Black & White : Ghai Waah!
PrintA fidayeen attack is a suicide tactic used by militants. Such attacks are especially common in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. In a fidayeen, an extremist equips himself (most fidayeens are men) with weapons and a sizeable amount of ammunition. He then proceeds to gain entrance into a public gathering or other crowded area and proceeds to open fire on law-enforcement personnel and the general public. He continues his attack until he runs out of ammunition, at which point he is either gunned down by security forces or committs suicide. Fidayeen militants sometimes do attempt to escape but are almost always shot by anti-terrorist squads shortly afterward due to the fact that the militants rarely have a “getaway” plan chalked out. These militants, like suicide bombers plan on being killed during the execution of the attack.
-from Wikipedia
Cinema is a rewarding experience for the world it creates when it swallows you up. And that is one reason why a film like Black & White, with all its share of stereotypical devices and tacky portions still appeals to you. It is the reason why I love the experience more than the film itself. Be it a Jodha akbar, Taare Zameen Par, Halla bol or Black & White.
Subhash Ghai’s Black & White is interesting for more reasons than one. We have already talked about the reasons and possibilities of this film missing the mark. Surprisingly, it doesn’t. Though nowhere near to a perfect comeback (there isn’t really nothing to comeback to, Ghai can only return to his storytelling form), the film is a delightful watch for the joys of witnessing a thespian come back to his elements.
The directorial flourishes might not be completely amiss, the atypical characters might look a tad too predictable, but the film does work because of reasons manifold.
This film is more interesting to look at from a filmmaker-auteur point of view. I can’t isolate the film from the maker, though it’s quite easy if I try, and that’s a compliment.
Subhash Ghai never really gave a film that you would take home and sleep over except for some brilliant parts in his films, which was almost a frequent occurrence, the smooth flow of the narrative, the pro-suspension-of-disbelief format, the pronounced language of the film.
If you find this reverent,I am follower of Ghai’s cinema through the decades, or so to draw the line.
A story of a fidayeen undergoing a transformation of soul and have the purpose and larger objectives of his life(jihad) reversed dramatically in 15 days, looks a juicy proportion. The high-on-juice index made me a little wary of the outcome. Considering Ghai burnt his hands with his past couple of attempts to veer from his stronghold- revenge dramas with a pinch of nationalism and off course, great music, anyone could get skeptic of this film. The way the film unfolds is no revelation either, but it is the winking innocence and humility that brings it home. A plot which is a little more or little less than ‘ghar ka bhedi lanka dhaaye’ could become unapologetically commercial. Thankfully it doesn’t.
It is quite interesting to see how and when a film maker of this background and stature comes back to form. Form might be a wrong word here. Grip might suffice more.
Ghai is a master of canning emotions, in all their melodramatic glory on screen. His films have a language, and you need to acknowledge if not appreciate it. You can’t put your hands apart and mock it. Having said that, Black & White stays shy of every auteur indulgence you could imagine. And the very innocence of it makes it work.
The film is a delightful stack of imperfections, in a style which is very Ghai indeed, though he does eschew his ‘grand’ film flourishes, anticlimactic build-ups, taali-worthy dialogues, an impressive array of characters et al.
It is like SRK doing a chak de and saying it was different, while the very reason it worked is because here is a superstar being cast as an actor. B&W might not make a right example but yes, it is the same league of study.
The film launches beautifully, then tries to find its direction and is most fun while it veers from one mood to the other.all the shoddiness in the world you can expect – bad lighting, poor camera in some bits, tacky production design, and the works. Add to that scenes stopping halfway just while you thought nothing can go wrong now. You wait for the moment that now Mr. Ghai will sock it in, he never does. Scene after scene. act after act. he just creates a volume of sequences, very incoherent very haphazard. Yet in spite of all that, he somehow brings in some invisible and intangible touch to the whole thing, and it works. All flaws be damned!
Anil Kapoor leads from the front as Rajan Mathur, an Urdu professor. Shefali Chhaya plays his activist wife, Roma(surprisingly the only loud character in the film). Anurag Sinha plays Numair, the ‘aasteen ka saanp’ character.
It is understandably visible Ghai likes Delhi. His Delhi is painted with the colors of modernization along with the aged eloquence of shayari and yesteryear reverie.
Habib Tanvir, Kumud Mishra & Jaimini Pathak form the theatrical front of the cast. Anyone versed with Indian theater wouldn’t demand an introduction for any of the three. Habib saahab is a legend no doubt. His rich baritone and unforgettable gaze takes me back to Doordarshan days.
I wonder why Kumud Mishra’s voice is not used here. Its a clear disrespect to his followers. Jaimini Pathak doesn’t get a great graph either, all he does is emote and emote more.
The music works well in the narrative but a good poetic theme track is sorely missed. Tanvir saahab’s thick screen aura needs a rich multi-hued score. I badly missed a Rahman track during the end titles(I remembered how a similar genred ‘Bose’ concluded elegantly with the soulful ‘Azaadi’). I agree Ghai has tried to keep the words simple but we could have done with some education.
Jise log kehte hain hindustan hai
Yehi aapne khwaabon ka pyaara jahaan hai
Kai mazhabo ka yehan ek nishaan hai
Yeh Hindustan hai Yeh Hindustan hai
Yehan koi seeta hai radha hai koi
Koi chand biwi hai rasiya hai koi
Kisan hai koi tho koi ram bhi hai
Mohabat hamara hi paigham bhi hai
Nirala yahan ka har ek naojawan hai
Yeh Hindustan hai Yeh Hindustan hai
Main chala constitutes some of the best moments in the film, a well-done montage that gives a third person perspective of the infiltration issue.
Ajnabee raste, ajnabee hai jahaan
Main kahaan se kahaan aa gaya hoon yehan
Saat rangon ki hai teri duniya haseen
Hai ujaala kahin to andhera kahin
Hai kahin shaam to kyun kahin hai sehar
Main chala main chala
The saat rangon bits complete the whole Black & White Vs Color symbolism/logic beautifully.
Kaisi hai uljhane kaise halaat hain
Dil main umde yeh kaise zajbaat hain
Hai dhuaan hi dhuaan raaston ke nishaan
Har kadam par mere honsle hai jawaan
Meri manzil mujhe aa rahi hai nazar
Main chala main chala
Is gali uss gali
Is dagar uss dagar
Is taraf uss taraf
Saath mere chale zindagi ka safar.
The penultimate thoughts in a fidayeen’s mind is what gave us the classic Dil Se climax. While the former played around with the idea beautifully, B&W too does not choose to go exposition and pay –off path and keeps it restrained and contained.
‘the night before’ is one of the better sequences I have seen in mainstream cinema in recent times.
It is interesting how Ghai has shot Anurag Sinha. The camera almost plays dhoop-chhanv with his face, capturing him in silhouettes, profiles and what not.
Kapoor is a class apart as usual. He can sleepwalk through such a role, and with Ghai you rarely expect anything less. Some of his memorable scenes are the ones towards the end, where you get the Anil Kapoor of Viraasat & Eeshwar. I like the way his and Anurag’s screen time is allotted.
Further on Anil Kapoor, I feel he could be our answer to Tommy Lee Jones’ wry portrayals off-late. He can convey the same post-life dense emotions given the right treatment.
Shefali Chhaya is a little overdone. Enough said.
Anurag Sinha emotes through his sullen eyes. He has a good tallaffuz(diction) as well. The film rightly doesn’t stuff too many things in his role, and keeps it linear.
Apart from the ‘out of the box’ tone of the film(to borrow a phrase from phoenixnu), one can spot the Ghai elements in minute proportions. ‘moment hai, freeze karo’, the part scene, the whole sakhis chhedofying the blushing heroine, the side-cast orchestra/band business, are few of them.
One might have problems with the factual accuracy of the film, I am not an expert so would ‘restrain’ from commenting on that. But as of me, it’s encouraging enough that a film maker like Ghai is at least making an attempt(if not wholly succeeding) to cross the larger demarcations drawn by us and the film community. Black & White rightly surprised me with its courage and ambition. I will wait for what Ghai churns out next, and no I am not expecting a Black & White – part 2. I would rather expect the sincerity that’s evident in this film to continue.
Tags: Medium
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Rahul Dholakia
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Varma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Sachin Kundalkar
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
why is the movie called Black & White?
Is there a montage sequence set to MJ’s song? or do we not have titles in hindi/urdu in a movie about an urdu professor and a fidayeen?
is this an attempt at bringing in the multiplex crowd?
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Maybe its a homage to the classic culture clash film
“Black and White in Color”.
OR
It’s a statement on how the world is essentially gray and can’t be categorized in B&W.
Title analysis is so fascinating. :d
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so true, Mithun! Like how I caught this comment off-hand while walking into the theater…
“itne paise dekar bhi black & white pichchar dekhni padti hai”
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So it’s safe to say that they wouldn’t be interested in watching “Schindler’s List” , “Ed Wood”, “The Man who wasn’t there” or “13 Tzameti” either.
But they had already bought the ticket so it’s cool then.
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Man who wasn’t there is one less talked about Coen. I loved it. Can’t imagine it in color. Want to see Frozen, guess its also done in B&W.
I loved few bits in Moksha where Ashok Mehta had played with color. Few more films I can think of in the Indian context are rang de basanti, guru, hindustani(indian), johhny gaddaar(opening scene), Iruvar…
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Editor’s Comment(tu)
Please DO NOT post links for illegal film/music download/streaming sites.This is NOT the place for such cheap thrills.
Well, there will probably be a lot of titties and gore so
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The title obviously points to the moral dichotomies the film attempts to blur.Its in search of harmonies but it cant do away with cliches–the obligatory microcosm of India society with a Black and White worldview,terrorists proclaiming “Iss dhamake ki aawaz poora mulkh sunega”,facile parallels drawn between the plight of a girl during a terrorist romp to a crumpled doll,a nominal love track representing earthly charms and all.
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I am surprised no one yet has pointed out how badly the CG effects were done.The cutaways from newsreel footage were so easily discernible.The BGM as usual sounded like a bunch of firecrackers going off in a tin can beneath you seat..and what about the horrible editing?
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Am I the only one who is thinking of
The Devil’s Own
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@Vinayak: Many people are talking about The Devil’s Own. But the fact is that the similarity between the two films is a very loose one. I would say Mission kashmir was closer to The Devil’s own than this one.
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For B/W films, I thought Sin City was great, in the way they used it, with occasional use of other colours.
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@Aditya
I will take your word for it.
I don
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@vinayak – thanks…after watching Black & White, I didn’t plan on writing about it, but ended up doing that because the film (for whatever reasons) made me dig up my old writings
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Speaking of films shot in black and white, in recent times, I loved what Robert Elswit did with Good Night And Good Luck. Masterful stuff.
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Anil kapoor ,what a performance by him,but the big promises which were made about the music doesn’t match up to its expectation. There is nothing new in the story.
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I haven’t seen the film yet but Anurag Sinha looks promising in the promos. Something about his eyes.. I guess knowing he’s an FTII graduate also raises the hope that he’s a fine actor.
Any comments on whether he’s got a future or not?
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Tony, you seem to have a knack of judging people like Subhash Ghai…I remember him saying that he did not even screen test AS and just a glance at his portfolio and he was in !!
:w;
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Excellent analysis Tushar!
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http://www.rediff.com/movies/2008/mar/06ghai.htm
How was the feeling of returning to direction after three years?
I was busier than ever in the last three years, because I was setting up my institute, Whistling Woods. It was a big responsibility. I could either make a film school or make a film, so I made a film school. Now that everything is set, I can make films.
You have a track record of hits that is very difficult to match, with the exception of your last film, Kisna, which flopped. Why did you now decide to make a film like Black & White rather than a safe commercial project?
You see, when I was making Karz, a lot of people said not to make it. The film flopped and I feel till the time you don’t have the guts to take a risk, you will never go ahead. Even when I gave 13 hits in a row, a lot of people said not to go ahead and make those films. When I made Taal , a lot of people said that there is no story. I said there is no story because this is a musical film. So as a director I bring strength to a film. When a writer gives me a story, I take it as a challenge and give strength to that film with direction. No film can be made without a risk.
When I was making Kisna, I thought it will be a big hit but it did not work. So it does not matter. I never over rejoiced with a hit and never went into depression because of a flop. You cannot have a 100 per cent success rate even if you are Steven Spielberg [Images]. I will stop making films only when I think I have started making bad films. And today I am privileged to work as long as I want, but I will quit the day when my body does not permit me to work anymore. I will also quit the day I feel my thinking and sensibilities are not matching with that of younger generation. I will quit gracefully; I don’t want to be thrown out.
Did you analyse what went wrong with Kisna?
I made a story that was based in the 1920s. You see the youngster of 1920 cannot match the youngster of today. Do you have your grandfather’s values? No. They are only there in photographs. And my mistake was to portray the values present in the photos of your grandfather to your generation. If you see Kisna after five years, you will understand it is a great film.
Take, for example, Karz. It was commercially a flop and every critic criticised that film. In the 1980s, Karz was like today’s Kisna. Today, however the same film is being remade by Himesh Reshammiya and everybody thinks it is a great film. So in contemporary times, sometimes you don’t get recognition.
What has happened to your plan of giving Rs 1 crore to a writer if he comes with a good script? Did you find anyone?
No one came to take it. I am sitting with Rs 1 crore. I am honest about it. I am ready to pay Rs 1 crore to someone who gives me story, screenplay and dialogue. And what is wrong in it? I can also pay Rs 2 crore! One crore is not a big amount in a Rs 25 crore film. So far 40 writers have come to see me, but I cannot pay them even Rs 10 lakhs because they are very poor writers. So my message to youngsters through you is that if they want to come in films they should forget acting and direction. They should become writers. I can say with a guarantee that in future writers will get Rs 5 crore because films will be worth Rs 100 crore.
Today writers also want to become directors and how can this happen? Mukta Arts [Get Quote] has given six scholarship seats for writing in Whistling Woods, because I feel writers are a very important part of filmmaking.
The general trend today among youngsters is that they do not read and only head straight to Google. They believe in doing control-C and control-V rather than going to libraries.
Yes, that is the unfortunate part. Today we have become people of cut and paste. Today, anyone who can do a better job of cut and paste has become a creative artist. The one who can pick and choose in best the way clicks. I feel pick and choose will not work and you have to be original. You can use Internet as a technique, but the craft within you needs a soul. You have to develop your own soul.
Do you feel media and critics were too harsh with you after the debacle of Kisna?
You see, the media loves me and also hates me. When you grow too big then some people find pleasure in seeing that person going downhill. When a big director’s film flops, then it is big news. I don’t think the media hates me.
Crucially, Kisna was released alongside the low-budget film Page 3, which clicked while your film didn’t. Why do you think this happened?
It is a simple answer. A film either works or doesn’t. So my film did not work and Page 3 worked. There is no big or small film. They become big and small only after release. Iqbal was a small film, but it became big after it was released. The same is the case with Joggers Park. The big and small of it is not important.
How do you feel when you read the news that superstar actors are charging Rs 42 crore per film? Do such huge figures make sense?
The picture is very clear. Corporate companies want to make the perception among investors that they are making films with big stars. I would say that they are heading towards making films with known losses.
You cannot pay 40-60 per cent of your film’s budget to only one actor. There is always a budget for a film whether it is a Rs 100 crore film or a Rs 10 crore film. Sixty per cent of any film’s cost is spent on production, and if you give 60 per cent to one actor that means you are making films with known losses. Today, brochures are being sold rather than movies.
When will you launch a new actor from Whistling Woods?
In July, our first batch will come out and then we will sit with scripts and take them. However, our emphasis is on trained people, whether it is from Whistling Woods, Pune Institute or some other place. We need trained people.
You did not take your favourite mascot Jackie Shroff in Black & White?
The same thing was asked about Anil Kapoor when I was making Yaadein . It is not like that. I took Anil Kapoor in Taal. This question will always be there with me.
In closing, can you tell us something about your lead actor Anurag Sinha? You are showing a lot of faith in him making a newcomer a leading man.
When you sit in the hall and hear Anurag’s voice and see his eyes, you will recall these words: he is a superb actor. You will be bowled over by his performance, and he is going to be a very big star. He may not have great looks but he is a great actor. A solid actor who will go places.
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Thanks Fatema
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The playing around with colours thing is nothing new.Many films use colours,clothes and donning pf costumes as motifs or in order to link characters,history and imply other things..for example the use of the colours yellow,beige and grey in Breakfast at Tiffany’s or the way the colour red was removed from Ellen Burnstyn’s track in Requiem for a Dream..
No Smoking used nicotine yellow quite well too.Prayogshala’s nicotine yellow was reminiscent of the stains that the bad habits of those cured had left behind…
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KCP, not judging, just giving my 2 cents…
I read that interview as well.. not sure to what extent its sincere and how much of it is to project sincerity to go with the films hype…
I also read an interview with Anurag where he talked about his 1st screen test… apparently Ghai was impressed with him pretty quick…
Maybe Ghai just knew what he was looking for interms of the character’s look, body language, and felt he could direct Anurag to get what he needed… I’ve heard there isn’t a heck of a dialogue for that character, so it was may have been a calculated risk… the question is, did it payoff?
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