A Black Friday

Two treats were on offer in TV. Thanks to my friends, who had messaged me about the shows on air, I saw both. The first one was ‘Best of Lollu Sabha’ with the spoof king Santhanam and Co mocking some of the best films like ‘Devar magan’ and ‘Mudhalvan’ with delightful ease and creating a laugh riot. Santhanam is badly missed these days because of his foray into films. His witty dialogue delivery and charisma had enthralled us long and it was quite pleasing to see him back, though atleast as memoirs.

The one which touched me most was the second one. It had been a while since I switched onto DD National for a program other than Cricket matches( because of the damn SetTopBox zombie that had been haunting the only cosmopolitan in India). I don’t see a movie for a second time unless it’s an awesome one. The movie which was shown fell into that category. ‘Black’ is one of those films which has to be applauded for tremendous performances of the cast, its offbeat theme, beautiful screenplay, camera work, editing ( almost everything was a perfect fit), all crafted by a wonderful director. It can make one cry and titillate your every sense. Every movie buff would consider this as one of the best movies they would have ever watched in their life time.

But I was pondering and had been doing so since the time when ‘Paheli’ was announced as the Indian nomination for the Oscars. Black was easily the movie of 2005, Paheli was no match for this exceptional movie. Paheli hadn’t been that big a commercial hit either, while Black had won rave reviews and earned huge box office success. Still politics and money influence and play havoc for nominations and awards.

The Film Maker deserved something better. These kinda movies really need to be encouraged and awarded so that the quality of movies coming from a big movie Industry like Bollywood can set new scales and scale new heights.

When I went to bed, I remembered what my friend had said when I enquired about the movie ‘Black’ before seeing it for the first time. His satirical reply was ‘A guy who can make Salman act ( Hum Dil De chuke sanam) should be a gud director man, an exceptional tool from his arsenal and a must see’. Can the National Film board pay heed to his advice and come out with something better when it comes to awards and nominations??????