What was it even trying?
There are many ways to defend ‘Silencer’. People generally do that. But when a movie doesn’t even work an iota, why even try defending it, even if its Tarkovskian. I’ve said a number of times, that there are movies which even if it doesn’t work for you, you know that there is some greatness associated to it. Then there are some movies which simply don’t work even though it’s called a great movie. ‘Silencer’ fits in the latter, but don’t know whether it’s considered a great flick anyways. It, put in simple terms, is a debacle.
‘Silencer’ was trying to be artistic, which I got to know only during the last twenty minutes and that’s when I completely wrote off the movie. I was expecting something on the lines of ‘Android Kunjappan Ver 5.25’, where even if all the sci-fi thing doesn’t work, it’s a film of warmth. A film need not compulsory be of warmth, it could have been of wrath too. Seeing Lal, I thought its one such film but it wasn’t that too. With the way the film progressed I thought he had lost it but it felt like every character looked lost. In short, it’s a film full of confusion.
The editing is cluttered and confusing, even though it was intentional it didn’t work. The cuts had to be in such a way that it has some meaning. There should be some revelation or shock when the film cuts to the old or may be have a feel which makes you like the process like ‘Premam’ but here the flashbacks come at needless places and we don’t know what it tries to prove. May be that’s the intention, the war, the rage and everything is of no use. But it definitely could have been shot in a much interesting way.
It’s another movie where the lead actors lock horns. Lal in his silencer less bike and Irshad in his Fortuner fight it out, even though not literally, but mentally. Their irritation upon each other gets on us too. Even though considered amongst the power house of actors, I feel Lal’s acting to be monotonous. His coarse voice, demeanor and body language are all too stiff for acting and he repeats the same in every film. It feels like he could play ‘The Hound’ perfectly because of his hard outlook and soft nature. But keeps repeating it in every format. It’s appreciable for once but not always.
Of all, it was the last act which got me to write off the movie completely where it was going towards art house. It only felt like an art of escapism to me because these things work when you create a mood and not when it takes you off the hook all of a sudden. There could be underlying meaning but the movie in the end couldn’t simply hold my attention.
constantscribbles 