Black And White Hindi Movie Review
Black and White (drama)
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Anurag Sinha
Direction: Subhash Ghai
FOR a filmmaker who scaled Bollywood’s heights as the quintessential Sapnon ka Saudagar to suddenly shift gear is indeed a valiant bid. And Subhash Ghai deserves kudos for daring this switch in the high noon of his career, since experimentation is generally the forte of GenXers and Bratpack dreamers. Suddenly, and surprisingly, Ghai sets aside the grandeur of films like Ram Lakhan, Khalnayak to step into the difficult terrain of cinema verite. And no, he doesn’t flounder and fall flat, despite a few loose strands and false notes that hold back the film from becoming a searing document of our tumultuous times. Black and White is a thought-provoking film that challenges the state’s stereotypical formula to combat terrorism. And somewhere between its moments of light and shade, it holds a glimmer of hope and humanism: yes, fanatics can be cured, terrorists can be tamed, secularism may live long.
The story is ostensibly based on the headline-grabbing case of the terrorist attack on Parliament, when a Delhi University professor (SAR Geelani) was held responsible for his links with the terrorists. Like Geelani, Professor Rajan Mathur (Anil Kapoor) too teaches Urdu in Zakir Hussain College and unwittingly becomes associated with a suicide bomber (Anurag Sinha) who comes all the way from Afghanistan to blow up the Red Fort on Independence Day. Nomair Qazi, the bomber, poses as a victim of the Gujarat riots and wins the sympathy of the professor and his activist wife (Shefali Shah), as he takes up residence with his supposed grandfather (Habib Tanvir) in the bustling by-lines of Chandni Chowk. The jehadi has fourteen days to plan his suicide mission and conveniently uses the simple professor and his emotionally exuberant wife to gain entry in the high-security environs of the Lal Qila. But before that, he must learn the more important lessons of life. Source: TimesOfIndia
