Thursday, December 29, 2005

Black - Modern Classic or Ponderous Self-Obsession?

Today's edition of DNA reports that Bhansali's 'Black' has made it to the Time list of top 10 movies of 2005. 'Black' has been a much-discussed movie in 2005, be it for the vociferous reviews or for the Oscar nomination controversy.

IMHO, 'Black' had all the potential to be a true classic, but Bhansali messed up in trying to belabor the point in all those black, white and grey frames. Moreover, IMO I consider 'Khamoshi', and not 'Black', to be Bhansali's best movie ('HDDCS' was all-gloss-no-substance, and let us not even discuss 'Devdas' here!!). 'Khamoshi' had an unpretentiousness to it that 'Black' sorely lacked. Everything about 'Black' had Bhansali screaming 'Hey! See how great I am!', somewhat like the kind of movies Kamal Hassan makes nowadays. The Big B was sorely out of his depth in the first half of the movie - eccentricity doesn't necessarily equate to decibel level, as Papa Bachchan amply illustrated in the pre-interval portions of the movie. Ayesha Kapoor effortlessly overshadowed the Big B in what little screen space they shared together.

However, in the latter half of the movie, Amitabh was reasonably good (though I still do not think he was as good as all the reviews claimed. IMO AB is no patch on N.Shah, Om Puri, Kamal Hassan or Mohan Lal). Rani Mukherjee makes the most of an author-backed role. The rest of the cast is competent.

As for the accusations of 'copy-and-paste', I have to confess that I have not seen 'The Miracle Worker'. However, if the book (of the same name) is any indication, Bhansali seems to have 'borrowed' more than a few scenes. However, I am convinced that Bhansali is too talented a director to shamelessly pilfer, like Sanjay Gupta and Mahesh Bhatt do with such aplomb and gusto!

If only Bhansali could have been a little less self-indulgent !!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I never realised how important a good bed was until I got a bad back�.
Over 1,400 members of BackCare, the national organisation for healthy backs, responded to our Back Your Bed survey - the first of its kind to explore the views on beds of those who suffer from bad backs and the experts who treat them.
SUMMARY OF THE BACK YOUR BED SURVEY RESULTS
Buying a good bed is one of the most important purchases you can make when it comes to back pain relief. Nine out of 10 say their bed is more important to them since they developed back pain; 98% agreed that a good, supportive bed could help a bad back. 82% of experts felt that the right bed could help prevent back pain.
"If you cannot rest properly and sleep well, this hinders recovery from back problems."
A firm, supportive bed, not a hard one, can do wonders to ease and even prevent bad backs. Only 22% of sufferers had bought a bed classed as �orthopaedic�; while 28% describe their bed support as �medium�. Only 6% of experts would recommend an orthopaedic bed to patients.

Three quarters would be prepared to spend more than �500 on a new bed: compared with just 36% of the �normal� population. Nearly one in 10 would pay more than �2,000 for a new bed to get the comfort and relief they need.
Back pain sufferers are twice as likely as the rest of the population to own a new bed - 50% have beds that are less than five years old compared to the national average of 24%.
88% are satisfied with their choice � but 16% said they would get a better quality one next time; while 9% would opt for something firmer; 5% said they would choose a softer bed and 4% wanted a bigger one.

Sufferers are three times more likely to replace their beds when they no longer feel comfortable (65% compared with just 20%).
31% own a king size bed compared with 11% generally. Separate mattresses zipped together are also popular with couples whose support needs differ or who are easily disturbed by their partner's movements. top
So worth considering when buying a