rani_black

rani_black, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

B L A C K

I happened to see Black today at MAAYAJAL ,a resort cum multiplex along the south east coast of India ...which is more popularly known as East Coast road , around 5 km's from office. We had a project party and we could chose any of the movies running there at 5 pm.60% of our team went to watch "shall we dance " and the rest were divided between 'Mayavi' and Black.

I am so glad I happened to watch the movie,which really had me in tears...at the end of the movie. Rani mukherji and amitabh bachan have performed exceedingly well in this guru-shishya story.The story is nestled amidst the lovely winter of shimla,the vintage buildings,lush green environs and the famous Ridge (a.k.a CHURCH).It reminded me so much of my trip last year to kullu manali where we stopped in shimla for a day.

The movie is really captivating.It shows how a blind person learns to slowly be independent after her teacher leaves her and works hard at her long cherished goal even after repeated failures.. I thought it was a beautiful movie about human dignity and not treating people with disabilities as mentally retarded or as people who cannot take on life with courage and strength even though deep in their heart they may regret that they cant live a normal life.

This was more so exemplified when Rani mukherjee, at her sister's wedding expreses her feelings to her teacher,whether she would anytime know what it is to fall in love,what it is to have someone kissing her on her lips. Amitabh's reactions seem so spontaneous in the movie after rani ..expresses here feelings.

He initially feels it may be wrong to kiss her,because if someone see's that , they would think , as a teacher amithab had crossed the limit and had taken advantage of Rani's blindness. But he thinks....thinks again...should he really think about what the community thinks or should he really grant ,what his student asks him for.....on whom he has spent 18 long years of toil from making her express heR feelings...to dance and now to graduate... and that final second where he does kiss her to show her what it feels to be loved and kissed, to me remained the best scene of the movie ...which though had very little words being spoken,but a lot could be understood from the spontaneity of the amitab and rani.

To me , this movie really gave an insight into a blind person's life,their inner struggle within themselves,their little emotions which they want to convey .

I generally like movies that are based on memories,flashbacks where a charecter lives to tell his/her tale on how they felt when they were young ...and feeling those emotions after a long period of time ..really gives a sense of satisfaction ..or to put it succintly MOVIES WITH THE THEME OF TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE ....

Some of the earlier similar themes based movies ,of the ones I liked were Titanic,Veer Zaara,Autograph and now Black , all of which have a thread of going back in time, remembering the "those were the days" kind of themes.