Black & White: What does “Black & White” mean? Two colors? Two extremes? Two polarities? Obviously about contrasts, this movie epitomises the Black and White psyche - a psyche that refuses to see shades beyond the two. A mind that is literally color blind.
Subhash Ghai’s ‘Black And White’ is different from his previous movies in regard to its budget and paraphernalia. As he is known for big budget and usually high profile movies under his banner, this doesn’t match with his image. Besides, films made by him are based on popular subjects unlike the one in the movie under review. So, you might be anxious to know the reason behind this sudden change in his attitude? Well, there is indeed something behind it that doesn’t meet the eye.
A standing ovation for Subhash Ghai for venturing into a territory that would be considered uninviting for an escapist entertainer. But “Black & White” doesn’t impress you merely because it’s a daring deviation for the showman.
It’s a well crafted, finely written and packaged piece of cinema done with more heartfelt Gandhian articulations than most films in recent times that have merchandized Mahatma Gandhi in Munna Bhai tones of bubblegum philosophy.
You don’t often come away from a film disturbed yet hopeful about the distending dimensions of modern day violence and terrorism. We did it in Mani Ratnam’s “Dil Se”, Gulzar’s “Maachis” and Santosh Sivan’s “Terrorist”. Now we feel a genuine concern for the collapse of Gandhi’s secular dream in India as Chandni Chowk, rapidly becoming a favorite haunting-ground for Hindi moviemakers, turns into a bustling hotbed of terrorist activities.
Into this arena of imposed constitutional caprices comes Numer Qazi (Anurag Sinha), a victim of atrocities in Afghanistan posing as a casualty of the Gujarat riots. After a stage-managed gun battle in the toasted-brown hinterland of Delhi, the seething simmering silent Numer wins over the super-secular Professor Mathur (Anil Kapoor) and his feisty wife Roma (Shefali Shah) and gets himself a pass into the VIP enclave for the Republic Day parade.
The movie’s story revolves around Rajan Mathur played by Anil Kapoor who resides in Chandni Chowk with his activist wife Roma played by Shefali Shah. Mathur, a professor in Urdu literature, meets Numair played by Anurag Sinha. Though the latter is a suicide bomber commissioned by a Muslim fundamentalist group to detonate a bomb near Red Fort on August 15th, he claims to be a victim of Gujarat communal riots. The professor trusts Numair and provides him shelter in his house. While helping Numair to get an entry pass for 15th August celebrations at Red Fort, Mathur introduces Numair to his Chandni Chowk friends. Luckily, the warmth and colorful lives of Old Dilliwallahs prevails on the suicide bomber and he has second thought on his mission but in vain. However, the young man remains confused now. Thus, Ghai looks deep into the psyche of a human bomb and a fanatic missionary who listens to his inner conscience, telling him to revolt against his ‘masters’. This transformation is very well depicted on screen under the guidance of the showman that Subhash Ghai is par excellence.
Luckily, the warmth and colorful lives of Old Dilliwallahs prevails on the suicide bomber and he has second thought on his mission but in vain. However, the young man remains confused now. Thus, Ghai looks deep into the psyche of a human bomb and a fanatic missionary who listens to his inner conscience, telling him to revolt against his ‘masters’. This transformation is very well depicted on screen under the guidance of the showman that Subhash Ghai is par excellence.
But ‘Black & White’ is not without its weak spots. Not every detail by Ghai is a masterpiece by the master showman, some bits in fact seem very amateur but some really stand out as master strokes.
The romantic track comes like a sore thumb. Besides, the reasons that change the fanatic’s thinking aren’t too convincing. Apart from this, from Shefali’s brutal murder to her last rites coupled with Anil and Anurag’s entry into the Red Fort, aren’t dramatic enough to attract the viewer’s attention. We wish Ghai had paid a little more attention to this. Among the strong points are the events leading to Anurag’s confronting Milind Gunaji and assaulting him brutally. Here, Ghai rises beyond the script. Most of all, Sukhwinder Singh’s music has a soothing effect. Jogi Aaya and Main Chala are melodious compositions. Somak Mukherjee’s camera captures the bylanes of Delhi excellently. Dialogues are well worded in the Old Delhi style.
Much of Ghai’s newspaper-generated politics is amateurish and simplistic. The terrorists and the intelligence wing look as terrifying and intelligent as an episode of the long-running TV serial “CID”. And Anil-Shefali’s little daughter is mute….shades of Black??
Everyone bustles around looking brilliantly self-absorbed while pretending to be wedded to a greater cause of which they seem to know as little as the director.
However, what makes “Black & White” special are the bonds, brittle or beefy, that form out of the sketchy political backdrop.
Ghai fills the centre of the plot with people who have the ability to reach out to each other within a social framework that is rapidly romancing dementia.
Most memorable of all is the old but fiery Muslim poet-professor, played with hungering humility by veteran actor Habib Tanvir. The film’s best and most moving lines are rightfully written for him.
In one sequence a young musician gifts the old man with a sherwani after having sold his poetry for a song. Habib recalls how in all his years no one, not even his own sons, had gifted him anything. In another sequence, a callow news anchor approaches Habib for a byte and he wonders, “Ab mujhe kisse bite karna hoga?” (Whom would I have to bite now?)
This interesting character’s sense of betrayal for having unknowingly harbored a hardcore terrorist in his house never comes through.
The screenplay is littered with limp and half-finished loops of storytelling where the director seems to have lost his way, only to quickly get his plot back on its foot through some sharp lines. Ghai’s dialogues are spicy and hard-hitting, and Somak Mukherjee’s cinematography captures the tragic decadence and teeming colours of Old Delhi to create both romance and intrigue.
The interplay of relationships is restrained most of the time. Anil and Shefali look more like a couple than she and Darshan Jariwala did in “Gandhi My Father”. Her excessively enthusiastic activism and his chronic embarrassment at his wife’s overzealous flag-waving provide the lighter moments in this distinctly dark drama of secular devaluation in a society with complexities due to differences between various religious groups.
Ghai doesn’t delve deeply into those complexities. Whether it is out of choice or because he cannot, we do not know. But the lightness of treatment and the overt filminess of certain interludes lends a tangy vigour to what would otherwise have been a drab prosaic and polemical tale of strife during times of mordant cynicism.
Among the performers, Habib with his emotional patriotic poetry and jovial optimism scores the highest marks, followed by Shefali who furnishes a feisty positivism to her role. Anil, last seen donning the buffoon’s mask in “Welcome”, does a complete somersault. His character of a supremely secular Hindu devoting himself to teaching Urdu is wildly idealistic. He plays the role of Mathur at a high pitch.
As for debutant Anurag, in the central role of the closet-terrorist, he wears the sullen scowl as a passionate statement from the first frame to last. To see what else he is capable of, we shall have to wait till another Friday.
Incidentally, Ghai had planned to return to filmdom with a bang and via ‘Yuvraj’, but changed his mind in favor of ‘Black And White’. So, he decided to rush the movie even if he had to convert this into a small budget and with less paraphernalia though unusual in Mukta banner movies.
In spite of a new genre of a movie coupled with a meager budget and newcomers’ cast, Subhash’s direction and production did lend the movie the high prestige and excellence that could be the envy of any of today’s filmmakers. ‘Black & White’ has proved the versatility of the showman in handling the subject with maturity. A critic colleague says that some of the scenes leave an indelible impression.
Anil Kapoor proves his versatility again. Ghai has made several newcomers as stars, not in the distant past. Now, Anurag is another addition to the long list. Shifaali Shah is excellent despite her brief role. Aditi doesn’t get much scope. The senior citizen is first-rate. Aroon Bakshi is efficient. Milind Gunaji does a good job.
On the whole, ‘Black & White’ is a laudable work of an ever-successful director. He needs word of mouth publicity, though. Then, the movie would attract its target audience at multiplexes, in particular.
