Black is beautiful. Review on Black - Bollywood

Ah, so where should I start...

Ok, is this the best movie that I have ever seen?

No, it is not. Yet, it is so good that it prompts me to ask this question. And, in many ways, I have never seen a movie like this by an Indian director. (Let me confess here though, that I have not seen any of the Satyajeet Ray movies).

Black, the color, has something perfect about it, and Bhansali strives to achieve that through this movie. So, after every couple of scenes, there is solemn darkness in which you ponder how perfect black is; and then, through that darkness emerges a scene, like a beautiful painting, and you wonder how light can be so perfect too.

Without giving away much of the plot ? as you would probably already know, this is the story of a blind and deaf girl, and her teacher. The teacher, who was a drunkard, a failure, and a magician in the art of language of the fingers. He passes on this art to this little beast, and gives her wings to chase her dreams. Bhansali puts it most succinctly ? This is the story of faith, fight and triumph. This the story of human spirit that soars above all obstacles.

I wouldn?t go much into the technical details. It should suffice to tell you that editing is sharp and cinematography brilliant. Whatever are the other technical things that a crew must take care of have been taken care of brilliantly. This, you would have expected, given the record with Devdas.

However, to me, Devdas was deeply flawed. For all its technical brilliance, it failed to touch my heart. I wasn?t compelled to cry when Devdas dies. And, that, in many ways has been overcome in Black. And, large chuck of the credit must go to the actors for this. People will tell you that this is the best they have seen of Amitabh and Rani. They are not overstating. What you may not hear too often is that there is a little girl, Ayesha Kapur, one who plays the younger Rani, who matches Amitabh scene for scene in the first half. And whose acting sets the standard that Rani tries, and manages, to reach.

Bhansali has made a movie that is as good as it gets. And, smartly enough, this movie is completely targeted towards the western audiences (no? don?t read that as NRI). Good movies must earn good money too, afterall. The setting is completely non-Indian (European) and 60% of the movie is in English; but for some names and the use of Hindi, this would pass of as a movie from anywhere else.

A few words of caution here. This is a serious movie and not everyone may like it. I liked Khamoshi (loved it, actually) too, so you may or may not want to go by my leanings. On the other hand, if you love poetry and if you like to dip yourself every now and then in good literature, chances are high that you may like Black. Also, this isn?t absolutely perfect. If I were to be picky, I might like Bhansali to change a few things.

They say that good literature, and this holds true for good movies too, has the potential to change your life. And, this one can.