitabh being nominated for President of India(!) by the Samajwadi Party, so this might just be an attempt to pre-empt that(family values and all that).
In India(as in America), the cultural is hugely political.
It was released a few weeks ago.
The Samajwadi Party is in power in UP, not the congress. And it’s safe to assume that the reason behind the congress in UP agitating against the movie is not entirely unrelated to Bachchan’s association with the Samajwadi Party and the upcoming elections in UP.
Oh, sorry Amardeep (#8)– I was misinformed. I saw it on low-ish grade DVD last night and thought it was pretty good. I’m glad its out there. As for the original post — I guess it all depends on how the issue is dealt with. In Lolita, Humbert wasn’t exactly applauded for what he did. What happens in Nishabd? Anyone remember Joggers Park? Similar stuff but Vic. Banerji is made to look pathetic. As for the intention to make films along these themes I don’t think its as complicated as Manju (#6) says, these somewhat salacious stories sell and they address a very primitive instinct i.e. — I shall sow more seeds while I have a few breaths left in me and the younger the more fertile etc.
Amardeep, sakshi is correct on facts.
That is some pre-empting going on for AB not becoming Presidential candidate for Samajwadi Party, Telugu Desam, and other regional parties, banded together.
Sakshi, Kush, thanks. I corrected the misstatement — “congress party officials,” rather than the “congress government.”
Amardeep, thanks. My feeling is that there is no real cultural backlash against the movie, and the protests are politically motivated. As sillymidoff mentioned(#13), Joggers Park, a movie with a very similar theme(65 yr old in love with 20 yr old) was released around 3 years ago and had a fair run. A movie with Amitabh is a different matter altogether, as he’s always had one leg in politics, and there’s a chance he’d play a greater role in the future.
Also, in India, public protests are much more common than in other places(perhaps a legacy of Gandhi’s movement). This is specially true of Uttar Pradesh. In all the years I spent in India, there’s hardly a thing I did not see a ‘rally’ over. I wouldn’t take them seriously, so long as they are non-violent.
From everyone that’s seen Nishabd so far it seems it was completely lame. They went thinking it was going to be like Lolita and instead got lame Bollywood drama. It had potential for AB to reinvent himself jeez live a little and stop trying to be such a “god” but what do you expect.
And the whole censorship in India thing baffles me. I can’t even imagine. Music videos pass with scantily clad women gyrating with men but they censor a movie because it shows questionable values? Perhaps the most irritating thing I learnt on my India trip…the hypocrisy of the notion. Doesn’t India have a huge porn Industry? How does that industry exist and a movie for mass audiences gets tied up with the censor board for years??
RGV has lost his mind making movies like these. I went thinking its gonna show AB in something other than father character but the movie is crap. Now Ramu is remaking Sholay, titled Ramu is Sholay..god help this man.
Another movie that was banned recently was Parzania, based on Gujurat riots. or was it just banned in Gujurat?
haven’t seen nishabd but will check it out on dvd. just as a side-note:
i wouldn’t recommend it. while it has its moments, ultimately it’s a not-so-innovative take on an old story and requires more ingenuity to have new life breathed into it. o’toole is good, but not great. and the movie could have been edited down considerably.
Nishabd was censored?
Jeet, Parzania wasn’t banned in Gujurat, it was just that theater owners refused to screen it. But it did run in other cities.
Amardeep, Whats wrong with that? Indians are Drama Queens/Kings in real life too. FYI, Ram gopal Verma is not your average Bollywood filmmaker
Indianoguy,
FYI, Ram gopal Verma is not your average Bollywood filmmaker
I know.
Shows you that there is not much of a difference betweeen the Congress party, the BJP, the Akali Dal, the Janata Dal, the BSP, the fill name here, when it comes to exploiting, pretty much anything for electoral purposes. Those sons of bitches in UP should be more concerned about the damage being done to their image, when fu& criminals are allowed to fill the state’s legislature, and, when their people are dying of poverty, when Muslims in the state are rotting due to institutionalised discrimination.
I guess, this is what we get when we allow a gutless clerk [Sonia’s lap dog]- Manmohan singh – to become the Prime Minister of India. Why balme him, Nusrat, you ask? Because, by agreeing to become Sonia’s dog in residence, he provides cover to the party. If he had one iota of honesty, he would resign. If nothing else, at least over the shoddy budget….or for the fact that Narendra Modi is still in power…or for the fact that his govt. is complicit in killing thousands of kashmiri muslims…….
Why would Indian censors stop/ban a film for indecency? What about the newer Bollywood themes that are getting more racy? The culture that gave the world the Kama Sutra banning a movie??? Of course, most Indians and NRIs really ignore that small part of the heritage (Kama Sutra, sensual sculptures, etc).
This whole history of state governments banning selective movies seems to be endemic to India: like Gujarat banning Parzania or Himachal Pradesh banning Traffic Signal for using “kinner”. Why not let the movie go-ers decide what is best for them? If they dont like the movie on alleged grounds (against “Indian values”) they wont flock to it and it will flop. But no, let the Government nanny the citizens. Seems to be a recurring theme.
I think Indian Government or state governments play safe when they ban films. Some if not most protests turn violent and become law and order situations. Take for example Danish Cartoons controversy or MF Hussein Paintings controversy .
The whole things about reacting violently is a political ploy and fuelled by political parties. Abdul the barber and Ram the grocer dont really care enough to riot. The government really needs to stop playing nanny to the average citizen.
” Muslims in the state are rotting due to institutionalised discrimination.”
Yes and that should explain why Muslims in India rise to the top – whether in public office , in Bollywood or on the tennis court. Not just that but they are admired and loved by India’s non-Muslim majority. If you are talking about institutional discrimination against minorities, just tell me what would have happened in India’s immediate ‘ South Asian ‘ neighborhood if a high-profile wedding similar to that of Mohammed Azharuddin and Sangita Bijlani had taken place with their religions reversed and the wife publicly converting to her husband’s religion. Ever heard of blasphemy? We don’t have that diabolical tool of institutionalized discrimination against minorities in India.
” or for the fact that his govt. is complicit in killing thousands of kashmiri muslims…….”
Btw the real fact is that almost all Hindus indigenous to Kashmir have been driven away from their homes.
Damdam, The majority of the Muslims who remained back in India CHOSE to stay back. So, please stop comparing India to others in the “region”. As for what happened to the the Pandits was/is despicable and I am truly sorry for that. But, wtf does that have to do with the killing of innocent Muslims in Kashmir? And, anyways, what has the mighty indian govt, done for the pandits ? or for that matter, what have indian intellectuals done for them? Look, I am not blaming any one party – I am blaming the entire ruling class of India. They really are all the same. e.g, that is why people like the sports star/tv personality Navjot Sidhu, who murdered an innocent person is allowed to contest for the parliament by the sikh supermacist party – Akal Dal and the nobody bats an eyelid.
Amardeep thanks for giving Shantaram his due.
To get an idea of the high regard that India’s filmstars had for V.Shantaram click this link. MGR played the protagonist in his remake of Shantaram’s Do Aankhen Barah Haat. I hope Ram Gopal Verma leaves that movie alone and doesn’t come up with another turkey. Great Bong has just reviewed Eklavya. Wait till he gets to Nishabd – the title seems to describe the crowds at the movie – looks like a big flop!
Ach, these bloody Indians want everything banned.
Amardeep writes:
NOT.
…thus ensuring that it will become a hit! (Although it’s reported a flop currently.
M. Nam
Interesting how a common consensus has emerged that the movie is crap even among those who haven’t seen it. Also interesting how everyone wants to judge it according to Lolita, when Nishabd has little in common with Lolita, and RGV has repeatedly denied any connection to Nabokov’s novel.
I seem to be the only person who liked Nishabd. The negative reaction towards it seems to come from two camps: 1. the traditional Indian one, described by Amardeep above. and 2. The westernized camp, represented by most of the people on this thread, who want the film to conform to western aesthetic models, hence the constant referencing to Lolita and the dismissal of Nishabd as “lame Bollywood drama”.
If you actually care to look beyond politics and your preconceptions of what depictions of a relationship between an aging man and a young girl should be like, you will find that Nishabd is actually a good film. Taut and emotionally charged. The main problem is that noone is willing to watch the films on RGV’s terms, because of the loaded political context.
p.s. theres a positive review, probably the only positive one on the internet, on my blog, if anyones interested
I saw Anuranan: The Resonance last Saturday and it had the same problem– nothing really happened and yet the film ended in an inexplicable downward spiral of guilt and social approbation. During the post screening chat session Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury insisted that the reason his characters didn’t come out and say they never had sex was that they took the moral high ground and didn’t need to, and that he was trying to say that men and women can be “just friends.” But then the audience seemed to agree that the whole film had been building up towards an affair, which was then very prudishy avoided by means of a sudden swerve in the story line when the moment arose, even resorting to an inexplicable death as a way to get around it. The relationship seemed to be what would otherwise be at least acknowledged as an affair du coeur, but no. Then, with the husband and wife, a long kiss goes nowhere, but sex is indicated by means of showing a flash of the beginning moments of a brisk tussle. I think ARC is actually exploring some of hos own personal confusion and embarrassment about what constitutes sex and what constitutes friendship, and instead of exploring boundaries freely as one might have license to, as an artist, is trying to force some hypocrisy down everyone’ throats and to accomodate some societal confusion as well. So it doesn’t work as a narrative, although the scenes are pretty and it was rich with possibilities, what with Gurkhali villagers protesting vacation home development on their turf and so on. The country as a whole seems very slow in getting over the mindless sexual repression that’s still lurking around as a hangover from the racism of the British period. I remember an auntie asking her pregnant jamadarni when she had last “been indecent” with her husband, and other aunties roaring with laughter, both about her use of “indecent” in translation and about her getting that close to her jamadarni, so the road to frank and open is long and wearisome.
Young Varma has much to learn from Ms. Mehta. Pissing off riffraff is not enough. It is art only when you enrage hindu fundies. It’s like an art-crit tax heaven. Never mind the subPBS plot and leaden lead actors.
Shodan, actually some BJP officials are going after the movie too. In the CNN-IBN article, I somehow earlier missed this important paragraph:
In Hyderabad, the state unit of the BJP is up in arms against the film for “destroying Indian ethos and values.”
The party’s official spokesperson, N Ramachader Rao, said the film was not only creating “cultural pollution”, but was also showing an unacceptable ”love proposition and height of perversion.”
Appealing to the film producers, directors and actors to use their talent and expertise to save the Indian culture, he said it was imperative to every film personality to inculcate patriotism and nationalism in youth and students through their films.
(link)
If the girl is 18, then whats the big deal?
But of course. They are not going to let some Kangressi punks invade their territory. I find it amusing that critics who rip all things middlebrow, are so eager to offer gold stars to Mehta.
Amrita, did you mean to imply here that the racism of the British period was somehow causally related to the ‘mindless sexual repression’. Would you elaborate?
I always thought that middle-class sexual repression in India was a case of the colonized mind fully internalizing the Victorian mind-set, ‘better’ than the colonizers themselves, taking care to somehow avoid even the widespread hypocricy and pornography characteristic of Victorian Britain. I know that racism was integral to the colonizer’s ideology, but I’m curious to know if you saw some other causality between racism per se and sexual repression.
Normally, hypocricy and repression go together, but colonized minds can do strange things. Also, I never saw the sexual repression in India as extending into either the ‘upper’ or ‘lower classes’. My view is that the repression is fading in middle class India now, as a booming economy removes the ‘shaadi kaise hogi’ and ‘naukri nahi milegi’ ‘rationales’ for the indefinite, and unconditional postponement of sexual desire that is the bedrock of the repression.
This movie could not have been made twenty years ago, in my view. That itself signifies a loosening of the repression. Also, I am surprized the protests seem to be coming from the BJP and ‘Congress’ types, and not also from the type of folks who protest Sania Mirza’s choice of sports attire. Does the premise of the movie differ in its degree of acceptability across socio-religious milieus in India?
chachaji, yes, I think there is a causal relationship between colonialism, the racism it entails, and sexual repression– how could it be otherwise?
ARC said himself that he was pitching middle class and upper middle class people in India– in fact in Kolkata. I think it is these groups who absorbed the colonial message about “native” sex most extensively, and indeed have carried it forward on their own for a while, and these groups are still in charge of what visible signs of sexuality are permissible, and what they might call morality.
I agree that repression and pruderey are primarily middle class traits or adopted habits at the best of times. Yet I don’t think Indian royalty were openly libertarian until the early twentieth century, when the push to independence was well under way, and then it was hardly everyone. Hopefully, this killjoy malady couldn’t quite reach all poor people, although the extreme poverty and crowding that resulted from colonial suppression of economic development must surely continue to impose other strictures and cut down possibilities of associated leisure. Certainly, economic growth for the middle classes and financial security for middle class individuals were also severely compromised by the British, and the prudery could have arisen in part from that, the need to secure support for families, just as you say nowadays people are being gradually released from prudery by a positive change in their prospects. (Of course the boom is just beginning–there’s unimaginably more growth where that’s coming from, and so will there be increasing freedom of all kinds of expression.)
I’m extrapolating from the American experience of racism and sexuality, where, undoubtedly, many white people, and Jefferson most explicitly, have long assumed that they alone engaged in a more delicate, emotionally wrought and less wanton form of sex than other races. I’m not sure how the message of sexual superiority was conveyed by the British during colonial rule in India, but it seems impossible that it was not. There had to be an ongoing assertion of overall superiority and removal from bestiality to enable colonization (as much as slavery) as being just treatment of an inferior people. Some of it did happen in schools, where white priests, nuns and other authority figures spoke way down to their heathen charges. Apart from anything else, the message seems still at large– or why would white people today be offended by the way the portrayal of relative sexual sensitivity is reversed in The Rising?
Repression relies on shame and I’ve never seen or heard of shame in the West about Europeans having repopulated large swathes of the world’s landed surface in five short centuries, and at the same time no shame at all about dictating to other populations how to control their growth– much the same thing, though at a remove.
Thanks for a thoughtful (and though-provoking) response, Amrita. Your insight on racism inducing repression throe ugh negative moral self-image seems right on. Perhaps that would act on people that are not middle class, too. Minor quibble – I think you meant libertine, not libertarian – but I wonder if Indian royalty had to wait till the early twentieth century for that – are you thinking of anyone in particular, oh, say, the Maharaja of Patiala, by any chance?
‘Nishabd’ goes to prove that Ram Gopal Varma has not lost his magic touch. The maverick filmmaker is truly the master of his craft. From the opening reels to the conclusion, Varma unspools the story at a rhythmic pace. The cinematography and the camera angles are superb. The editing, though jerky at times, is slick. And never does the elegance of form overpower the movie’s main content.
For all the lovers of good quality cinema, ‘Nishabd’ is strongly recommended. The film has a riveting plot and Mr. Bachchan at his best.
To hell with convention. I give this film four stars out of five.
Rating ****
(By Naresh Kumar, critic ApunKaChoice)
1.http://in.movies.yahoo.com/070302/128/6crdm.html 2.http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1716410.cms….some more good reviews.
I don’t know why all this negative talk here,if any thing it should help the movie.
RGV is the master of his craft and he has proven it once again!
to emphasize the point Al Mujahid made: If the girl is 18, then whats the big deal??!
I don’t know why all this negative point of view by Amardeep,if any thing it should help the movie(some times it will not help,like in the case of KANK…karan & Shahruk couple disaster).But what ever may be the angle and intentions of highlighting the small political protests here, Delhi high court has cleared the movie and no where in India it is stopped showing(as of now).
chachaji, truth be told, I never give the Maharaja of Patiala a thought (although I heard his Parisian son died in a strange manner), but yes, thanks, I meant libertine, and no, I didn’t think Indian royals had to wait for the independence movement to be that way. OTOH, I reckon they went underground for a while there, relatively speaking, what with so many queens taking to petticoats and Sunity Devi apparently wearing her sart over a dress.
The actress in this movie is very pretty – Nabakov’s original was captured in this casting of this actress. Humbert Hari Humbert (me) would be satiated by her youthful charm.
Would love to have someone like this in my media / video installation work.
46 · Karlton said
Well, the male lead is married. I guess that’s something of a big deal to some people. (When all you’ve got is a hammer all the world looks like a nail, right?)
American Beauty also comes to mind as a promising comparison, though I should admit that I haven’t seen Nishabd.