Nerve Endings Firing Away

I will not even venture into a long drawn review of Black, the movie currently attracting crowds at the local multiplex because it has been done eruditely elsewhere. In one line — I loved the movie. One of Bollywood’s interesting experiments that seem to have its heart in the right place and not succumbing to commercial aspirations, Black emotes unabashedly. Few moments that made my Black experience enjoyable:

• One of the best opening sequences; Rani Mukherjee’s introduction to her world.
• Brilliant lighting in most of the scenes with hardly any panning to disturb the serene look of Michelle’s home; a movie made entirely of individual crafted frames that seamlessly merge to form a unified motion picture.
• A mother’s silent angst at her husband’s impatience only supplemented by her refusal to let the teacher take over her role as a primary caregiver.
• Ayesha Kapoor, playing the role of young Michelle upstaging the Big B in a display of pure acting prowess.
• Clash of stubbornness that sometimes seems to make you impatient.
• Michelle’s weird dance and funny walk almost like subtle homage to Charlie Chaplain (notice the Chaplain poster in the ice-cream jaunt scene).
• Relieved joy when Michelle finally learns the meaning of water by being dunked in the fountain.
• One of the rare movies without a romantic main plot and not many subplots or characters to distract you from the protagonist; the little ones involving a sister’s jealousy, a girl’s transition to womanhood, and academic frustrations seemed to be directly related to the main plot.
• Subtle reference to a disabled person’s sexuality; a thought that rarely crosses our mind. Barring a couple of giggling idiots, the entire theatre was silent during the Rani-Amitabh kiss.
• Complete silence almost pregnant with choked emotions during Michelle’s graduation speech was broken only by a woman’s loud sobbing, which let others crack up a little, effectively letting them wipe off their tears secretly.
• The only movie I have been to where the audience applauded at the end.

Enjoy Black if you haven’t yet.