Change Your Image
rags18
Reviews
Ajnabee (2001)
Poor copy of Hollywood flick 'Consenting Adults' (1992) staring Kevin Spacey and Kevin Kline
Abbas-Mastan's movies are known to make suspense thrillers. Although the topic of wife swapping was a new theme for Indian Cinema.
Ajnabi too is a copy of Hollywood flick 'Consenting Adults' (1992) staring Kevin Spacey, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Kevin Kline.
Abbas-Mastan are known to lift stories from Hollywood movies.
Right from 'Bazzigar' (1993) to 'Race' (2007) are all copies. They try very hard though to add some Bollywood tinge, and get away very easily.
And in the process have won quite few awards successfully. There is nothing wrong to draw inspiration, but making straight copies frame to frame is not good.
Black (2005)
Black
Michelle McNally (Ayesha Kapur/ Rani Mukerjee) is blind, deaf and mute her helplessness and frustration leads to violent animal like behavior. Her father (Dhritiman Chatterjee) wants to send her to an institution, but her mother (Shernaz Patel) wants her to get a chance to live as normal a life as possible. A tutor Devraj Sahai (Amitabh Bachchan), alcoholic, rude and crotchety is brought in, and despite protests from the father, he takes the little girl under his wing and teaches her to communicate through touch and sign language.
When she grows up he fights to get her admitted to a regular college and backs her in her indomitable struggle to pass. As Michelle's love for him takes on a romantic/sexual fervor, Sahai also starts suffering from Alzheimer's disease and leaves her to cope on her own. Years later, she is confident and brave, while he is like a helpless child.
It's a story of the human spirit, but it is ultimately depressing. Michelle may have learned to express emotions in words on her Braille typewriter, but that still doesn't allow her to experience sights and sounds herself; nor is Alzheimer's 'curable'. But Black is a film of moments that either make the heart soar (when the child says "ma") or sink (when Sahai is chained to his bed like a beast).
Bhansali also goes a bit over the top with the melodrama (was the jealous sister necessary?) and the Gothic look of the McNally home (common sense would prevent people from leaving lit candles around with a blind child in the house), but little quibbles apart, it is a wonderful and fabulously shot (Ravi K Chandran) film. A large chunk of the credit for making the great moments come alive would go to Bhansali's actors. Rani Mukherjee is flawless, right from a waddling faltering gait to the myriad expressions flitting across her face.
Amitabh Bachchan just never ceases to amaze so finely tuned is his performance, whether it is as the rough and obstinate tutor or the doddering old man without a memory. These two should sweep all the awards next year. The little girl, Ayesha Kapur, who plays Michelle as a child is also splendid. Shernaz Patel and Dhritiman Chatterjee as the parents bring sensitivity and dignity to their parts. In a small ill-defined role of the sister, Nandana Dev Sen does well too.
Even though there is a lot of dialogue in English, and the film is slow paced, we need not underestimate our mass audience. This is the first time ever one heard applause after a film at a public screening.