You r welcome! to join. identity crisis I guess

BLACK is better than SHABD, although I'm not bothered by the commercial success or failure of either.

Here is my opinion which normally tends to differ to most people on these forums.

BLACK, in terms of its story, acting, visuals, etc is a MASTERPIECE. It excels on every level, and connects the viewer with what it must be like to be deaf and blind.

However, the film is dull, slow and emotionally draining. Like someone commented before me, its too "English". I prefer Bollywood films to be like VEER ZARA, exhibiting Indian culture. If I wanted to see "English"-type films, I have plenty of choice living in UK.

Like many artistic films, it does leave a mark on the viewers... But, I don't think I will see it again in a hurry.

I feel disappointed when people put down DEVDAS when comparing Bhansali's work. DEVDAS was a Monument of Love - I saw it 7 times in the cinema, week after week, before it went off. Do we have to put down one film to validate another? Both Black and Devdas are good films. Devdas is presented in a very grandeur style, but it still connects very deeply with the processes of love and tragedy. It need not be ridiculed in order to glorify KHAMOSHI or BLACK, which are perhaps more artistic, but dull and have less repeat value.

Rita, I would advise you to definately see BLACK if you haven't done so already. I would be interested in your comments on DEVDAS if you have seen it....

How would you compare Khamoshi vs Black, armaan! besides, possible technical advantage based on time frame?

I didn't connect very well with KHAMOSHI at all and got bored during many scenes and songs. Seeing Helen dancing was the highlight of the film for me.

BLACK, despite not being a typical "beautiful" "romantic" "musical" type of Bollywood film I normally go for, touched me deeply. Its well ahead of its time, and of Hollywood standard. Despite the limitation of the theme, I was very "engaged" with the plot throughout the film.

It think it was the trauma of losing someone you love that touched me most in HUM DIL DE CHUKE SANAM and DEVDAS. In Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, there is a scene in which Aishwariya slashes her wrists and there is blood in the fountain. The pain and the emotion in that scene was amazing. In Devdas, there is the scene in which Shah Rukh is carrying Aishwariya's "Doli" against the backdrop of "Hamesha Tumko Chaha". Melodrama... Perhaps, but so moving!!

BLACK did "touch" me in a diffferent way. More than anything, it stretches the imagination of the viewer, as most of us have no idea what it must be like to be deaf and dumb from birth.

In summary, I definately preferred BLACK to KHAMOSHI.

Finally caught BLACK today on the big screen and am happy for it. The first half is certainly full of melodrama. SLB needs to become more restrained. He did the same in KHAMOSHI. He has a tendency to go over the top in the treatment of any subject he chooses. If he wants to make movies of international stature, he has to learn restraint !!! Sure one can argue that these are the ways of Indian sensibilities and I shall beg to differ till kingdom come, thank you!

Performances are outstanding...I think AB glows in his role...his eyes take on a glint of either a tired old man or that of a youth having found something....he is in one word superb! Rani Mukherjee stands up to him and delivers an astonishing piece of acting.....her glazed 'dead' look is simply haunting....seen to be believed....the little girl Ayesha Kapoor playing the smaller Michelle is just as good. Every supporting actor does his/her bit and pitches in beautifully ! Particularly pleasing is Nandana Sen as Sara, Michelle's sister.

The cinematography by Ravi Chandran is breathtaking. The art design superb(have to look up the credits to find out who did that). Simla looks and feels like how it must have been in the 1920s. The story is different and stimulating and I loved the dialogues.

SLB is courageous to have done this so close on the heels of the success of DEVDAS, but I will not give him full marks as far as direction is concerned. He certainly gets honours, but has to mellow yet in his interpretation.

Reason for Black's non-success at the Box Office is due to its release at the wrong place. It should have released outside India only. There is plenty of English dialogues in the film, lots of narrative could have been in English, the remainder 10% of the dialogues could have been with English sub-titles and presto, you have a film fit to compete in the World. Oscar material.

If the English version does as well as BILB, SLB will recover 100 times it's cost and in India they are struggling to recover even a fraction of its cost.

Some excerpts from
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... s~to~Big~B

Black gives new colours to Big B

"Or when Cathy Meade of BBC wrote a long and utterly insightful critique on the film.... She says she's determined to take the film to the Oscars.Though that wasn't the goal I had set for Black - the film has surpassed all my expectations on every count - it seems the unanimous feeling that Black should get an Oscar."

Meade has written, "Your performance can only be described as that of the magician, the alchemist that transforms everything he touches... What is most wonderful for me is that the role not only allows some truly magical expression of your artistry and creativity but also captures something onscreen that can only come from your own soul."


"But it's finally the magic of Sanjay Leela Bhansali that transforms the film and all the performances into something that has swayed audiences all over into a collective appreciation of cinema and life."

Reports of Black picking up day by day in India are also trickling in. It has been declared commision earner in some ckts. And wait for the windfall when it gets its deserved Entertainment Tax exemption.

Readon as to what a fan did.

The link to the below article is :http://ww1.mid-day.com/hitlist/2005/february/103714.htm

Bollywood red at Black ad
By: Ami Cholia
February 16, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Fan’atical zeal or pure, instinctive response to a wonderful film?

Whatever might be the case, moviegoer Sunil Seth’s full page advertisement in the Mid Day (Feb 15) exhorting one and all to “please go and see Black” has sent the fur flying in the film industry.

Controversially, Seth, who paid Rs 80,000 to try and get people into theatres does so at the expense of some of Bollywood’s most successful filmmakers. In his unscathing reviewer’s zeal, he rubbishes Munnabhai… Main Hoon Na, Murder, Ab Tak Chappan, Dhoom, Tere Naam, Kisna and a host of others as “mediocre”.

“Where was the need to write disparaging remarks about other directors?

Is he trying to tell readers that they are a**holes by watching films like Main Hoon Na and Munnabhai and making them successful? Who is he to be the moral police anyway?



Is he trying to tell readers that they are a**holes by watching films like Main Hoon Na and Munnabhai
— Farah Khan
Just because a movie is entertaining does it make it a bad film? Do movies have to be boring to be termed good?” asked a livid Farah Khan, director of last year’s biggie Main Hoon Na.

“Please tell Mr Seth that I’ll make a better film for him next time,” said Munnabhai director Raju Hirani, undecided whether he should be amused or peeved.

Sanjay Gadvi, director of last year’s sleeper hit Dhoom, was more circumspect. Calling the ad “a silly gesture by a fan,” he said he had nothing to prove with Dhoom.

“We have made the money. Nobody said Dhoom was meant to be this brilliant story. It doesn’t deserve to win national awards. Having said that, I think Black is a brilliant film and 98 percent of the directors are probably wishing they could be Sanjay Leela Bhansali,” he added.



Our standards for Hindi cinema are so low, that I wanted to push people to go and watch a great film. It bugs me
— Sunil Seth
As the word about the ad spread, the reactions got heated. None more virulent than Mahesh Bhatt— producer of Muder and Rog, the other film named in the ad— who refused to accept that the ad was not a publicity gimmick by the producers of Black.

“It’s a desperate attempt by a man to tell himself and the world that he is the best. If mediocrity could get me a box office success like Murder then that is what I aspire for. What will I do with attributed brilliance from dunderhead critics? I want instant gratification and not immortality.

Let posterity be quoted by the so-called brilliant people. (sic)”

So irate was Bhatt that he kept calling repeatedly to add to his quotes. Murder director Anurag Basu added: “Can Sanjay Leela Bhansali make a film for two-three crores? Forget making that film a hit?”

Bhansali himself, caught between great embarrassment and delight, said that the first he heard of the ad was when Amitabh Bachchan called him up. “I was completely shocked. I was moved by the gesture, because nothing like this has ever happened before.

Here we wanted a full-page ad and couldn’t afford it because of budget constraints and a well wisher did it for us.

On the other hand, I couldn’t fully enjoy the moment because my colleagues have been put down and that was embarrassing. I want them to know that by no means was I involved with this or trying to disgrace them,” he said.

But the last word must belong to Sunil Seth who saw the film on his birthday and was so moved that he felt he had to rally other film-watchers behind it.

“A lot of people think (without seeing it) that Black is boring…Our standards for Hindi cinema are so low, that I wanted to push people to go out and watch a great film. It really bugs me that people think films like Veer Zara, Main Hoon Na etc. are good,” he said, sounding pleased with his day’s work.

mailto:amic@mid-day.com

The Seth’s chronicles

This is not the fist time that Seth who runs an advertising firm called Sunny with branches at Fountain and Andheri, has advertised his opinions in print. Previous occasions when he did so include:

After JRD Tata’s death, Seth issued an ad for a move to rename the Mumbai airport after the business icon.

Just days before Harshad Mehta was booked for fraud, Seth had placed an advisory, asking people not invest their money with him, because he was a “crook”.

During the Mumbai riots he put out an ad against the summary transfer of the then police commissioner AS Samra.

What the ad says...


If you have watched & ‘liked’ Munnabhai MBBS, Main Hoon Na, Murder, Ab Tak Chappan, Girlfriend, Dhoom, Tere Naam, Kisna, Mujhse Shaadi Karoge, Hulchul, Julie, Rog.... Then please go & watch BLACK

And you’ll know the difference between a mediocre and a brilliant film. A disclaimer then adds that the ad is not paid for by producers of Black

With all the songs and shortcomings, I would dare to admit that I enjoyed Khamoshi and Sadma immensely and would watch it again.

Black may not be worth repeated viewing, but is a MUST SEE AT LEAST ONCE. For All. Some do want to see it again as they can't get over some sequence/ sequences.
Black is a serious cinema at its best.
The only light moment in Black is the scene that you see in all the publicity pictures and TV commercials. AB and Rani sitting on a bench and a few snow flurries. Even this light scene is a masterpiece.

I will add masterpiece KOSHISH to that too. I dont remember if there were any songs in this film?

Black will be showing in Ottawa's AMC-24 from Feb 18 in regular shows.

Black definitely is picking up day by day. Can't be a flop. Trade reports that called it a flop earlier, are calling it commision earner now. Just wait, soon it will be upgraded to Hit category. One report already declared it to have achieved CULT CLASSIC status. I think Sholay is the only other Indian film in cult classic status.

Cult classic !! hmm!! you mean only for visually impaireds? Just kidding!