BLACK Beauty
Dont know how laziness is aware that it is a weekend and it creeps into you slowly, suddenly without making a whisper! How much ever you try to get up early on a weekend morning, no you wont! Suddenly a huge desire for your body to sleep, sleep and more sleep all around you. Effect: First day I missed gym for this month. Finally had to wake up to the calling bell announcing the arrival of our maid... Pam and Ponp were still sleeping. RL, out of station. So i was 'Room Alone' .By the way, jike, i stay with these 3 guys: all from my college, my wing!
Finally the wand that was used to cast a spell and wake us all up was our own maid: we(rather RL or Ponp, not sure) have named her Vellayamma! Dont know why!? So routine life on a sat morning. For a change had breaky. Lunch and both me and pam had to come to work for chota mota work. The beauty about us is: We try to spend as much time as possible in the weekend together, unless someone has work at office or someone is out of station. I go to thatha's sometimes...Sundi and Abha add on sometimes to this group of four. This is something I like a lot. Weekdays are difficult. We are in different shifts. Ponp leaves early, I leave late, Pam sometimes doesnt come back home at all ! Oof! We all make it up for it in the weekend.
So I had planned this weekend. I wanted to see 'BLACK' somehow. I have been hearing damn good reviews of this movie. I have to watch it, somehow! Ponp's idea was to have a game of pool. So decided that we wud go to Leela Palace, (ha ha, so close to my office), have few games of pool,have dinner and BLACK it out.. Sundi was to join us too. I was OK this time at pool. Last time, i didnt even know how to catch hold of the stick, this time though i lost to Ponp, i was happy. Sundi is interested in Fooseball a lot. So we had couple of games of that too! Wow! Award should be given to me for being the worst defender who makes the team size 3:1. I dont know how many self-goals i would have given to my opponents in the first game we played. But, yeah later i improved and became a good defender.
So now we have our regular Pizza dinner and then the problem starts. Pam says: "Do we have to see a movie now? I am in no mood for it. " What? What did u say? But, you always liked movies on Sat night. What happened now? Then it was Sundi's turn: "I have heard the story of BLACK. Not that good. So lets go home"... No, no,no,no,no,no.. I want this movie. I know Sunday would be difficult for us to go to a movie, if it has to be a movie this weekend, its gonna be now! Sundi:"Heard Page-3 is good. May be we can go for that!" . But I said: "We dont know the show times. And no idea if it was screened at the Multiplex. But yeah, no harm in checking out though!".. So ray of hope! It was decided that we would check it out and if Page 3 isnt there, then go home and see Fahrenheit 9/11... Who wants to see a documentary!
Oh my Kadavule! (Thanks to this tamil rap song from Thirupaachi).. Page3, yes was there.. And what kind of posters- Scandal, Seduction and Affairs... Seeing this, which bachelor wont wanna go to the movie!?. Now, the Page 3 gang included Sundi and Ponp. I was adamant. BLACK BLACK BLACK.. Hey, it was me how suggested Page 3 last weekend and all you guys turned it down that time. Now, its OK after seeing these posters, is it!? Bullshit.. No, its not gonna happen. They all gave reasons. Pam: "BLACK has Big B in the movie. How do you expect me to watch a movie which has him?"... Know the secret? All these guys have bikes and have to park it up, means I have to go and get tickets by the time they park! So, i go as a sweet boy, stand in the Q for BLACK. Ha ha!
I have almost reached the ticket vendor and Pam comes to me and says, change the lane: Stand in the Q for Page 3. No i didnt move... I got the tickets for BLACK... Those guys were really angry or may be upset at me. They even got the tickets from me, hoping to exchange in the Page 3 counter. Ha Ha. Now i got the good news: Page 3 sold out. Yipeeee. Not a single ticket left... I made a vow that BLACK is the last movie which i am suggesting and nothing after this... Thats how I had to convince them to watch the movie.
So, finally my struggle for BLACK ended and we entered the Screen 2 room.
I had a bit of an idea as to what the picture was. Read SLB's interview the day b4. Rani is deaf,blind and mute and Big B is her teacher who loses his complete memory.And this is an inspiration from Helen Keler's story. This was the background with which I entered the theater. Note about Rani: I always used to call her 'Moti' Rani, the fat one. Never ever regarded her as a good actress. So I didnt have much of expectations from her.
The film began with a tribute to Helen Keller.SLB introduces the Mcnally family. The setting of the story is in Himachal Pradesh; Simla and the period, I guess should be of the British. SLB introduces, Big B as Debraj Sahai, a person who has been teaching deaf and mute for over 30 yrs and also Michelle Mcnally, 8 year old girl, whos blind, deaf and mute. Though Michelle is loved a lot by her parents, she poses serious threats to her younger sister, Sarah and her parents are too worried. Paul, her father wants her to go to the asylum, but her mother wont accept to it. They finally want to try Debraj Sahai as the last resort to change Michelle, who a brat, so rude and uncontrollable!
Enters the teacher. I should say, what a wonderful set has been prepared for the movie. What else can you expect from SLB, anyway! He has taken atmost care to collect every small object that would reflect the time when this story is supposed to happen. And when the teacher enters, the parents find his ways of teaching very rude too! The first thing he wants Michelle to learn is to eat like a 'human' with a spoon, sitting on a chair. But shes the person, who has been allowed to do whatever she wishes to,and she wont eat the way he wants to. There starts the struggle. The teacher doesnt allow her near the dining table, beats her up and what Michelle can show back is anger! She doesnt like a stranger suddenly appearing out of no where and why should she change for his sake!? The girl, who has acted as young Michelle, Ayesha Kapoor, SLB says is from Pondicherry, has done a marvelous job. Cant imagine how a small girl like her can act like this! Imagine a deaf, mute and a blind girl! The only emotion she can show is that of anger and the way she has shown is too too good. I dont have words to describe it. She has a very good future in acting, I can definitely say that
So teacher is asked to leave, as the parents dont like him. And the next day, the father also leaves the town for 20 days and this is what the teacher wants. He somehow manages to convince the mother that he can manage to change Michelle in these 20 days and now starts his struggle! The whole room is changed. Objects are removed and new objects placed inside so that Michelle can touch, feel and associate them to a word. Also, no one else is allowed to enter the room. It has Michelle and her teacher. Think of it: How would you communicate to a eight year old girl who cant see, speak or hear!? Fingers, touch and feeling are the only ways to achieve it. So the teacher manages to make his student eat with a spoon properly, but no 20 days is too small a time for making her realise words and how to associate them to an object! Michelle still would associate spoon to a napkin!
The father arrives, surprised to see the teacher still there and asks him to leave! The teacher has no other go, he cant win over this tough guy, so he packs off. fyi: Michelle, by the way is afraid of water.. By the time, the teacher leaves, food is being served down, Michelle, free now from captivity, returns to the same old way of eating food. Teacher becomes angry and beats her and she in return throws a jug full of water on his face. Then the teacher drags her out, where its raining like hell and puts her inside a pool of water. She gets scared and as the teacher turns away from the pool, he realises that Michelle hasnt come out of water. He gets scared now. But to his surprise, Michelle, gets up and feels water with her hands and tries to say "Waaa". What did i hear just now!? "Waa". Then her teacher gets excited: he writes on her hand W-A-T-E-R. Then he moves her fingers to his lip which pronounces WATER. She replies back "Waa" . Thats it. He has succeeded his battle which he thought he lost after fighting for 20 days! He cries for her parents desperately. They come out running, with no idea as to what has happened. Michelle, runs all over the garden. She trips and falls: G-R-A-S-S.. She gets up and runs again.. F-L-O-W-E-R.. She goes and hugs Mrs.Mcnally. M-O-T-H-E-R. Then, F-A-T-H-E-R.(If my memory is right, the first word that Helen Keller learnt was also Water)
After that eventful day, Debraj spends 18 years of his life with her. Ayesha leaves and enters Rani Mukerji as Michelle. Now, Michelle is well versed in sign language, she can communicate well and her parents and her teacher are proud of her. From now the story goes on like: teacher wants her to graduate in arts, reading with other normal students. then is the struggle to get her a seat in a college, michelle would not be able to type fast in Braille and hence wont be able to complete any paper in the allotted time and she would fail year after year. Meanwhile, the director also shows, how Sarah feels of all the imporatnce being shown on michelle, she feels neglected by her parents. SLB shows the marriage ceremony of Sarah: though michelle knows there wont be any love, marriage in her life, she also feels like a normal woman and asks her teacher if he loves him and if yes, wants just one kiss from him. See, these are the beautiful aspects of this film: Even people whom we think are handicapped, they too have emotions in life, they want to be as happy as we are and they struggle all through their life for this.
Another interesting thing is: The teacher suffers from Alzheimer's disease! A disease where his memory goes down before him little by little and finally he doesnt remember anything at all .. And Michelle, after 12 years of struggle, at the age of 40, graduates! She wants to celebrate this with her teacher, but alas! He doesnt recognise her, in fact he doesnt know who he is in the first place! So begins Michelle's struggle now to bring back her teacher to normalcy...
Wonderful performances by everyone in the crew. As i said, I was impressed mostly by Ayesha, the little girl who plays Michelle. She is a very bright future prospect. So BLACK is a victory of struggle, grit and determination. Black is the colour of knowledge. BLACK suggests that 'Anger is a very good emotion which if turned into proper direction can do wonders'. Black is my favorite colour too(That explains the background in which this web page is set). In short, BLACK or Black, whatever it is, is Beautiful
Finally the wand that was used to cast a spell and wake us all up was our own maid: we(rather RL or Ponp, not sure) have named her Vellayamma! Dont know why!? So routine life on a sat morning. For a change had breaky. Lunch and both me and pam had to come to work for chota mota work. The beauty about us is: We try to spend as much time as possible in the weekend together, unless someone has work at office or someone is out of station. I go to thatha's sometimes...Sundi and Abha add on sometimes to this group of four. This is something I like a lot. Weekdays are difficult. We are in different shifts. Ponp leaves early, I leave late, Pam sometimes doesnt come back home at all ! Oof! We all make it up for it in the weekend.
So I had planned this weekend. I wanted to see 'BLACK' somehow. I have been hearing damn good reviews of this movie. I have to watch it, somehow! Ponp's idea was to have a game of pool. So decided that we wud go to Leela Palace, (ha ha, so close to my office), have few games of pool,have dinner and BLACK it out.. Sundi was to join us too. I was OK this time at pool. Last time, i didnt even know how to catch hold of the stick, this time though i lost to Ponp, i was happy. Sundi is interested in Fooseball a lot. So we had couple of games of that too! Wow! Award should be given to me for being the worst defender who makes the team size 3:1. I dont know how many self-goals i would have given to my opponents in the first game we played. But, yeah later i improved and became a good defender.
So now we have our regular Pizza dinner and then the problem starts. Pam says: "Do we have to see a movie now? I am in no mood for it. " What? What did u say? But, you always liked movies on Sat night. What happened now? Then it was Sundi's turn: "I have heard the story of BLACK. Not that good. So lets go home"... No, no,no,no,no,no.. I want this movie. I know Sunday would be difficult for us to go to a movie, if it has to be a movie this weekend, its gonna be now! Sundi:"Heard Page-3 is good. May be we can go for that!" . But I said: "We dont know the show times. And no idea if it was screened at the Multiplex. But yeah, no harm in checking out though!".. So ray of hope! It was decided that we would check it out and if Page 3 isnt there, then go home and see Fahrenheit 9/11... Who wants to see a documentary!
Oh my Kadavule! (Thanks to this tamil rap song from Thirupaachi).. Page3, yes was there.. And what kind of posters- Scandal, Seduction and Affairs... Seeing this, which bachelor wont wanna go to the movie!?. Now, the Page 3 gang included Sundi and Ponp. I was adamant. BLACK BLACK BLACK.. Hey, it was me how suggested Page 3 last weekend and all you guys turned it down that time. Now, its OK after seeing these posters, is it!? Bullshit.. No, its not gonna happen. They all gave reasons. Pam: "BLACK has Big B in the movie. How do you expect me to watch a movie which has him?"... Know the secret? All these guys have bikes and have to park it up, means I have to go and get tickets by the time they park! So, i go as a sweet boy, stand in the Q for BLACK. Ha ha!
I have almost reached the ticket vendor and Pam comes to me and says, change the lane: Stand in the Q for Page 3. No i didnt move... I got the tickets for BLACK... Those guys were really angry or may be upset at me. They even got the tickets from me, hoping to exchange in the Page 3 counter. Ha Ha. Now i got the good news: Page 3 sold out. Yipeeee. Not a single ticket left... I made a vow that BLACK is the last movie which i am suggesting and nothing after this... Thats how I had to convince them to watch the movie.
So, finally my struggle for BLACK ended and we entered the Screen 2 room.
I had a bit of an idea as to what the picture was. Read SLB's interview the day b4. Rani is deaf,blind and mute and Big B is her teacher who loses his complete memory.And this is an inspiration from Helen Keler's story. This was the background with which I entered the theater. Note about Rani: I always used to call her 'Moti' Rani, the fat one. Never ever regarded her as a good actress. So I didnt have much of expectations from her.
The film began with a tribute to Helen Keller.SLB introduces the Mcnally family. The setting of the story is in Himachal Pradesh; Simla and the period, I guess should be of the British. SLB introduces, Big B as Debraj Sahai, a person who has been teaching deaf and mute for over 30 yrs and also Michelle Mcnally, 8 year old girl, whos blind, deaf and mute. Though Michelle is loved a lot by her parents, she poses serious threats to her younger sister, Sarah and her parents are too worried. Paul, her father wants her to go to the asylum, but her mother wont accept to it. They finally want to try Debraj Sahai as the last resort to change Michelle, who a brat, so rude and uncontrollable!
Enters the teacher. I should say, what a wonderful set has been prepared for the movie. What else can you expect from SLB, anyway! He has taken atmost care to collect every small object that would reflect the time when this story is supposed to happen. And when the teacher enters, the parents find his ways of teaching very rude too! The first thing he wants Michelle to learn is to eat like a 'human' with a spoon, sitting on a chair. But shes the person, who has been allowed to do whatever she wishes to,and she wont eat the way he wants to. There starts the struggle. The teacher doesnt allow her near the dining table, beats her up and what Michelle can show back is anger! She doesnt like a stranger suddenly appearing out of no where and why should she change for his sake!? The girl, who has acted as young Michelle, Ayesha Kapoor, SLB says is from Pondicherry, has done a marvelous job. Cant imagine how a small girl like her can act like this! Imagine a deaf, mute and a blind girl! The only emotion she can show is that of anger and the way she has shown is too too good. I dont have words to describe it. She has a very good future in acting, I can definitely say that
So teacher is asked to leave, as the parents dont like him. And the next day, the father also leaves the town for 20 days and this is what the teacher wants. He somehow manages to convince the mother that he can manage to change Michelle in these 20 days and now starts his struggle! The whole room is changed. Objects are removed and new objects placed inside so that Michelle can touch, feel and associate them to a word. Also, no one else is allowed to enter the room. It has Michelle and her teacher. Think of it: How would you communicate to a eight year old girl who cant see, speak or hear!? Fingers, touch and feeling are the only ways to achieve it. So the teacher manages to make his student eat with a spoon properly, but no 20 days is too small a time for making her realise words and how to associate them to an object! Michelle still would associate spoon to a napkin!
The father arrives, surprised to see the teacher still there and asks him to leave! The teacher has no other go, he cant win over this tough guy, so he packs off. fyi: Michelle, by the way is afraid of water.. By the time, the teacher leaves, food is being served down, Michelle, free now from captivity, returns to the same old way of eating food. Teacher becomes angry and beats her and she in return throws a jug full of water on his face. Then the teacher drags her out, where its raining like hell and puts her inside a pool of water. She gets scared and as the teacher turns away from the pool, he realises that Michelle hasnt come out of water. He gets scared now. But to his surprise, Michelle, gets up and feels water with her hands and tries to say "Waaa". What did i hear just now!? "Waa". Then her teacher gets excited: he writes on her hand W-A-T-E-R. Then he moves her fingers to his lip which pronounces WATER. She replies back "Waa" . Thats it. He has succeeded his battle which he thought he lost after fighting for 20 days! He cries for her parents desperately. They come out running, with no idea as to what has happened. Michelle, runs all over the garden. She trips and falls: G-R-A-S-S.. She gets up and runs again.. F-L-O-W-E-R.. She goes and hugs Mrs.Mcnally. M-O-T-H-E-R. Then, F-A-T-H-E-R.(If my memory is right, the first word that Helen Keller learnt was also Water)
After that eventful day, Debraj spends 18 years of his life with her. Ayesha leaves and enters Rani Mukerji as Michelle. Now, Michelle is well versed in sign language, she can communicate well and her parents and her teacher are proud of her. From now the story goes on like: teacher wants her to graduate in arts, reading with other normal students. then is the struggle to get her a seat in a college, michelle would not be able to type fast in Braille and hence wont be able to complete any paper in the allotted time and she would fail year after year. Meanwhile, the director also shows, how Sarah feels of all the imporatnce being shown on michelle, she feels neglected by her parents. SLB shows the marriage ceremony of Sarah: though michelle knows there wont be any love, marriage in her life, she also feels like a normal woman and asks her teacher if he loves him and if yes, wants just one kiss from him. See, these are the beautiful aspects of this film: Even people whom we think are handicapped, they too have emotions in life, they want to be as happy as we are and they struggle all through their life for this.
Another interesting thing is: The teacher suffers from Alzheimer's disease! A disease where his memory goes down before him little by little and finally he doesnt remember anything at all .. And Michelle, after 12 years of struggle, at the age of 40, graduates! She wants to celebrate this with her teacher, but alas! He doesnt recognise her, in fact he doesnt know who he is in the first place! So begins Michelle's struggle now to bring back her teacher to normalcy...
Wonderful performances by everyone in the crew. As i said, I was impressed mostly by Ayesha, the little girl who plays Michelle. She is a very bright future prospect. So BLACK is a victory of struggle, grit and determination. Black is the colour of knowledge. BLACK suggests that 'Anger is a very good emotion which if turned into proper direction can do wonders'. Black is my favorite colour too(That explains the background in which this web page is set). In short, BLACK or Black, whatever it is, is Beautiful
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