Subhash Ghai is all excited about his next movie - Black & White

Though Subhash Ghai has a large body (you thought I was referring to his girth didn't you?) of work, he is till excited and nervous as a young school boy about his next movie - Black & White. The one obvious reason is that it is the first movie in a couple of years that he has directed. Seems to be a good decision too, if you see his last masterpiece (of course I am sarcastic), Kisna. That movie singularly pulled Vivek Oberoi from the star orbit to struggling actor ground level. Ghai had done a Kisna of Hrithik Roshan too with Yaadeein. Though one must say Hrithik had the backing of his father Rakesh Roshan, who helped with recover with Koi Mil Gaya and Krrish. ANd of course he later had Dhoom 2. Unfortunately Vivek had no sugar to bail him out.

Media reports are supposedly carrying good reports about Black & White, and even the man Ghai is talking about it favorably. The visuals are good and it seems to have a good topic. Of course one has to eventually see if the movie is deep and meaningful and has a soul or not, or Ghai has randomly picked up a plot and stretched it to make a full length feature film. He is notorius for not giving importance to a strong story line. So lets see if his optimism this time is misplaced or worth the price of a movie ticket.

Subhash Ghai's Black & White may turn out to be a surprise hit

The movie Black & White which is to be released by Ghai's Mukta arts soon may actually surprise a lot of people and become a hit. And the person who may be surprised the most might be Subhash Ghai himself!!! Thats because the last time he gave a hit, we were in the stone ages.

It has been a sad degeneration of a film maker who was handed the title of Showman, previously belonging to Raj Kapoor. Obviously the pressures were too much or he got carried away and got too conceited. For any person, and more importantly a professional artiste, growth is very important. What is success without intellectual growth. Perhaps thats why they say that failure hands out more lessons than success. Perhaps thats what happened to Mr. Ghai. He got big successes - perhaps easier than others got them. That went to his head and he assumed he knew all there was to film making. But film making is nothing but story telling in a audio-visual medium. And one needs to be able to read the lessons every day life gives you. Not announce films without stories, re-use formula's and pay more importance to the name of the actress you are launching. And in many cases rename her so her name is more correct numerologically (is there is any word like that).

And the trap is truly set when film makers go to controversial stars with criminal backgrounds just to ensure they get a chunk of the media bytes (Sanjay Tada Dutt?). The movie he made in that case Khalnayak was trash (cept that raunchy Choli number by Ms Dixit) and it was badly received but for Mr. Ghai it was good enough to count as a hit. Now thats where you know a person has fallen on hard times when he finds mediocre success thrilling. I found even Saudagar all tripe. And then things went worse. Movies like Yaadein, Kisna though he got a Pardes in between. That i reckon was his last hit.

Now the erstwhile Showman has started producing more movies in the hope of improving his success rate. Makes sense na? If it clicks, its a Mukta film. Else the director botched up the vision. As had Nagesh Kukkunoor in Bombay to Bangkok. Sigh!!!

Anyways, Black & White is carrying reports (planted I guess) that the young kid, Sinha is impressive in the film and it make even a seasoned pro like Anil Kapoor insecure. How insecure we will see after the movie releases. The music is by Sukhwinder and he has given the expected Punju flavor and the title song is good- earthy and catchy. The trailers look promising. The story seems ok. Lets see the movie. Best of luck, Mr. Ghai.