Black

Was quite looking forward to seeing this Bollywood movie - and I was thoroughly impressed!

Its about a deaf and blind girl who is taught to live independently by this teacher. And then when the teacher suffers from Alzheimers, the girl helps him recollect some of their past memories. A subject of this nature requires some big names to bring crowds to the theaters and at this point, it doesn't get too much bigger in Bollywood than Amitabh Bacchan and Rani Mukherji as the teacher and the blind and deaf girl - both of them have given in superlative acting efforts and Rani, whose character can't speak has carried the movie completely on her emotive abilities.

The suffering that a girl who can't hear or see has been potrayed poignantly. A fair amount of research has gone into the storytelling and that clearly shows. The British-raj sets are grand and there is a touch of style and grandeur in the director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's deliverance.

Its very encouraging to see topics of this nature being explored by Bollywood, in an effort to make more "meaningful" cinema and break out of the song-and-dance stereo-type (and then you have the Mira Nairs of India reaching out to the world with mind-numbing movies like Bride and Prejudice and the likes).

I loved the delicate handling of the issue of sex in this movie - the only man that the deaf/blind girl knows is her teacher, for him to get her to understand that she may never experience physical love was well-crafted. Again, to see hints of physicality between a teacher and his blind/deaf student may not be easily digested by a vast majority.

Yes, its got its overt displays of dramatizations, but no there are no songs, no running around trees, its "offbeat Bollywood" with a couple of fantastic performances, great direction, elaborate sets and details - 2 hrs well spent!