Silence: An intriguing thriller with solid performances and investing screenplay

• Platform: Zee5
• Release Date: 26/03/2021
• Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Prachi Desai, Sahil Vaid, Vaquar Shaikh, Arjun Mathur
• Director: Aban Bharucha Deohans

Rating: 3/5 (3 out of 5 Stars)

Silence is a neat little whodunit thriller that knows its limitations and remains within them ensuring that it doesn’t overstay its welcome. The story revolves around the discovery of the decaying dead body of a girl, Pooja (Barkha Singh) who happens to be the daughter of an influential and honest judge. The body is found on a trekking trail by a group of youths. Pooja was last known visiting her best friend, Kavita (Hitha Chandrasekhar) who is married to the local MLA’s son, Amit (Arjun Mathur). Interestingly, Kavita also meets with a fateful accident around the same time and is in a coma at the local hospital. Things look fishy and it seems that unless the killer is nabbed quickly, the trails might go cold. Pooja’s father pulls a few strings and has ACP Avinash (Manoj Bajpayee) — known for his unconventional ways of solving crimes — assigned to the case.

Avinash quickly realizes that the murder was committed somewhere else and the body was dumped on the trail to avoid suspicion. He even has a solid hunch on who the killer might be and for what reason he/she might have committed the crime. But it proves difficult to garner enough evidence against the perpetrator. What follows is a fast-paced, interesting, and investing cat and mouse game that has enough credibility and thrills to hold on to our attention for the duration of the film’s runtime.

I love the whodunit thriller genre when it is done right and off late, Bollywood seems to be getting pretty good at these contained, low-budget, and yet well-made thrillers that often come up with interesting plots and even better performances. A film like Silence depends a lot on the credibility of the performances to make the viewers look away from some of its obvious deficiencies and this is where Manoj Bajpayee’s charm and stellar act are utilized to fill up the gaps. He brings forth a version of the character that we have seen innumerable time over the years and yet it is so well done that we cannot help but be intrigued by it. Be it his introduction, his many encounters with the MLA’s son who insults the police brutally and his final interaction with the killer, Bajpayee brings out different expression and along with it a lot of fun elements that is enjoyable to watch.