This week’s Friday release Black and White gives us info about quite a few bombs, - how to tame a suicide bomber and how to sit through a movie, which will eventually bomb at the box office. Its time to relieve Subhash Ghai of the “Showman” tag and award him with a ” No Show ” tag. And its high time for him to step down from the director’s seat, after giving a hat trick of bombs- Yaadein, Kisna and now Black & White (which can instill suicidal tendencies amongst audiences for sitting through them) and just stick to being a producer.
There is nothing white about this movie as everything is black except for the performances by Anil Kapoor, Anurag Sinha and Shefali Shah. Couple of years back we saw Amir Khan-the terrorist disguised as a flirty guide, but being a perfectionist he made it look real. Now come back to B & W guys, we have our Anurag Sinha as Numair Qazi- Fidayeen from an Afghan terror camp, a hardcore terrorist with a heart of stone, comes to Delhi on a mission. A mission to blow up the Red Fort on August 15- Hah! As if it was possible for this guy to do it single handedly, and I guess there is something called security too, Mr. Ghai thinks we are dumb enough to take it??
But then our quiet and grim terrorist must have seen the famous movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum, because he heads straight to Chandni Chowk, saare Delhi mein Chowk hi mila tha?? Our stone cold terrorist is given aasra by a wise poet (Habib Tanvir) in Chandni Chowk, our Afghani hunk does his homework well and passes himself as a victim of Gujarat riots justifying his hatred towards disbelievers. Neighbors to our poet are Rajan Mathur ( Anil Kapoor ), an Urdu professor at Delhi university and his red-hot-chili-pepper social activist wife ( Shefali Shah-she is superb). Now our Professor Rajan is a believer of secularism, and makes no stone unturned to bring peace amongst Hindus and Muslims of Chandni Chowk, so he is a part time peacemaker.
The story moves forward, as our suicide bomber bumps into our peacemaker couple, who welcome him into their own family, loving, caring and giving happiness to him (which he never got back home), as they would have given to their own son. Now this results in conflicts in Numair’s mind, and we are left to wonder which part of the mind he will eventually listen to. Great and sensitive story we can say, but it fails miserably to keep the audience gripped to their seats- Chalo yaar jaldi suicide bombing kario, I cant sit through this crap, is what the audience starts to think.
Naah! Numair is not the real suicide bomber of the movie it’s the screenplay. Mr Ghai ruins the climax of the movie, making it unreal and unconvincing, even a child with a lollipop in his mouth will laugh at it. The only way to understand the ending is to rip off the main plug of your brain or you can become Paris Hilton, only if you really want to.
Anurag Sinha, does a good job as a debutant, with few dialogues to mouth, he manages to express through his eyes and body. Anil Kapoor acts convincing and composed. Shefali Shah is as usual great. Aditi Sharma-huh does she deserve a mention, I wonder how did she won that superstar reality show. Habib Tanvir has a great screen presence. The background score of the movie is good,and the songs are bad. Surely Mr Ghai deserves a pat on his back, for venturing into this dangerous territory, the thought and possibility that terrorists can be reformed makes the viewer bound to think about it.
But the whole package is a real disappointment, with nothing exciting and gripping. The bad movie at the end of the day overshadows the brilliant performances by the cast. We can say Black and White is a suicide bomber at the Box Office.
Rating: ** 1/2 out of 5
Verdict: Can be watched once, but beware- watch at your own risk!
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