The movie, Black, was the main winner at 2005 Indian Filmfare Awards winning eleven awards in total, breaking a record as a result. It then went on to win 10 awards in the 2006 IIFA Awards ceremony. Time Magazine (Europe) selected the film as one of the 10 Best Movies of the Year 2005 from across the globe. The movie was positioned at number five. It was also listed on the "25 Must See Bollywood Movies" by Filmfare Magazine.
Story:
Black is the story of blind and deaf girl (acted by Rani Mukherjee) who has been in darkness since she was born. No one, not even her parents, are able to help her in any way until an old alcoholic teacher, Debraj Sahai (acted by Amitabh Bachan), enters her life and takes on a mammoth of a task of bringing the young girl into light and ensuring her graduation from a normal college. The film is similar to the story of Helen Keller.
Screenplay:
Superb acting is produced by well-renowned veteran Amitabh Bachan and multiple award winning actress Rani Mukherjee. Probably this is the finest ever performance of Rani Mukherjee. Her turning point in acting came from the movie, Hey Ram whereby she claimed that Kamal Hassan changed the actress within her and indeed it was a very successful change. One is able to feel the pain and sufferings experienced by the girl and admire the determination and patience given by her teacher.
Cinematography:
Cinematography is very well done by providing the appropriate lighting to create the suitable mood and atmosphere such as the scene of the young girl.
Video Editing:
Not much video editing can be expected from this movie since the focus is on the story and the deep portrayal of the characters. However, few scenes like the one where Rani Mukherjee enjoys the snow are well edited.
Sarkar is a film which is obviously a remake of The Godfather, which the director and producer Ram Gopal Varma states right off.
"Sarkar" is a Hindi word directed at someone in authority, so I guess it's the closest translation available to "godfather."
Amitab Bachchan plays the title role, often looking like Gandhi and very quiet and thoughtful, a man of few words.
His son Abishek Bachchan plays the role of the Michael Corleone son - the one who doesn't want to be involved with crime but who is drawn into that world by his love for his father.
There's an equivalent of Freddy, the weak son who is used by the family's enemies and has to be killed. For reasons I don't understand, he's a film director.
For reasons I don't understand, there's no equivalent of Sonny, the strong but wild son who enjoys the life of crime but who gets killed in the middle of the family problems.
For me, the biggest problem is that it -- as well as Amitab Bachchan's character -- takes seriously Sarkar's role as "protector" of the poor, who aren't helped by the government's police and criminal justice system.
This was an aspect of The Godfather, but Don Corleone knew he was building a base of support for his criminal operations, not nominating himself for sainthood. Sarkar seems to believe his own propaganda.
Don Corleone never thought his hands were clean. True, he drew the line at dealing drugs, but otherwise he was getting rich catering to the weaknesses of people.
We never see what Sarkar is doing to support his gangs of do-gooders. There's one reference to union labor, but he's preventing another gangster from taking a short-term gain at a long-term cost - but the reference is not clear in the English subtitles. And again, we're never shown what criminal operations Sarkar is running. He's too busy waving to the crowds around his house.
He's evidently not as successful as Don Corleone was even in the 1950s. He and his family live in what looks like a fairly middle class house in Mumbai. So he's above average, but it's not fancy. Bollywood movies include many much more fancy houses and estates for the wealthy.
One point I found interesting, is that one of the "brains" behind the group who plot to destroy Sarkar is a "swami." I'm not familiar enough with the basic structure of Hinduism to know how much official standing this gives him, but he certainly looks and dresses like what we think of as a Hindu holy man. But he's allied with the criminals, though they address him respectfully as "swami-ji." Sarkar's son gets him to confess his knowledge of the corruption of the Chief Minister who supported the plotters by making him an offer he hd movies can't refuse, though that phrase isn't used in the movie.
However, it's interesting to me that Sarkar is portrayed as more moral and upright than an actual swami. I guess that has a lot more resonance in India than on me. I can't think of any Hollywood gangster movies where a priest is one of a team of gangsters.
At the end, of course, Sarkar's son triumphs all the enemies in a swift sequence of deaths, and he's the one who listens to the pleas of Mumbai's helpless people.