It's inky blackness beckons

I was determined not to write about SLB's Black here. Not because the film was anything but fabulous but because it was an intensely personal experience. And am tired of defending liking a film for liking it.

Its a visual treat.. the film...its dark.. brooding and temperamental. A fading bulb held by someone who is slowly going blind.. a white ball rolling across glossy, dark mahagony floor.. the verdant grass with a spot of colour of red petunia.. visually the film is almost flawless. The very colours of life are vividly represented on the screen. Black (what else?) is a colour used with great dexterity with grey, white, blue and green to blend in with it.

Costumes and sound mesh with the visual theme with melancholy gripping you from the first line said. Despair is unavoidable, even welcome.

This movies has many shades of 'Khamoshi - the musical'(the director's directorial debut) but this one is undoubtedly slicker. I guess he has learned the art of packaging and gift wrapping. Of course, though the theme is same, the story and the treatment is different as black and white. Parallels like churches for solace, sign language for relief and enough tender moments to bring huge lumps in collective throats - Black is a superb film.

The story, like most good films, is simple. A little Michelle -blind and deaf- (Ayesha Kapur/Rani Mukherji) is learning to cope with life among the seen and the heard, almost like a retard. In comes Debraj Sahai (Amitabh Bachchan) and teaches her and her family how to communicate with each (with sign language and the comfort of touch).

Her goal to become a Graduate in Arts , that too, in a world that is cruelly unaccepting of her shortcomings but time and time again she proves her herself and her teacher's teachings. Despite the slow pace and the certainty of story, you constantly brace for that moment when teacher will leave his pupil to move on and yet when it happens, it unfolds so seamlessly that..well have no words here.

Relationships are always a major element in Bhansali's films. This film, too, is not very different. Mother- daughter; mother-and other daughter; husband-wife. All are very well etched out. The scene where the younger sister Sara (a very stiff Nandana Sen) is listing moments how she always let her elder sister Michelle down and the very next moment Michelle's reasons (through Sahai's reading) for loving her younger sister show the antithesis of that relationship. The younger one who always felt neglected because she was normal. Her achievements that never counted.

Bachchan is a tad over the top and Ayesha Kapur, despite a great performance for a ten year old, is still not above Rani Mukherjee who is undoubtedly the star of the movie. A controlled, relentless and touching performance will probably make this movie her landmark performance.