Silence… Can You Hear It? (2021) Movie Drinking Game
Down a Shot: when a situation gets snappy/sweary.
Down a Shot: each time the trusty white board comes into play.
By: Vidal D’costa (Three Beers) –
A group of hikers stumble upon a corpse in the hills. ACP Avinash Verma, a dedicated albeit brash cop from the narcotics department, is put on the case along with a specially assigned team. But in order to crack this murder mystery, they’re faced with setbacks such as a crime scene infringed upon by litterbugs, ‘mute’ witnesses, and bad blood that runs deep. After all, things aren’t always as they seem on the surface… just like a broken coffee machine that spouts tea.
A Toast
Silence… Can You Hear It? is a standard by the book whodunit that brims with countless twists and turns which help in piquing one’s interest and in holding it until the very end, with some head-scratching elements thrown in. Watching the cops discuss various angles and scenarios adds to the intrigue and proves to be yet another bonus of this engrossing feature.
Screenwriter Aban Bharucha Deohans embellishes the script with plenty of red herrings, often disguised as inane subplots. And while initially many instances gave me the impression that the investigating team was opting to forgo logic and instead pursue the contrived route of mimicking the ridiculousness of crime procedurals such as CID (case in point, ACP Avinash attempting to ‘interrogate’ a comatose witness to the crime), thankfully I was proved wrong.
The movie is also well-paced and peppered with humorous, witty banter that lends a rather light-hearted, humane, and altogether wholesome atmosphere to its character dynamics, particularly between the otherwise lonely ACP and his team of loyal officers who often exchange dad jokes and quips or sojourn for coffee/snack breaks in order to defuse tensions at the workplace.
Among the performances, Manoj Bajpayee oozes swag as ACP Avinash, a character who can be best described as ‘Sherlock and Singham rolled into one’, and who radiates ‘fuck around find out’ energy when the situation calls for it (even showing up to drug busts sporting a weed t-shirt!). The scenes featuring him snapping in the heat of the moment and his multiple squirmish face-offs with ‘usual suspect’ and privileged politico Ravi Khanna (Arjun Mathur) especially provide for unintentional hilarity, but also add some depth to the unhinged yet determined demeanor of the character. Co-star Prachi Desai lends ample support as the more level-headed officer Sanjana Bhatia.
And if you’re a keen enough observer/have a ear for it, much like the sleuths in this movie, you might even catch a reference/Easter egg or two that harken back to Bajpayee’s prior works like Aligarh or even Gangs of Wasseypur.
Beer Two
The movie meanders tonally at times, and also suffers from a bland, far too linear approach in its storytelling.
Beer Three
The supporting characters and overall performances feel limited and one-note. Arjun Mathur is particularly hammy and jarringly annoying to watch in some scenes that require emotional intensity and subtlety.
Verdict
Silence… Can You Hear It? may not exactly be your cup of tea (or coffee) if you’re in the market for the next Knives Out, but it’s still a brisk and engaging one-time watch that’s carried by compelling leads, as well as a twisted trajectory to boot.
