Black (2005)

recommended

good back-story, and good acting

In truth, any opportunity to see the film on the big screen is welcome.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Black is The best Bollywood Movie forever for me. Rani Mukerji's Acting is The Best and Ayesha Kapoor good. Micelle MC'Nelly is Great Character cause from her live we can learn about amazing or great Love and the Real Live for Difabelity Black inspired to me about Best Future if We want Hardwork and Will be Mhicelle MC'Nelly. Amazing Movie ever.For Black is the best color for Mc'Nelly, and it is Paradise for Mc'Nelly cause she be the great character. And amazing live, it's story is Real. Very success for make everyone feel be Mhicelle Mc'Nelly. Her teacher is angel by God for her live. The best best best Teacher ever, and The best best best magic student. Black is Especially color, Black is Magic, Black is Live, and Black is The Best Movie Eternally.

"Black" is an incredibly stylized and sumptuous reworking of the American play/movie "The Miracle Worker". One of the changes in the story is that it's set in Shimla, India*--another is that there is a bizarre and highly problematic plot twist that you learn at the beginning of the film--but more about this later.A rich Indian family has a blind/deaf daughter who is in many ways like an animal. She's never been taught and living with this wild child is nearly impossible. As a last resort, the family hires a non-conventional teacher, Mr. Sahai (Amitabh Bachchan)--and if this doesn't work out, they'll put the child in an institution. However, two problems occur with the plot. First, the parents are supposed to be very, very desperate but give up on the teacher almost immediately. Second, the teacher is very unconventional--I get that. But why doesn't he ever stop to explain to the parents what he's doing and why?! They want to fire him and I might have felt the same, as Sahai seemed a bit crazed--too crazed.Despite a very, very poor start, eventually Mr. Sahai makes a breakthrough and young Michelle begins to communicate and behave much more normally. Some of this is touching--some utterly ridiculous.Now here is the plot twist. At the beginning of the film, before all these flashback scenes, you learn that Mr. Sahai (in the present time) no longer recognizes Michelle nor anyone. This is because he's developed Alzheimer's! Now, you see Michelle trying to communicate with and teach him. But, the film bounces around in time--and it starts at the present, goes back to Michelle at age 8, then about 20 and then about 40 (approximately). Now you see her applying to the university--and communicating up a storm! What's next? See this film as describing it's unconventional timeline is a bit difficult.I have a different insight into this film than the average viewer. I have a deaf daughter and I have seen "The Miracle Worker". While it does NOT make me an expert on working with the blind/deaf--but it does help me understand that a lot of what I saw in "Black" is a bit ridiculous. While Amitabh Bachchan is a wonderful actor (I've loved him in many other films and he IS good here), I kept thinking that the experts that consulted on this film didn't do a great job of getting it right. After all, he is supposed to be teaching a blind/deaf kid to communicate...so WHY DOES HE YELL AT THE KID?! And, why does he talk so much?! I know he's doing it to convey information to the viewer, but this is silly--a real teacher of the blind/deaf wouldn't do this and I think it would have been better if either you could have heard his character's thoughts OR if there had been subtitles explaining his actions. Simply yelling and talking non-stop when teaching a child like this make no sense at all. What he would have done (and it only happens some in this film) is to either draw letters with his fingers on her skin or do sign language as she felt his fingers. He should NOT talk at the kid...again and again and again!! Also, my deaf daughter never learned to talk as quickly as Michelle did in the film since she cannot hear what's being said--and this is true of anyone who is dead! Words like 'Ma' and 'teacher' would have been far, far more difficult to learn than you see here in "Black". How could Michelle learn this so quickly?! Now despite these serious problems, I am not saying "Black" is a bad film--just that it is very, very simplistic and not exactly realistic. I did enjoy it and recommend it--I just wished the filmmakers had done their homework a bit better. It is enjoyable and lovely to see and hear. It's also a bit unusual because (appropriately so) there are no song and dance numbers--something usually seen in Indian romantic dramas. But, most importantly, I loved the performance of Rani Mukerji as the adult Michelle--very nice and very inspiring.*Shimla is located in the far north-central part of India--north of Delhi and near the Kashmir region.

Definitely not the best movie from Bollywood. But definitely the finest performance from Bollywood ever. Both Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee - popular Indian actors in B/C grade movies did 'A' grade performance in this movie inspired by The Miracle Worker. The movie was rated by the Times Magazine as one of the top 10 movies in 2005 and there were many other rave reviews for this movie. Even then it is still a over the top Bollywood movie and cannot be compared to any movies from other Indian directors like Ray or Ghatak or Gopalkrishnan. But talking about performance - JUST WATCH THE MOVIE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT ACTORS CAN DO TO A MOVIE.

Wonderful photography and nicely acted this movie tells the story of perseverance bringing us into a new world covered by emptiness of being.The narrative is old fashioned which is a good thing, for the theme's harshness become sort of mild to swallow, and tastes good in the end.The best things in Black are the visual spectacles and the strong performance by Amitabh Bachchan, a veteran actor with the caliber of Alec Guiness, who might be remembered as the narrating voice in Lagan.A fine well constructed story that keeps dignity of not being a tearjerker as an appellative formula, specially judging the theme which usually tend to take that path.For the humble and the ever learner! Enjoy!