Black (2005)

Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Screenplay: Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Bhavani Iyer, Prakash Katpadia

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukerji

Music: Monty Sharma

Time: 124 minutes

Bottom-line: One of my all-time favourites; absolutely beautiful

“Life is like an ice-cream. Enjoy it before it melts.”

Two national awards, 11 Filmfare Awards… and the list goes on; Black was, is and will remain, one of the evergreen movies in Hindi cinema. Loosely based on the life of Helen Keller, this is the story of a blind and deaf girl who survives life, thanks to her teacher. Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukerji play the lead roles, with Ayesha Kapur, Shernaz Patel and Dhritiman Chaterji in the supporting roles.

“The alphabets of the world start with A, B, C, D, E but yours start with B, L, A, C, K... Black.”

Michelle McNally (Mukerji) is a blind and deaf woman. When she reaches her house one day, she is informed that a strange man is sitting by their fountain; to her surprise, it is her teacher, Debraj Sahai (Bachchan), who left twelve years ago. However, Sahai is now experiencing an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s disease, and can barely remember his name, let alone recognise his student. The story goes back to Michelle’s childhood, a time when her mother, Cathy (Patel), and father, Paul (Chaterji), are debating over whether or not to send the eight-year-old (Kapur) to an asylum. Enter Mr, Sahai, a recovering alcoholic, with a highly eccentric character. He uses harsh methods that are disapproved by Paul, but somehow Sahai manages to make his way work. Black explores the various phases of this student-teacher relationship, over a period of nearly 25 years.

 

Bachchan as Sahai and Mukerji as Michelle

“Dear Ms. Nair, I have good news. You will be unhappy to know that the magician is at work.”

He can provide subtle humour, make you gasp at his harsh methods, make you applaud with his magic, and make you weep at his pitiable condition… indeed, giving Big B the National Award must have been a straightforward decision! There is no grand entry – on the contrary, the first scene he is shown in we get to know about his Alzheimer’s disease – but as the story progresses we see all his dynamic characteristics: the authority he displays to forcibly prevent Michelle’s from interfering, the “cruelty” of his methods that eventually work wonders and the kindness of his touch that turns Michelle into a well-groomed woman. He says so many biting one-liners throughout the film too. Towards the end he transforms so much… to see such a powerful teacher turn so helpless is one of the saddest parts of the film. One other such “uncomfortable” moment is when Michelle says “In asking you to give me dignity as a woman, I took away your dignity as a teacher. I asked too much, and you didn’t even give me a chance to ask for forgiveness…”

 

Bachchan with the young Michelle (Kapur), Cathy (Patel) in the right
and Paul (Chaterji) and Mrs. Gomes 

“Black is not just the colour of depression…it is also the colour of the graduation robe.”

Rani Mukherji too has given a marvellous performance. Highly convincing and wonderfully composed, I love the way she displays anger, determination, sadness…each with its own grace. The scene where she calls up her mother to tell that she failed is one of the many depressing scenes in the film, while her graduation speech is one of the “happiest” moments; the word is in quotes because on one side you have Michelle, successfully getting her degree after 12 long years, as she elatedly rushes to meet her teacher, who is shown in chains, to keep him in control. Michelle wears her black graduation robe for the first time in front of him and Sahai does his little “victory dance” as his memory flashes for ever so brief a moment… should you feel happy or sad? That is the beauty of Black… the most painful moments and the most joyous moments come together.

“What has taken all of you 20 years has taken me 40. But finally I can say that I did it!”

The story is not exactly “depressing” but yes, it is a painful watch at times… to see Michelle suffer. Ayesha Kapur has done really well as the young Michelle; every bit of it was genuine. The cinematography and the background score are superb. The characters, and the lines they speak are scripted so well…even though the main character says nothing more than “Tee…” and “woahhh”, the film contains some pretty powerful lines and exchanges.

With a deeply moving story, memorable characters, Black is a movie for the ages. It has been a long time since I have given a movie a 5-star rating, but this film, in every aspect, deserves it!

My Rating: 5/5