Unethical and eccentric Debraj Sahay is hired by the McNally family to educate Michelle, who is blind, deaf and mute. The new teacher is a disaster, prompting Michelle's dad to ask him to leave, however, he begs Mrs. McNally for another chance, and she does when her husband is away. Debraj strives to bring some light in Michelle's dark life, and does succeed considerably, thus is able to impress Mr. Mcnally, when the child speaks the words “mama” & “papa” with much difficult, and he gets hired to look after her.
Her world is "BLACK". Debraj leads her from this darkness and confusion into light and hope, how he makes her discover her identity, making her feel human rather than someone inferior with disability. He is her teacher, her Guru, the one who leads her from darkness into light. Michelle grows and blossoms into a well cultured girl and even gets admitted in school with normal children. The years pass by, Michelle does not succeed in clearing her graduation, but Debraj tries his hard to fulfill his only ambition to see his Michelle on stage holding her graduation in the uniform. The years go by, and Michelle and Debraj share a bond between them - not knowing it is this bond that will only serve to severe their relationship in the near future. Debraj suffers from health problems and is discovered with Alzheimer's disease making his memory loss more prominent as days pass. Twelve years later, at the age of 40, Michelle does succeed in graduating in Arts, and it is shortly thereafter she meets her teacher sitting on the fountain. Her teacher was no longer the same alcoholic, eccentric - but a bent older male, who cannot even remember speech. Michelle makes a brave and impossible attempt to make him remember everything lost.
Black is the story of how Michelle achieves the almost impossible task of graduating, how Debraj takes up the mission of teaching her as a challenge, the simple relation between a teacher and student evolving into a complex one. But above all, Black is the story of triumph; it's the story of achievements, of never giving up. The movie aspires to send a powerful message of never letting up your hopes till the heart beats. No matter whatever position life keeps us, we should be able to see dim rays of hope and follow the path. The movie strives to restore ones faith in the value of life and love. It is a work of genius, well executed, and a triumph of film-making, regardless the culture.
The graduation speech of Rani holding her degree is the most beautiful speech ever in the Bollywood cinema. The scene when the child actress recites the word “Mama” from her mouth after much difficulty. The speech that Rani’s sister delivers and Rani’s speech before her sister is going to marry. The scene in which Rani tries to express her sorrow of failure to her mother, but ends up uttering just a few animal-like noises, yet the lady receives every word of her flawlessly. The scene where Rani takes her slow typing speed as a challenge after failing miserably in her exams. The campus bench scene where Rani teases Bachchan about the prediction of snowfall. The ending scene when Amitabh dance to celebrate Rani’s graduation. The ending scene where both of them spell the word “Water”. The ending speech when Rani visits church to pray for her teacher. There are still more scenes worth memorable. All these scenes will surely make anyone to cry like a child.
A movie like BLACK relies heavily on performances and the director Bhansali has extracted award-worthy work from the ensemble cast. Emotionally drained performances by all gives the real flesh and blood to the movie. We can expect this type of performance from Amitabh Bachchan but the child actor Ayesha Kapoor & Rani mukherjee are the real discovery of this movie. It's no denying that Rani delivers her lifetime performance and her best performance till date proving she is more than candy floss cinema material. Ayesha Kapur is first-rate and its incredible as well as promising performance from her at such young age. Mr. Bachchan tends to dwarf everyone. From the moment he comes on screen, he mesmerizes all. And he holds till the last frame of the movie. He really gives goose bumps with his performance. The overprotective mother Shernaaz Patel, the sulky yet loving father by Dhritiman Chatterjee, and the sister (Nandana Sen) who has everything in life except the attention one expects from ones parents, all impresses in their whatever small but significant roles.
Black scores in three technical departments - sound, background score, cinematography. The technical feel of the movie is spellbinding. This is perhaps the most technically sound piece of work Indian cinema ever. Light and shadow play with each other in the background. The costumes by Sabyasachi Mukherjee are in muted shades of black, brown and green. The McNally mansion is huge, replete with books and works of art, all the credit goes to elaborate thinking by art director Omung Kumar which resulted in the authentic look and lively sets for the feel of an Anglo-Indian household in the mid-1900s. Ravi K. Chandran's cinematography excels as well, the opulence of the McNally family, the emotion on the faces of the actors have been captured brilliantly. Background music by Monty is awesome, it captures the mood well.
Bhansali is best at stories highlighting human struggle and with this adaptation he comes up trumps once again. His explanation of Helen Keller's outstanding life and the role Annie Sullivan played in her life. The real-life story was presented on the big screen in the 1962's Hollywood flick THE MIRACLE WORKER, which starred Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft for which both the performers won the Oscars. It’s also speculated that this movie was inspired from a Gujurati play but kudos to the director Sanjay Leela Bhansali for executing his vision and able to bring this kind of script into silver screen. He has broken away from the genre of huge castles (haveli) and garish colors to create a work of art that's so different from his previous works. If in his previous films he has played with colours and sound and drama, in Black Sanjay has played with human emotions - pain, anger, failure and at last, success.
This is a work of fine cinema making. Indeed, it is a great phase for Indian Cinema - the phase of transition.
Please go ahead and watch this one. Its not the type of movie that comes again and again. Don't forget to post your personal comments about this movie here.
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