Plot spoilers ahead :-
Bhansali’s Black has been one of the most awaited, hyped movie in the recent times.With its classy promos, the movie raised very high curiosity among the people and now after release, it has garnered lot of accolades from critics and public as well.My take on Black...
In the opening we see an arresting visual of a visually handicapped woman typing something in her braille type-writer, accompanied by a voice in the background that starts to narrate the story.Living in the snow-clad Himachal pradesh is Michelle Mcnally, daughter of a rich anglo-indian family.Michelle is a blind and deaf girl right from her birth.The girl has no other contact with the outside world except her sense of touch, and so her world is filled with darkness and silence, a world which any other normal person wouldn’t dare even to dream of getting into.
Debraj Sahai, is an eccentric teacher who comes to Michelle’s house to teach her the sign language.He becomes her life’s guru and shows her the world around her, he makes people understand her, and makes her understand the people around her. Michelle even with her inability to see and hear, wishes to live an independent life, she wishes for graduation which she gets with the help of Debraj.
Now Bhansali adds an extra touch of drama to the story with Debraj Sahai getting affected by alzheimer’s disease, a disease that slowly eats away the memory of Sahai to the level that he forgets himself. Now this is time for Michelle to bring back her guru, to the world that the man strived so hard to show her.
Bhansali’s tale is a strikingly different one from the usual Bollywood movies.The movie is devoid of the usual commercial stuff including song sequences.The sequences involving Sahai and the young Michelle are striking enough that they disturb our senses so deeply, the way Sahai transforms a beast-like Michelle into a fine girl are so authentic, that our heart goes to the little girl when she gets treated so harshly by her teacher, who desperately wants her to learn things.
The moments such as the one where the little girl mouths ’maa’ and ’papa’ are enough for our throats to get a lump.And also the moments such as the ones where the grown-up Michelle gives her graduation speech , your heart wins the race even before your mind assesses the plausibility levels of it, your eyes tend to drop a tear or two, the tears of joy.And that shows the triumph of Bhansali.
Rani Mukherjee gives a commendable performance in this off-beat role.Its one of the memorable roles for Big-B and a special mention should go for the little girl Ayesha Kapur who comes up with a stunning performance that’s so honest and authentic.If you want to classify someone as the hero of this movie then it must be Ravi.K.Chandran.The visual tone he adopts is strikingly distinct.Monty’s background score helps to elevate the experience even more and the editing is appropriately slow, giving each frame its time to sink in.
Bhansali’s desperate attempt to get away from the mundane is obvious, and for those who have seen this auteur’s earlier piece ’Devdas’ where a beauty queen was left to dance with some fifty extras, this one is a surprise with its restrained approach, much in contrast to ’Devdas’.Kudos for the attempt.Bhansali has gone for lot of research for this script and that shows in many aspects of the film.The usage of sign language in the movie shows that a lot of home work has gone into it(the credits confirm it).That shows the passion that the man has for his film.
But then Bhansali’s trademark melodrama shows up here and there making us a bit uncomfortable.And also one wonders what could be the reason behind setting the story in Himachal Pradesh, with his protagonist as an Anglo-Indian.The posh parties, the jazz bands, the purple wines, the men and women dressed in suits and accoutre all just confirms the wrong prejudice of bollywood directors that a master-piece can be made only if you make it look a lot hollywoodish.
Our directors must first of all get out of this prejudice..we have seen masters like Satyajit Ray storming the world-cinema not by their hollywoodish style but by the honesty and authenticity they injected into their films.The visuals in ’Black’ are stunning , alright, but after sometime, the perfection with which the visuals have been crafted, overwhelms us and tends to rob the soul of the film and make the movie into a sophisticated well-engineered piece of celluloid.
The movie is easily a master piece going by the standards of mainstream hindi cinema, but then Bhansali takes us for a ride where we cross the devilish gates of commercial cinema and reach out , but even before we enjoy a considerable distance there, Bhansali’s vehicle stumbles, and slows down leaving us craving.It’s just a few more yards of journey, the movie would have made a bench mark in the world-cinema.