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Black & White

Movie Black & White Director Subhash Ghai Producer Subhash Ghai Music Sukhwinder Singh Cast Anil Kapoor, Shifaali Shah, Anurag Sinha

Sonia Chopra

When showman Subhash Ghai makes a directorial comeback after five years with a film thrashing fundamentalism with a sober-sounding name like Black and White, you wonder its outcome. You try to guess where he must have incorporated his cannot-do-withouts –grandeur-laden sets, expensive dance videos, beautiful heroines with flying hair and at least one NRI connection. Thankfully none of these are insinuated in the film. When Ghai attempts to make his film on a subject he believes in, he marches ahead with full alacrity, but on the way, loses out the one quality that has him so famous – entertainment. While most will laud Ghai for picking a topical and undauntedly important issue, it is no doubt that the subject overwhelms the film and absence of any light-hearted relief will upset the audience. Junaid (Anurag Sinha), a brooding Afghani young man is sent on a mission to India. This strapping suicide bomber is given an alias and a false background. Disguised as Numair Kazi whose parents were burnt alive in the Gujarat communal riots, he is to blow up Delhi’s Lal Quila on Independence Day. He arrives at Chandni Chowk and takes refuge in an elderly peace-loving poet’s home, who is also the most interesting character in the film, and is played by to perfection by an extremely talented actor. Numair befriends an Urdu professor Rajan Mathur (Anil Kapoor). Rajan lives with his wife Roma and they are together an activist couple that takes care of Chandni Chowk. While Rajan believes in secularism and prefers to espouse it through dialogue, his feisty social worker wife would rather come out to the street demanding justice for her chosen victim. Deeply in love with an adorable daughter completing their family, they adopt Numair as their own and even help him get a VIP pass to Lal Quila. Events unfold from the Independence Day eve leading to the celebrations where the somewhat predictable drama-driven climax unfolds. The heroes in the film are many and they all jointly shoulder the film. Each one is a deeply written character with many sides and complexities. Save Rajan’s character who is too white, and devoid of any negative flavour at all. That makes, by contrast, Roma’s character so much more interesting, as while she is the hyper, over-assertive person on one end, she has a heart of gold on the other. So, while the characters are all very very interesting and you enjoy soaking them all up, too much time is spent establishing them and their backgrounds. Coupled with this is a lot of extra and repetitive dialogue, and the length of the film becomes a huge drag. Sharper editing would have saved this film making it a focussed story, that doesn’t waste time with unnecessary details. The cinematography (Somak Mukherjee) is very good and the use of handheld camera is excellent. Ranjit Barot’s background music is very good, though it gets a bit overpowering at times. Music is good (Sukhwinder Singh) though not as exceptional as music in Ghai’s films earlier has been. Art Direciton (Leel a Chanda) is a treat, and you can almost smell the air in the characters’ homes, they are so perfectly accessorised. Shefali Shah is outstanding as always and Anil Kapoor is also carefully restrained, though, like mentioned earlier, his character needed a little more range. Anurag Sinah does well as the silent, beaten-by-life fundamentalist, who never smiles (honestly, never!). He’s a good-looking newcomer and his rugged look might give him a unique edge amidst the polished, shaven and gelled leading men options available. After years of making strictly mainstream films like Khalnayak, Taal, Ram Lakhan and Pardes, Subhash Ghai is back with a makeover. The new showman is first a filmmaker with a story to tell. A sequence worth mentioning is one that chronicles Numair’s life from a little boy to his training as a fiyadeen with the song Mein Chlal serving as the backdrop. While the film attempts to glimpse into the thinking of a suicide bomber, it also goes onto a parallel track of patriotism. Since suicide bombers are a worldwide phenomenon, the patriotic slur could have been toned down, while concentrating on the issue of terrorism alone. Still, the subtlety with which Ghai has handled the subject is marvelous and the story is woven masterfully. Do hang on for the ending credits as you see slice-of-life vignettes from all over the country.