Black

allsmiles | 17 February, 2005 05:09

To many of us Black is just a colour. The colour of the sky on a moonless night, of gloom, of mis-fortune, of darkness, or hair and eyes. Even eyes that cannot see.

And black was the only colour Michelle McNelly would ever be able to see. She was born blind and deaf as a result she was a walking disaster, inadvertently causing chaos where ever she went. After all, she couldnt see, and then she couldnt hear. How could she possibly have any clue to what is happening in the world around her? Audio-visual media are about the most effective aids that help a child learn, more so in the early years. Now you have a eight year old who has no knowledge whatsoever of objects, how they look and feel, how they move, how they sound, how they relate to each other.

Most teachers had given up hope and as a last ditch effort a Mr. Sahai was summoned to bring some sanity to the household. Mr. Sahai was severly critical of Michelle's overdependence on her mother, her table manners and the bell that was tied around Michelle(to let people know she was around). Unfortunately his criticism and bizzare teaching methods didnt seem to bode well with Michelle's father. But Mr Sahai was equally desparate to help Michelle relate to the world around her, and took advantage of Mr McNellys 20 day absence to open a new world to Michelle. untiringly he tried to teach Michelle the difference between a spoon and a napkin. He never gave up and patiently waited for the momentuous flash when knowledge would descend on her. She rose to the occasion in a fountain and her first step into the world of form began with water. And then grass, flowers, mother, teacher and so on and so forth. Her learning brought immense joy not only to her but her family and her teacher.

There was no stopping Michelle. Mr. Sahai was determined that Michelle go to college and learn to take care of herself. After getting through the interview Michelle secures herself admission in the college. But ends up celebrating her yearly failures with her magician-teacher over a couple of ice-creams and crazy dance steps in snowfall. Mr. Sahai was showing signs of aging and wanted Michelle to pass so that his efforts would reach a logical conclusion. He disappears from Michelles life and Michelle keeps trying to graduate on her own. He resurfaces with a total loss of memory and advanced stages of Alzheimers. Finally Michelle does graduate and remembers her fond teachers biggest dream, to see her in a graduation robe(which incidentally, is also black.) Can she help her alleviate her aging teacher's deteriorating mental condition?

If one were to pick the three most important ingredients to a successful movie, the story, the performance and the narrative or lets say the directors skill in holding the audiences attention would have to be among the top 3. And the movie scores on all the three counts. The story inspired by a real life heroes, a student-teacher combo Helen Keller-Anne Sullivan. The performance was true to life, neither loud nor understated. Each actor essayed the role to perfection. I, for one, cannot imagine anyone else in any of the roles. Amitabh Bachchan, as an inspired Mr. Sahai, after all the decades of action packed angry young man roles, was nothing short of brilliant. Honestly Rani Mukherjee(as Michelle McNelly) was quite good but could have added more. At times she reminded me of Charlie Chaplin. :D. Ayesha Kapur as 10 yr old Michelle and Shernaz Patel as Michelle's mother McNelly were perfect to the T. The director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali has a passion for the theme, a second time he was taking up a similar story line. Each and every detail in each frame was coherent. To his credit while telling a story of such a serious nature there was never a dull moment. In the end, the real life story, the whole cast of the movie(without any exception) and the Director made Black very beautiful and extraordinary.

Was definitely worth watching. In spite of the fidgety folks sitting right behind me, inspite of my family not sharing my enthusiasm for pop corn, inspite of the fact that I spent a Tuesday afternoon in a jam-packed multiplex, inspite of my brother cursing me for choosing such a movie (between you and me: he wondered if the director was bitten by a stray/mad dog before taking up such a movie). Yes only a certain amount of madness can see one through the making of such a movie.

Another movie that proves yet again, the spirit is truly indomitable, against all the odds.