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.

Hmmm... thats the only thing i could say with confidence right after the movie finished. I do not recall many movies in mainstream Hindi cinema of the nature of this one with chartbusting casts. I have seen Ek Doctor Ki Maut, Khamosh, Hatya - all stories of a "different" nature, but most (not all) are made with casts of lesser followings or made with cast who are versatile and are not averse to taking risks in their character profiles. Khamosh had Amol Palekar (he can do any role), Ek Doctor had Pankaj Kapoor (rather less known at that time AND very well delivered).Here though, we had Aishwarya Rai whom you would normally see in a love story or action movie as the loving beau etc etc and Sanju dada who would normally be the worlds top most in whatever he does - they were a lost wife and even lost writer. Very unlikely for a mainstream Hindi movie. To make matters worse, Sanju dada's make up or the lack of it was totally devoid of any signs of insanity. The only early clue to the insanity is the continuous jarring incongruous background music - i think the music diro wanted to portray the complex bipolar interactions within Shaukat's mind.All else considered, Sanju dada's performance is almost flawless. He could have gotten rid of his mafia walk and stance for this movie and he could have had a more dishevelled look and probably some more peculiar behavior to drive home the insanity plea. Aishwarya did a great job. A slightly different makeup and wardrobe could have helped to bring the role out of the mainstream expectations and into the role of the distraught wife she played. I would say that the other guy was the best. Full of life and new ideas, very excited, very energetic and optimistic - a stark contrast to Shaukat. The director has put in a really good mix of environment (Shaukat's home, the art school, publisher's office, servants at home and the outdoors) to portray the characters.All in all, if you are prepared to watch a non mainstream movie with mainstream cast, this movie would be 5 stars when you watch it.

My initial impression about this movie was that it would be yet another love story( which i hate so much i can't tell you ), but still decided to watch it as i didn't get the tickets for 'Black'. But i'll say that this movie is different and that was the precise reason, i liked it. The movie is all about an author Shaukat ( Sanjay Dutt ), a very complicated character played brilliantly by Sanju. He is a booker-prize winner author whose last book was discarded by all for being very 'unreal'. So after a gap of 2 years, he decides to write a 'real' story.... I won't go into much details of his adventure...he asks her wife(aishwarya) to have a romantic relationship with a younger guy(Zayed), and he writes on the events taking place in their lives ... he tries to dictate the scenarios....tries to predict everything that will happen in their lives just as he predicts the fate of the characters in his book... Sanjay Dutt has given a great performance...aish is looking beautiful..and zayed is as always average... One thing that i didn't like about this movie is that the actors were crying a lot more that was expected/necessary in the situations....anyway, a good movie by a debutant director...

Shabd is too conceptual and too tentative in its approach. Debutant director Leena Yadav tells a story in Shabd that is very modern in its approach. Shaukat (Sanjay Dutt) does not believe in disappointment but when it comes to him as his own disaster, he is not able to accept it easily. He has a gorgeous wife Antara (Aishwarya Rai) who is very responsive and very thoughtful. She will do anything to make her husband grin. Having earned disgrace with his unusual novel, Shaukat now makes a bid to enact the novel in his real life using himself and Antara as the fundamental characters. Sanjay Dutt supports his wife Aishwarya Rai to have an extra-marital affair with her colleague Zayed Khan, so that the husband could integrate life-like, realistic situations in his current novel.Can it ever get weirder than this?Antara meets Zayed Khan who is hell bent on getting this sexy diva. Antara is scruffy by his behavior but remains quiet as she is already a married woman. All attempts by Yash to attract her fail and then Shaukat enter the scene. He wants his wife to enter into a relationship with Yash so that the contours of his story start developing. But, little does he know that Antara will actually defy the novel storyline and fall in love with Yash in real life too. The story has an unforeseen twist as Antara falls head over heels in love with Yash. And there is no looking back for her.To say the least, Leena Yadav has built a strange story in her attempt to look different.The film moves on with jerks and fails to even establish one equation among the protagonists of the love triangle. Even the editing is loose and there is poor support on the dialogs. Music by Vishal-Shekhar is melodic. In fact, a couple of songs do stand out - Khoya Khoya, Chahaton Ka Silsila and Sholo Si were brilliantly executed. After Jhankar Beats and Musafir they did it again. One more winning musical score from the duo. Cinematography by Aseem Bajaj is excellent. The film is visually striking.Sanjay Dutt performs his piece well. The sober look, crew-cut hairstyle, glasses, suits him well. Aishwarya Rai takes to the job with certainty. And like always, the screen fills up with her guise.Aishwarya is going to suffer the most from the failure of this film. She was in need of a hit desperately but luck has played with her again. She is totally miscast and her character is lousy. The lines and situations written for her are not well thought of and all this only makes her presence go useless on screen. Aishwarya needs to learn her lessons fast, in her attempt to make a niche for herself overseas. Zayed Khan is a complete miscast. He does not look like a college professor and even otherwise, doesn't have the maturity to carry off the role with meticulousness. Sadia Siddiqui is very efficient. Kamini Khanna does overacting.On the whole, SHABD is too theoretical to plea to the customary Indian viewers. At the box-office, the film will find it hard to continue buoyant after its first weekend. 1 1/2 Out of 5