Jagran Film Festival, 2026, Mumbai, 08: Overview: Nohum
Jagran Film Festival, 2026, Mumbai, 08: Overview: Nohum
For the title of his film, writer-director chooses a word that is unfamiliar to about 99.99% of his possible audience, thus challenging and alienating most of them. While that might put-off the lay cine-goer, it arouses the curiosity of a critic. If you have not read about the film somewhere, and you walk into a screening of Nohum, unprepared, you expect something new, some kind of experiment, some out-of-the-ordinary subject, hoping to be surprised. Having its world première at the JFF last week, Nohum was certainly was a surprise to me. It is something new, an experimental film and an out-of-the-ordinary subject. The first few minutes command your attention, and you look forward to an exciting psychological, sci-fi thriller.
A 28-year-old engineer in a New Delhi company, Daksh Beck, logs on, perhaps accidentally, to a site called AA, no, not Alcoholics Anonymous, but Atheists Anonymous. Nursing feelings of atheism, he decides to explore the website and gets the address. Soon, he heads for the place, where he is received by two men, one in his early 60s and another in his early 30s. The man, who opens the iron gate, introduces himself as Shantanu, and the two are later joined by Dr. Pannikar. The two hosts are father and son. Dr. Pannikar is revealed as a retired Indian Space Researh Organisation (ISRO) scientist, now retired. He says he used to make rockets and bombs at ISRO. We also see father and son cooking in the kitchen, as some level of chèfs. Not much is revealed about Shantanu, except that he studied abroad and that he lost his mother three years ago, to cancer.
As the three men are getting to know each other and what AA is all about, the bell rings. A couple has arrived, with the same curiosity as Daksh: to find out what AA is all about. They are Abhay and Reeti. All three nurse doubts about the existence of a god. Their doubts are strengthened by the theories of Dr. Pannikar, who says that all three major religions of the world have invented God: Christianity, Islam and Hindusim. To prove his case, he cites the examples of tsunamis and earthquakes, which a God would never want, if he was the creator of mankind. And Hindus have several Gods. Moreover, he adds, that Christianity is based on God having a son and Islam believes that the earth is flat. (This is contradicted by a search with AI that says as follows, “The overwhelming consensus among modern Islamic scholars and traditional authorities is that the Earth is round/spherical. While some early traditionalist scholars held literal views of certain descriptions, prominent classical scholars (such as Ibn Hazm, Al-Ghazali, and Ibn Taymiyya, maintained that the Earth is round, referencing concepts like the rolling of night and day around a globe.") Are these men philosopher-scientists, or are they scamsters. Shivam Hora decides that he will rely heavily not only on audiences’ suspension of disbelief, but for them to turn screenplay writers, as well. They are expected to spot fleeting clues and separate them from showcased red-herrings.
Mihir Ahuja, as Abhay Khanna, looks too young for his part, but brings out the required cynicism quite well. Abhishek Chauhan (Mast Me Rahne Ka, KILL) as Daksh Beck looks very confused. With a severe trauma that has not healed for just under two decades, he works normally, in an office, but rushes to the AA location the moment he sees the page on the web. He later becomes the most agile of the trio and grabs the gun, to help him and another AA visitor escape, in a car. Arjun Singh Duhan, who has just about two previous film outings in his kitty, is Shantanu, the tall, macho-man who has a slightly roving eye for Reeti. Raj (Kumar) Sharma, as Dr. Pannikar, speaks flawless Hindi, belying his surname. Of course, it is possible that he is either using a false name or has lived in the north for a long period, enough to learn the language. Of the cast, this actor-trainer, with lots of theatre experience, emerges as the best performer in the film. Nupur Nagpal, a TV veteran, does well as Reeeti/Uzma, exhibiting female, sixth sense curiosity, persuading Abhay to stay back, when he wants to leave, but the curiosity, in the end, proves fatal for her.
Helping the narrative move along in a genre defying direction are music composers Rohan Nair and Swagat Kumar Panda. Jatin Bajaj makes the God room objects glow in ethereal style. As editor, Dev Rao Jadhav is not given enough footage to make the story more coherent and plausible. Had he been given another 10 minutes, beyond the 98, of relevant footage, to fill in the blanks, we would have had a better understanding of the film. Govind Gupta’s highly imaginative art direction impresses, especially in the second half.
Apparently this is the feature debut of short film-maker Shivam Hora.
Are you still wondering what Nohum means?
Sorry, no spoilers here.
Trailer: Unavailable
