School holidays. Long holidays never fails to bore me to death. So out of unbearable boredom, I went to a video store to rent some DVDs; I chose 5 films; Liar Liar (Jim Carrey), Sounds of Music (Julie Andrews, Andrew Plummer), Upin and Ipin: Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula, Wong Fei Hung (Jet Li) and Black (Rani Mukherjee, Amitabh Bachan). I have watched them all, except for Wong Fei Hung and Black. Yeah...quite a diverse taste; many people told me that too.
Liar Liar is a typical Jim Carrey movie, Sounds of Music never fails to make me sing along with the songs, Upin and Ipin is helplessly cute, Wong Fei Hung fails to grab my attention, I actually stopped watching it after 10 minutes - it could be a different story if Bobby Au Yeung is in it; too bad he didn't and BLACK....
I am never a fan of any of the casts in the film. I have watched many of Rani Mukherjee and Amitabh Bachan films (Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum), Dil Bole Hadippa, Amar Akbar Anthony, Sholay, etc, but nothing beats BLACK.
BLACK is about a girl named Michelle (Rani Mukherjee) who was blind, deaf and mute (maybe partially mute). Her world was completely in darkness and in silence. She referred to her childhood as 'being an animal in a human's body'. Nothing could pin her down. She ate by walking around the table and grabbed a handful of food and fed herself. She created a new problem everyday; from throwing her baby sister out of her little basket to setting up fire on the dining table. She was not to be blamed though, at least by her tender-loving mother, but her father was beginning to lose his cool. Obviously the parents' frustrations were almost unbearable, but the mother was still holding on to any little drop of patience that she still had, while the father was about to consider sending the poor Michelle to a mental institution, simply taking her own daughter for being mentally-retarded.
But the mother's patience persists. She contacted a woman, Miss Nair, who runs a special school for physically-challenged children. Miss Nair has a teacher, Mr Sahai (Amitabh Bachan) who believes in miracles. Mr Sahai's dedication and love for his students are completely incomparable, though he did feel a little upset that his students (all either blind, deaf or mute) stood and wave to another direction than his own, when he was leaving the school. When told that Michelle's mother needs his service, Mr Sahai jumped into the opportunity at once and began his work with the little girl.
His unconventional ways of teaching was misunderstood by Michelle's parents, because he seemed to be harsh and forceful. But when he managed to teach Michelle to sign for her parents, he proved that Michelle actually can learn things and the parents began to accept him in their household, making him part of the family and allowing him to take over the responsibility as Michelle's primary caregiver.
And the magician put himself at work at all costs. Michelle grew up into a fine young lady who behaved at the dining table, who understands words and communicates well with people around her. She even qualified to enter a university and became an art student. Mr Sahai glued himself to her and helped her with great patience and made himself available to her day and night.
But even before Michelle passed her first year (Michelle actually spent over 3 years to pass the first year alone), Mr Sahai realized that not only he's getting older, he began to forget many things, like how to leave the room that he just entered or who was the principal of Michelle's college. His illness made his ambition grew stronger, that he wanted Michelle to obtain a degree and be independent before he lost his mind altogether.
The time came when Michelle's sister, Sara, was about to marry a man. They went to the church where the wedding was held and as Mr Sahai recited the event to Michelle, she began to feel something was missing in her life. She wanted to be a woman, and not just a girl. She didn't understand the word 'kiss' when the priest said, "Now you may kiss the bride".
After the wedding, she went to Mr Sahai's bedroom and asked him to kiss her. It was not clear to me; was she really in love with the teacher, or she just wanted to know how it's like to be kissed by a man. I supposed even though Mr Sahai refused to kiss her, he finally obliged for perhaps, worried that Michelle would ask just anyone to kiss her, to find out how it's like. Or maybe he's worried that his illness would prevent Michelle from knowing things that any young lady would know. So he kissed her on her lips.
Michelle considered the kiss to be an honour for a lady, but Mr Sahai felt so guilty, as if he had taken advantage of the innocent girl. So that very night, Mr Sahai left the place, leaving only a piece of letter, telling Michelle to never give up in life and move on with her life. Michelle was so broken-hearted, for the teacher has been the only hope, dream, sound and light in her life. Now with the teacher gone, her life has gone back to darkness and silence.
But she followed the final advice; she went on with her studies, and at the age of 40, she was graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Arts.
After 12 years of not seeing Mr Sahai, suddenly he appeared again. He sat at the waterfall in front of Michelle's house, in a very saddening condition. He had lost his memory completely and had forgotten Michelle. They took him to a doctor who confirmed him for having Alzheimer's. His memory was erased from his brain like a duster erasing a blackboard. Michelle was very happy that Mr Sahai had returned, but felt responsible for returning him to who he was before. So she began teaching him the way he taught her before.
The story ended that way. I was alone watching the movie at 3am in the morning, and glad nobody saw my tears.
Unlike any other Hindi films, BLACK does not have any song, no sweet-romantic lines, no handsome and mind-blowing looks on any of the actors, no unmatchable dance, no taking-off-your-clothes and no unnecessary clown acts. This film is completely relying on the story and the strength of its casts.
I think all actors and actresses acted extremely well, including the sidekicks. The actress who played Michelle's mother managed to scream her emotions and break my heart into pieces when she talked to Michelle on the phone as Michelle told her that she failed her first year exam again.
Amitabh Bachan strikes me to my greatest shock of all time when he actually kissed Rani. It was less than 3 seconds, but I have not seen him doing such scene before. He always play the proper and prim character, even as a thief. Amitabh actually learnt sign language to play the character of Mr Sahai...what a commitment. That's what I called dedication. And he signed all the words smoothly, almost effortlessly. He truly lived up to his reputation in the film industry.
But the biggest praise goes to Rani Mukherjee. I don't think anyone could play the character better than her, not even Madhuri Dixit, not even Aishwarya Rai. Throughout the film, she made herself to be Michelle up to a point you believe that Michelle is Rani and Rani is Michelle. The way she walked (though perhaps copying Charlie Chaplin) and the way she produced partially-correct pronunciation of words, her facial expressions, etc. Everything about her was portrayed with complete perfection and she deserved the Best Actress award. And this is still not too much to say that among all the recipients of Best Actress awards in all filmy events, I think Rani Mukherjee is best among them, taking BLACK as a benchmark of acting.
I have not seen any movie that could touch me straight into the deepest core of my heart. Being a movie freak, I watched Dicey Business (produced by TVB with Bobby Au Yeung as main lead), I have watched Titanic, I have watched thousands of movies of various languages (Malay, English, Cantonese, Hindi, Arabic, Tamil, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, German and French), but nothing was comparable to BLACK. In shallow appearance, BLACK could be too simple, but it was the greatest winner. I must say, BLACK is the best movie I have ever watched, throughout my movie-watching experience so far. Even though BLACK is a re-make of a Hollywood movie (The Miracle Worker, 1962), it was full of human touch, making it watchable across all ethnicity, region, languages, etc. I only have one word to describe BLACK - inspiring.
Kudos to BLACK production team; Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rani Mukherjee, Amitabh Bachan, and all who has helped in the production of the most beautiful movie of the century.
Liar Liar is a typical Jim Carrey movie, Sounds of Music never fails to make me sing along with the songs, Upin and Ipin is helplessly cute, Wong Fei Hung fails to grab my attention, I actually stopped watching it after 10 minutes - it could be a different story if Bobby Au Yeung is in it; too bad he didn't and BLACK....
I am never a fan of any of the casts in the film. I have watched many of Rani Mukherjee and Amitabh Bachan films (Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum), Dil Bole Hadippa, Amar Akbar Anthony, Sholay, etc, but nothing beats BLACK.
BLACK is about a girl named Michelle (Rani Mukherjee) who was blind, deaf and mute (maybe partially mute). Her world was completely in darkness and in silence. She referred to her childhood as 'being an animal in a human's body'. Nothing could pin her down. She ate by walking around the table and grabbed a handful of food and fed herself. She created a new problem everyday; from throwing her baby sister out of her little basket to setting up fire on the dining table. She was not to be blamed though, at least by her tender-loving mother, but her father was beginning to lose his cool. Obviously the parents' frustrations were almost unbearable, but the mother was still holding on to any little drop of patience that she still had, while the father was about to consider sending the poor Michelle to a mental institution, simply taking her own daughter for being mentally-retarded.
But the mother's patience persists. She contacted a woman, Miss Nair, who runs a special school for physically-challenged children. Miss Nair has a teacher, Mr Sahai (Amitabh Bachan) who believes in miracles. Mr Sahai's dedication and love for his students are completely incomparable, though he did feel a little upset that his students (all either blind, deaf or mute) stood and wave to another direction than his own, when he was leaving the school. When told that Michelle's mother needs his service, Mr Sahai jumped into the opportunity at once and began his work with the little girl.
His unconventional ways of teaching was misunderstood by Michelle's parents, because he seemed to be harsh and forceful. But when he managed to teach Michelle to sign for her parents, he proved that Michelle actually can learn things and the parents began to accept him in their household, making him part of the family and allowing him to take over the responsibility as Michelle's primary caregiver.
And the magician put himself at work at all costs. Michelle grew up into a fine young lady who behaved at the dining table, who understands words and communicates well with people around her. She even qualified to enter a university and became an art student. Mr Sahai glued himself to her and helped her with great patience and made himself available to her day and night.
But even before Michelle passed her first year (Michelle actually spent over 3 years to pass the first year alone), Mr Sahai realized that not only he's getting older, he began to forget many things, like how to leave the room that he just entered or who was the principal of Michelle's college. His illness made his ambition grew stronger, that he wanted Michelle to obtain a degree and be independent before he lost his mind altogether.
The time came when Michelle's sister, Sara, was about to marry a man. They went to the church where the wedding was held and as Mr Sahai recited the event to Michelle, she began to feel something was missing in her life. She wanted to be a woman, and not just a girl. She didn't understand the word 'kiss' when the priest said, "Now you may kiss the bride".
After the wedding, she went to Mr Sahai's bedroom and asked him to kiss her. It was not clear to me; was she really in love with the teacher, or she just wanted to know how it's like to be kissed by a man. I supposed even though Mr Sahai refused to kiss her, he finally obliged for perhaps, worried that Michelle would ask just anyone to kiss her, to find out how it's like. Or maybe he's worried that his illness would prevent Michelle from knowing things that any young lady would know. So he kissed her on her lips.
Michelle considered the kiss to be an honour for a lady, but Mr Sahai felt so guilty, as if he had taken advantage of the innocent girl. So that very night, Mr Sahai left the place, leaving only a piece of letter, telling Michelle to never give up in life and move on with her life. Michelle was so broken-hearted, for the teacher has been the only hope, dream, sound and light in her life. Now with the teacher gone, her life has gone back to darkness and silence.
But she followed the final advice; she went on with her studies, and at the age of 40, she was graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Arts.
After 12 years of not seeing Mr Sahai, suddenly he appeared again. He sat at the waterfall in front of Michelle's house, in a very saddening condition. He had lost his memory completely and had forgotten Michelle. They took him to a doctor who confirmed him for having Alzheimer's. His memory was erased from his brain like a duster erasing a blackboard. Michelle was very happy that Mr Sahai had returned, but felt responsible for returning him to who he was before. So she began teaching him the way he taught her before.
The story ended that way. I was alone watching the movie at 3am in the morning, and glad nobody saw my tears.
Unlike any other Hindi films, BLACK does not have any song, no sweet-romantic lines, no handsome and mind-blowing looks on any of the actors, no unmatchable dance, no taking-off-your-clothes and no unnecessary clown acts. This film is completely relying on the story and the strength of its casts.
I think all actors and actresses acted extremely well, including the sidekicks. The actress who played Michelle's mother managed to scream her emotions and break my heart into pieces when she talked to Michelle on the phone as Michelle told her that she failed her first year exam again.
Amitabh Bachan strikes me to my greatest shock of all time when he actually kissed Rani. It was less than 3 seconds, but I have not seen him doing such scene before. He always play the proper and prim character, even as a thief. Amitabh actually learnt sign language to play the character of Mr Sahai...what a commitment. That's what I called dedication. And he signed all the words smoothly, almost effortlessly. He truly lived up to his reputation in the film industry.
But the biggest praise goes to Rani Mukherjee. I don't think anyone could play the character better than her, not even Madhuri Dixit, not even Aishwarya Rai. Throughout the film, she made herself to be Michelle up to a point you believe that Michelle is Rani and Rani is Michelle. The way she walked (though perhaps copying Charlie Chaplin) and the way she produced partially-correct pronunciation of words, her facial expressions, etc. Everything about her was portrayed with complete perfection and she deserved the Best Actress award. And this is still not too much to say that among all the recipients of Best Actress awards in all filmy events, I think Rani Mukherjee is best among them, taking BLACK as a benchmark of acting.
I have not seen any movie that could touch me straight into the deepest core of my heart. Being a movie freak, I watched Dicey Business (produced by TVB with Bobby Au Yeung as main lead), I have watched Titanic, I have watched thousands of movies of various languages (Malay, English, Cantonese, Hindi, Arabic, Tamil, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, German and French), but nothing was comparable to BLACK. In shallow appearance, BLACK could be too simple, but it was the greatest winner. I must say, BLACK is the best movie I have ever watched, throughout my movie-watching experience so far. Even though BLACK is a re-make of a Hollywood movie (The Miracle Worker, 1962), it was full of human touch, making it watchable across all ethnicity, region, languages, etc. I only have one word to describe BLACK - inspiring.
Kudos to BLACK production team; Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rani Mukherjee, Amitabh Bachan, and all who has helped in the production of the most beautiful movie of the century.
No comments:
Post a Comment