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Black
Directed by	Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Produced by	Sanjay Leela Bhansali Anshuman Swami
Written by	Sanjay Leela Bhansali Bhavani Iyer Prakash Kapadia
Starring	Amitabh Bachchan Rani Mukerji Shernaz Patel Nandana Sen
Music by	Monty Sharma
Cinematography	Ravi K. Chandran
Editing by	Bela Sehgal
Distributed by	Yash Raj Films
Release date(s)	February 4, 2005
Running time	123 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi English

Black (Hindi: ब्लैक, Urdu: بلیک) is a 2005 Indian film in Hindi and Indian English directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Black revolves around a blind, deaf and mute girl, and her relationship with her teacher who himself later develops Alzheimer's disease. The first half of the film is an adaptation of Helen Keller's autobiography The Story of My Life.

The film was screened at the Casablanca Film Festival and the International Film Festival of India.^[1] It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and eleven Filmfare Awards. Time Magazine (Europe) selected the film as one of the 10 Best Movies of the Year 2005 from across the globe. The movie was positioned at number five.^[2] Indiatimes Movies ranks the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.^[3]

[edit] Synopsis

The story of Black is partly based on the true life story of Helen Keller. The film begins with Michelle McNally (Rani Mukerji), a blind, deaf and mute woman, visiting her former teacher Debraj Sahai (Amitabh Bachchan), who now has Alzheimer's disease, in a hospital. The film then flashbacks to the past to her childhood.

Michelle was a girl who lost her eyesight and hearing a few months after birth and exists in a black world where she is isolated in the darkness of her own existence, trapped by her inability to see, hear and express. She grows up becoming more and more frustrated by the black and dark world around her, making her a violent, uncontrollable eight-year old child. Her parents, Paul and Catherine, are at their wits' end trying to control her, until one day the light shines through the end of the tunnel.

Debraj Sahai enters their lives, an elderly alcoholic teacher for the deaf and blind, Debraj sees himself as a magician and is a disillusioned eccentric man. He takes it upon himself to bring young Michelle into the light. He uses harsh methods, although always for Michelle's long-term benefit. Initially, his methods are met with disapproval by Michelle's father, who asks Debraj to leave. Although her father thinks he is gone, Debraj stays as the teacher while her father is away on business for 20 days. Her mother grudgingly approves of his continuation given her fear of Michelle being sent to an asylum. By the 20th day, Debraj manages to teach Michelle some words and better manners, but he has difficulty teaching her the meaning of words. When Michelle's father returns, Debraj packs his bags. At the very last moment, as he is walking towards the door suitcase in hand, Debraj gets frustrated with Michelle's continuing insolent behavior and he throws her into a fountain full of water. Michelle suddenly takes to Debraj's lessons at that moment and begins to understand meaning. She is able to recognize her mother and father, and can vocalize the first syllables of some words. The McNallys decide to keep Debraj as Michelle's teacher.

Many years later, Michelle has learned a great deal, becoming relaxed and expressive, and she is even able to dance and expertly sign. Debraj convinces the Principal of a university to grant her an interview which she passes and gets admission to pursue a Bachelor's of Arts, the first deaf-blind person to do so at that university. Michelle moves away from home and lives with Debraj and one of her servants. Over the next 20 years, she struggles to gain her Bachelor of Arts degree, failing year after year, but she still maintains her spirit. One reason is that she must rely on Debraj completely for interpretation of the material and studying. This problem is overcome by the Principal of the school preparing the whole first-year Arts course of study in Braille. Another reason for her continuing failure is that her typing skills are lacking and typing is her only way to write down what she knows during exams. However, she also soon overcomes this deficiency through another flash of increased of competence when she almost quits the university and gets into an argument with Debraj.

As the same time as Michelle suffers through and triumphs over her challenges, we also witness numerous other changes. Debraj begins to succumb to Alzheimer's, first forgetting the way out of the Principal's office and then forgetting Michelle and leaving her stranded during an ice cream celebration for her improved typing. We also see Michelle reconcile with her sister Sara, who we find out was jealous of her parent's affection for Michelle throughout her life. After attending Sara's wedding, Michelle begins to wonder about love, which she has not experienced, and she even asks Debraj to kiss her on the lips. Debraj reluctantly does so but decides to leave Michelle on her own because of this demand and the position she has put him in. Twenty years after enrollment, Michelle does manage to gain her BA, and with her proud parents looking on her, she even gives a speech to the graduating class. Wearing no black graduation robe, she thanks her parents and her teacher and she announces that she will only wear the robe so that her teacher may see her first.

Debraj is in a mental hospital due to his almost complete inability to remember his past and even how to speak. Michelle visits him wearing her robe and we see glimmers of memory return as Debraj realizes that she has graduated and even does a victory dance. As the window opens to the rain outside, we see Debraj's hand in Michelle's reaching into the rain, and we hear the teacher-student pair say the first syllable of the word "water", with echoes of the scene in which Michelle first begins understanding the meaning of words earlier in the movie. However this time, it is Debraj who is beginning to learn to speak and understand. The movie ends on a hopeful note as Michelle who was originally the student now becomes aged Debraj's teacher.

Unlike many other Bollywood movies, Black only has only a couple of songs "Mausam Ki Hidi Adla Badi Mein", performed by Kunal Ganjawala's wife, Gayatri Ganjawala and "Haan maine chookar dekha hain".

[edit] Cast

Rani Mukerji as Michelle McNally in Black

• Amitabh Bachchan - Debraj Sahai
• Rani Mukerji - Michelle McNally
• Ayesha Kapoor - Young Michelle McNally
• Shernaz Patel - Catherine McNally
• Dhritiman Chaterji - Paul McNally
• Nandana Sen - Sarah McNally
• Sillo Mahava - Mrs. Gomes
• Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal - Mrs. Nair

[edit] Awards

• Black won the Best Feature Film in Hindi Award at the 53rd National Film Awards.
• Black made an all-time record at the Filmfare Awards by winning eleven awards, beating the previous record holders: Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) and Devdas (2002) of ten wins each.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Black at the Internet Movie Database