The alphabet begins with BLACK. Review on Black - Bollywood

Why are we in a bid to go to Hollywood? Sanjay Leela Bhansali has brought Hollywood to us with his marvelously crafted ‘Black’. And that is an understatement. As a viewer, I felt ‘Black’ was much more touching than countless celebrated Hollywood movies due to its sheer confidence in itself.

The movie is about Michelle McNally (Ayesha Kapur/Rani Mukherjee), a visually and sonically impaired girl in a well-to-do Christian household in pre-independence Shimla. She is an enfant terrible in her childhood due to her impairments, and a tutor is roped in to calm her down and to keep her from going to the asylum. The old and weak-sighted tutor Devraj Sahai (Amitabh Bachchan) instantly gains the confidence of the mother (Shernaz Patel) but his unorthodox methods do not win favour with the father (Dhritiman Chatterjee, a Satyajit Ray actor). Moreover, he has to still win the confidence of the young girl herself. How he does that is what forms the pre-interval portion of the film.

And then happens what has never happened in any of films of this genre. Devraj is struck by Alzheimer’s, a condition that makes him forget things – he even forgets Michelle once which triggers a beautiful scene of self-exploration by the two. And then it is Michelle’s turn to bring back his memories, notwithstanding her lack of sight and speech. In the meanwhile she has also to complete her mentor’s dream, that is, to graduate and wear the dignified ‘black’ robe of convocation.

Several moments stand out in this masterpiece. Even a tiny scene where Mrs. McNally tells Devraj through a glass door, “You have made a fine young lady out of my Michelle, thank you,” tugs at those heartstrings. The moment when Michelle learns to speak her first word ‘Water’ is beautifully done. The scenes at the university, particularly the one where Michelle sits in the centre of a crowd and teaches her friends the sign language, and the one where she argues with her professor, “It’s the mind that sees dreams, not the eyes,” are simply so full of earth that you feel that lump forming in your throat. If the telephonic conversation between the dumb Michelle and her mother, breaking the news of her failure at the exams doesn’t choke you up, nothing will. And not to forget the two excellent speeches, one by Michelle’s sister Sarah (Nandana Sen) and the other by Michelle herself in sign language at her convocation.

But my favourite scene does not belong to either Michelle or Devraj. It is a scene in the early part of the movie, when the mother comes to know of her daughter’s impairments. Her use of hands and eyes to vent her frustration is something that I would not forget for years to come. Ditto the scene in the beginning where Michelle in her black gown and white stick searches for an Alzheimer’s stricken Devraj moving around in a white robe. Unforgettable cinematic images these!

The movie undoubtedly belongs to Rani Mukherjee. With her monumental talent, she has brought such vulnerability to Michelle that you just want to go out and hug her, teach her and comfort her. With this attitude, she looks more beautiful than any other ‘film heroines’ you have ever seen on screen. After all, beauty is not just skin.

Amitabh. Nothing can describe his role. His old and frail Devraj Sahai has such a steely determination that he seems stronger than all those angry young man things he had done in the past. Here’s a man who’s fighting against fate, not just a bunch of hoodlums. The minuteness of detail – his watery eyes, his paraplegically shaking head due to Alzheimer’s, all is so subtly done that you cannot see the effort he must have put to bring these to screen. That’s the mark of an astounding actor.

However the mother by Shernaz Patel takes the cake. The best emotions in the film belong to her, as she has to react to these two great actors. She seems so real as the helpless mother that you can’t stop getting all mushy whenever she’s on screen. Dhritiman Chatterjee does his part with equal élan.

The young girl, Ayesha Kapur is greater than most of the actors today. The first half of the film belongs to her and she doesn’t let anyone down. Her aggressiveness and later, relenting, is performed beautifully by her. Kudos to this young firebrand! Even people who appear in fleeting sequences, such as Mrs. Gomes the nanny, the college principal, the sister, all are great actors in their own right.

What is always noteworthy in SLB’s films is his play with colours. The first half of the film is stark and black and Amitabh’s alcoholic first sequence is in yellow tones. This is half the battle won. Michelle learns her first word in a garden with a fountain and beautiful flowers, and not in the claustrophobic environment of her home. This is not an accident, but a carefully thought-about detail. Post interval, there are plenty of pastel shades, and blues and yellows, marking that metamorphosis in Michelle’s life for the better. The climax is a zoom out scene where Devraj and Michelle look out of a window towards the sky and the whole surrounding is white, indicating hope. But the most subtle use of colour is during the kiss, where the faces are kept in semi-darkness to highlight the discomfiture of the condition. Breathtaking, SLB and Ravi Chandran.

The film totally avoids use of any commercial factor. It is songless and there is absolutely no melodrama in any of the scenes. Whatever happens is quite realistic – nothing is ‘filmi’. If it was Karan Johar, Michelle’s first word would have been ‘Maa’ when Devraj is told to get out of the house. If it was Subhash Ghai, there would have been a scene of Michelle being sexually assaulted by hoodlums and Devraj fighting off the goons. There is nothing larger than life about the film, and that gives it its universal appeal.

All those of you who are in two minds about the movie, take my word for it. Black is the most happening colour this season.