Black & White

The movie speaks about one among the biggest concerns of the nation India is facing over decades. Anil Kapoor's characterisation is simply outstanding and can be taken as a great source of inspiration and fight the evil thoughts and bury them to extinction.

Even the overall story narration and acting by the leads in the film Anil Kapoor and Shefali is Unbelievable!

"Black and White" directed by Subhash Ghai is about a Muslim terrorist from Afghanistan who aspires to come to India and cause a Hindu massacre. Anurag Sinha, who plays this role, looks as shady and dangerous as the role permits him to, from the moment he first steps out of that train ,into Delhi. He lives undercover in a friend's house, changing his identity so that he's not discovered. All the Muslims around seem to know his secret, although they don't know how mean and fanatical he is. This is a man purely acting on revenge, and not reason. Anyways, Anil Kapoor plays a kind-hearted professor that has a lot of tolerance. You can imagine when he is Hindu and has the Quran memorized. Now, the regular Indian clichéd plot of this movie would be that Anil Kapoor influences the terrorist so much with his compassion and love, that the terrorist doesn't end up bombing the Hindu temple and killing all those people. Although the movie works towards this ending, the terrorist doesn't. Sinha's face is pretty much that of a terrorist: his expression is dead serious. I can't imagine him hugging anyone or even smiling. It looks so ridiculous when Aditi Sharma (a Muslim girl who loves him) imagines them running around on a train, hugging and laughing at each other. The general fantasy and dreamy spirit that wells up inside of me when listening to such songs, wasn't there…it didn't work as well as I wanted it to.

Black & White – Subhash Ghai returns after the debacle of "Kisna". But unfortunately I was again disappointed and found the Ghai spark missing in the movie. In fact, I am quite surprised why the filmmakers keep on using the same plot again & again even when they know that it has been exploited before by others in the industry. We all have seen the plot of "Inviting a new person to live in your house which in disguise is a terrorist and a suicide bomber" used many time before also. The main source behind the inspiration is "The Devil's Own" which came in 1997 starring Harrison Ford as the house owner & Brad Pitt as the guest. It was followed by Raj Kanwar's "Baadal" released in 2000, in which Amrish Puri played the host and Bobby Deol was the terrorist. We also witnessed the similar kind of thing in the second half of Maniratnam's "Dil Se" (1998) which had Manisha Koirala, staying in Shahrukh's house. And now again it is repeated in "Black & White".

Subhash Ghai surely moves ahead with an offbeat and an unusual track for Mukta Arts and he has broken his own old pattern of film-making with this venture. But its quite questionable why he chose a story which has similarities with many other movies. The film lacks the grip from the first half hour itself and then the only engrossing aspect is the music which comes as a background theme in many scenes. The screenplay is predictable from the first scene and the viewer also cannot relate to the secular them in a big way.

The only impressive elements in the film are : 1. The unmatchable act by well know theater activist Habeeb Tanvir as the old poet. 2. And the Soul Stirring music by Sukhwinder Singh. In fact this is the first time I am impressed with this music for a film soundtrack. Way to go Sukhwinder…Keep it up.. Subhash Ghai undoubtedly has a gifted ear for good music which he has proved again with this latest offering.

Anil Kapoor is impressive and establishes himself as veteran actor in the industry who can be a strong pillar for any project. The debutant Anurag Sinha is a good find, but he has got not much to do and only has to give the starring looks according to the his role most of the times. So he can be judged better when he emotes, fights and dances in his next movie. Shifali Chhaya is loud at some places and the rest of the cast just OK.

The climax is the major letdown. The similar kind of climax you may recall in "Dil Se" and "Hu Tu Tu" when the suicide bomber is heading towards a national meeting place on 15th August or 26th January. Chandni Chowk and Heritage Sites in Delhi are the new craze in Hindi Films now a days. The best part remains the music by Sukhwinder Singh, though he borrows a lot from the Punjabi Traditional Music Treasure, still I will rate it as his best work for a film soundtrack till date.

In simple words, its Subhash Ghai's attempt towards a different kind of cinema. He excels in parts no doubt, but I wish he had chosen a virgin topic for this move. Watch it for Habib Tanveer…and do listen to its complete soundtrack…

Rating : 2 / 5

Subhash Ghai's Black & White is an amateurish effort from a filmmaker clearly out of his depth as far as his subject matter is concerned. The film follows the story of a suicide bomber who seeks refuge in the home of an unsuspecting professor, while all along involved in a plot to blow-up the Red Fort. Loosely inspired by the Harrison Ford-Brad Pitt starrer The Devil's Own, Ghai's film explores the relationship between a terrorist and the couple who open their home and their hearts to him. Well-intended the film may be, but at plot level itself there's a fundamental flaw with Black & White, and that flaw is the writer-director's sheer inability to set the tone of the film. Opening on a note that's so pretentious you want to puke, Ghai uses redundant symbolism—like a child with a candle—to make a point that's been made so many times before. To top that, his every character is a caricature that spouts clichés instead of dialogues. Take Anil Kapoor playing the Urdu professor, for instance. How you cringe at those long sermons he delivers, and then his shameless hamming, especially in that scene where the professor returns home one night to discover a horrible brutality committed on his wife. Not that Shefali Shah, playing the professor's activist wife is much better. Hysterical for the most part, she's so over-the-top even in comic and supposedly emotional scenes, you want to remind her, this is film not street theatre where melodrama can be used to great effect. Newcomer Anurag Sinha, who plays the mysterious stranger with dishonourable intentions, has an arresting screen presence, undeniably, but straitjacketed in a loosely developed role he has little scope to really perform — unless you count his brooding and that 'angry young man' impression as a performance. Black & White falls like a pack of cards because it's meant to be a serious, even realistic film, a departure from Ghai's trademark masala musicals. But problem is the director is so unfamiliar and uncomfortable with minimalism that he cannot resist the urge to throw in some of his typical formulas, as a result delivering a film that is both confused and sloppy. Look at that presumably symbolic scene in which a deaf-mute child plays out a patriotic tune on her piano to a man just hours away from committing a ghastly act of terror. Or that supposedly comic scene in which an elderly poet makes repeated telephone calls to the professor's home late one night. Or even that indulgent dream song between the terrorist and the young student who's clearly falling for him. The sad thing is, for a film that was meant to address an issue, Black & White doesn't say anything that you don't already know. The film makes only token nods to patriotism, and if you ask me, I'd say the very themes of terrorism, patriotism and nationalism are just incidental to Ghai's story which is in fact, about the power of goodness and love which can convert even the serious non-believers. And that, my friends, let's not forget, is one of mainstream Bollywood's oldest and favourite themes. So you see Ghai never ventured too far from his comfort zone anyway.It's a miscalculation in every sense of the word, a film that makes Kisna and Yaadein seem watchable. When it comes to Subhash Ghai, I'd much rather watch his masala musicals any day.

I saw at the beginning that it was a Mukta Arts movie. Given the history of the banner, that could lead me to expect a lot. Look at the sweet part Anil Kapoor got in Taal. And here's Anil again, with Shefali Shah this time. I always look forward to seeing her.

Short answer is that this movie isn't that good. The music is no more than average. The script is very awkward a good deal of the time. The plot asks a lot from your credulity. Just one blatant example is when they want to get the protagonist close to the Urdu professor, they fake a terrorist attack and then have him rescue the professor's cute young daughter. For that plan to work, the kid has to wander away from her parents. Since the kid isn't IN on the plan, they seem awfully lucky that she somehow gets separated on cue.

Anurag Sinha, who plays the terrorist, is certainly a kid with some potential, but how great it is doesn't show in this movie. Compare him with J. D. Chakravarthy in Satya and it becomes obvious what I mean. Satya had the same kind of protagonist, but the director did ten times as much with the same sort of personality.

Also, to me this is a different angle on the Dil Se story, but having Dil Se makes this movie look like a comedown.

It might be worth one look, but no more.