"Black"...A Bright,Colorful Tale
A story well told. A movie well made. The characters well played. That should explain it all. Watching this movie, I felt like "watching" a novel but in snipets. Think about a nice novel you read and a subsequent movie made based on it and it exactly portrays how you imagined, the setup ,the characters , the decor. Don't you feel thrilled! Except there is no novel here for the movie to be based on. This movie is all about the director's imagination and passion. I understand a story line like this cannot be captured in such a short time. This movie would have made an excellent novel to read and works as a nice advertisement for it. It left me wanting more. Now I have this sudden urge to read novels:).
Black is a movie about a blind and deaf girl's journey to womanhood as she tries hard to overcome her physical limitations and fulfill her dream about making herself independent with the help of a special teacher. Hopefully I have summed it up right, if not, go on..judge me. I was anyway bad with summation theories in school.
Okie I digress. Contrary to the title, the movie is positive, full of energy ,elevating and for a story plot which has all the elements of sensitiveness and despondence, it turns out to be quite fast paced and gripping keeping the audience attention. Some how I felt Sanjay Leela Bansali's(Khamoshi, H2DS, Devdas) would have really loved some extra movie time to picturize all the emotions he has conjured up his mind. But he has done a commendable job in capturing the essence of his imagination in little more than 2 hours. Every filmmaker has his own pet project( read close to heart) up his mind that he always wishes to make one day. I feel this movie is one of those as evident from the fact he is both the director and producer of this movie.
The young Rani Mukherjee , portrayed by a Ayesha Kapur , is the star of the movie in my opinion. For a 10-year old with no acting background, she is just brillaint, so natural and puts generations of so called bollywood actors/actresses to shame with her sublime performance(which provides an excellent evidence to my earlier post, you thought you could avoid not reading it! *a villianish smirk*). AB and Rani gives the performances of their careers till date. This is a movie where the performances of the lead actors, the cinematography (by Ravi Chandran) , and ofcourse SLB's direction (in my top 5 list already) will be remembered for a longtime.
If I were to make any changes, I would have preferred a much slower pace and more time on her experiences coping and learning her disability as well as AB's medical condition.Guess I propably would have ended up turning it into an art movie spurning away the audience. But as I said this would make the movie so much longer and darker the whole concept of entertaining the main-stream audience is weakened.
This is a movie which will give your routine hindi movie expectations a shot in the arm. Is this the new face of bollywood!!
Propably not judging from the trailer of the upcoming Akshay Kumar-Kareena starrer "Bewafaa" that was played during the interval. Its a death trap.
by gvenum @ 4:58 AM
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#by
niddlesriddles, at February 05, 2005 11:56 AM
oh never knew that movie is out! I loved her pic in a green sweater.. with no smiles..no expressionz..just deep into her thoughts.. guess its fromthe same movie!
Lukz like its one perfect one! I am not gonna miss this one this time! maybe this review shud be posted on rediff! :) thanks 4 letting us know :) tak care n always keep smiling :D -
#by niddlesriddles, at February 05, 2005 11:57 AM
BTW me *First* for the *first time* wud cum again * n will try to be make it *first time* :p -
#by gvenum, at February 06, 2005 12:41 AM
Thanks for the comments. Its a movie you cannot miss.
Lazy geek http://www.lazygeek.net/ wrote a very comprehensive review of this movie if you want to know about the movie more or you may watch the movie and then read this review by him. -
#by Primalsoup, at February 06, 2005 10:15 AM
Hello there! Not entirely sure how I reached here, am sure you don't want to know that either do you?!
Nice review that... saw the movie and agree with much of what you say... I think the best thing about the movie was the totally-positive-triumph-of-human-spirit kind of thing! I thought the little girl was the *star* too! :) -
#by gvenum, at February 06, 2005 11:32 PM
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator. -
#by gvenum, at February 06, 2005 11:49 PM
(Primalsoup) Thanks for the comments. I am glad you liked my review.I think that kiddo has all talent to make it big(BTW she lives close to Pondicherry!!!). I would like to know how you found my blog. Iam all curious:) -
#by Pallavi, at February 07, 2005 2:46 AM
I am yet to watch this movie.. am looking forward to seeing it !! :) -
#by Unknown, at February 07, 2005 5:42 AM
am looking forward to see the movie this week.. but after reading some of its reviews.. which said that the movie is not upto the expectations, I didn't feel like seeing this movie..
but, after reading some fellow bloggers like u write abt good things in Black, I decided to go... :) -
#by Primalsoup, at February 07, 2005 10:34 AM
You "really" want to know how I came by your Blog? Well you know one click led to another kind of thing! :)
Besides as the future president of the singleton's one does need to look out for other members of the cult! :) -
#by gvenum, at February 07, 2005 10:48 AM
and thou speaks a "true" politician:-) -
#by Primalsoup, at February 07, 2005 11:23 AM
Given the state of politics the world over, that is almost like an insult! :) But in the name of the cult and the larger cause I shall take that in stride! -
#by
, at February 07, 2005 8:16 PM
Okay, you have convinced me!! I am going this weekend :)
Cheers,
Jahnvi. -
#by gvenum, at February 08, 2005 12:12 AM
(Pallavi)Do tell how you liked it!!
(Prasad)I am really suprised by the negative comments in rediff and Times of India. You need to see it to believe my words. I am sure it wont cater to every crosssection of the audience. But those you crave for quality in bollywood will definelty appreciate it.
(Jahnvi) I am glad you decided to watch it. Do tell how you liked it. -
#by Primalsoup, at February 08, 2005 3:16 AM
You can add me to your Blogroll, I am all kindness and stuff… I will be even more nicer and add you to my list, need to keep tabs on the cult na!
On possible “posts”… I am always open to being bribed etc… and where there are no posts, we shall create some more! :) -
#by gvenum, at February 11, 2005 1:03 PM
(Primalsoup) Thenk you & Thankoo.
ah..bribes.. The cult is in safe "hands"...wet hands that is.
"Ostrich" Thanks for peeping over my blog. Yeah "Black" is something. -
#by Parth, at February 16, 2005 10:20 PM
Nice write up. Thanks for dropping by my blog. You have got a good blog up and running. Shall be back.
