Review: Vishaad (2025)

Co-directed by two-time National Award–winning filmmaker from Assam, Nilaanjan Reeta Datta, alongside Navnita Sen, Vishaad is a short film that turns its attention to the tensions that accumulate in private lives rather than the spectacle suggested by its premise. At its centre is a police inspector (Rajeshwar) whose marriage is fraying under the weight of grief. When he gains illicit access to a scientist’s (Ashish Vidyarthi) invention, one that can resurrect voices from the past, he sees an opportunity to salvage what he has lost. What unfolds, however, is not a technological drama but a measured study of emotional residue and unintended consequences.

The film uses its speculative element sparingly. The scientific device is less a narrative engine than a reflective surface against which the inspector’s internal conflicts become sharper. Instead of explaining its mechanics in detail or building a futuristic world, the film remains rooted in the everyday cramped rooms, strained conversations, and the unspoken discomfort between partners who no longer know how to reach one another. This grounding keeps the film intimate, even when it brushes against the extraordinary.

Where Vishaad succeeds most is in its refusal to overreach. It does not try to turn itself into a grand statement, nor does it diminish its emotional stakes. Instead, it remains focused on a man who mistakes technological possibility for emotional resolution. Through this lens, the film offers a thoughtful, contained reflection on how the past, once disturbed, can complicate the present more than it clarifies it. Datta and Sen maintain a steady directorial approach throughout. Their filmmaking avoids flourishes but is not austere. It has the confidence of a team that knows when to hold a moment and when to move on. Some scenes stretch close to the edge of lingering too long. Even so, the pacing ultimately feels intentional, reflecting the film’s interest in the spaces between emotions and in what is withheld rather than declared. However, their collaboration results in a clarity of tone that remains consistent even as the story touches on grief, memory, and ethical uncertainty.

Performance-wise, Ashish Vidyarthi as Anadi Sen brings a calm, stabilising presence to the narrative. His restraint allows the film’s quieter emotional notes to register more fully. Rajeshwar, as Rishab Rathod, delivers a performance that forms the emotional spine of the narrative, marked by an inwardness that avoids theatrics and gives the character a lived, unsettled quality. Ketaki Narayan, as Veena, plays her silences with purpose, letting fear, guilt, and longing surface through her performance and grounding her dynamic with Rishab in a believable rhythm.

Jaykrishna’s cinematography leans toward simplicity, allowing the actors’ facial expressions and gestures to carry much of the weight. Navnita Sen’s editing shapes a rhythm that matches the film’s contemplative tone, letting silence, gestures, and pauses settle organically. Anmol Bhave’s sound design is similarly restrained, drawing attention to ambient textures that underscore the film’s preoccupation with silence.

Vishaad is a well-shaped and assured short film. It is modest in ambition, steady in craft, and attentive to the fragile spaces in which relationships falter and memory lingers.

It was selected for the National Competition in the Indian Short Film category at the recently concluded 31st Kolkata International Film Festival.