Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Aravind Swamy, Aditi Rao Hydari, Siddharth Jadhav, Mahesh Manjrekar

Crew: 

Music by AR Rahman
Editing by Ashish Mhatre
Cinematography by Karan B. Rawat
Written & Directed by Kishor Pandurang Belekar
Produced by Umesh Kumar Bansal, Rajesh Kejriwal, Gurupal Sacchar, Meera Chopra, Kishor Pandurang Belekar

Gandhi Talks, a silent film, has been waiting for a theatrical release after its debut in IFFI, way back in 2023. The movie has finally released in theatres, on 30th January 2026. After Kamal Haasan's Pushpaka Vimanam/ Pushpak, this is the only film that dared to go for a mookie or silent narrative. Vijay Sethupathi, Aravind Swamy have brought-in huge interest among Telugu audiences too with AR Rahman music. Let's discuss about this experimental film, in detail. 

Plot:

Mahadev (Vijay Sethupathi) is a poor Mumbaikar, hoping to find a Municipality job to settle down in life. His mother is struggling with her health and he is unable to provide even good food to her or himself. Meanwhile, he falls in love with girl in neighbourhood (Aditi Rao Hydari) and her family is forcing her to marry soon.

On the other hand builder Boseman (Aravind Swamy) falls into a conflict with a Central Minister and loses his dream project, Mother's Touch. He gets harassed by loaners and he decides to run away. Mahadev decides to steal at his home and settle in life. Will Boseman and Mahadev succeed in their plans? 

Analysis: 

Vijay Sethupathi is good in his role and his performance is heartfelt. He is able to express with his eyes and convey the character nuances without dialogues pretty well. Aravind Swamy also did his best and he is really great in several sequences. Aditi Rao Hydari is also good while Siddharth Jadav doesn't really evoke laughter as intended and Mahesh Manjrekar is good in few scenes but again not really impactful. 

The entire movie runs around the problem of securing and storing money. While there is a planned heist from all characters, we don't really enjoy the portions as the surprises planned are predictable. The story doesn't really provide any new scenes or present the old story in new format. Even silent treatment doesn't really come through as each thing seems to be designed to not speak a word rather than putting in a situation where no word is spoken. 

Singeetham Sreenivasa Rao and Kamal Haasan used their creativity to imagine each moment where really words are not needed but Kishor Pandurang has narrated a regular story in silence and most of the film doesn't really need the treatment as we feel like actors are choosing to not talk while in real life, many would voice out at that moment. Except for few sequences in second hour most of the film feels like a choice to be silent rather than really engrossing us into the narrative. 

Also, the kind of effort everyone has put in is visible at the same time the film doesn't really come up with such visually stand-out moments except for few brilliant shots to really say that the film requires this genre and treatment. Also, the predictability in the story leaves it more as an experiment than a film that really comes across like Pushpaka Vimanam. 

Bottomline: 

Doesn't really hold up while effort is visible from the makers to make it interesting. 

Rating: 2/5

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this review are personal views/opinions shared by the writer and organisation does not hold a liability to them. Viewers' discretion is advised before reacting to them.