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In a selection that has raised several eyebrows,
and being considered a blunder Sanjay Leela Bhansali's
'Black' starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee
in lead roles has been selected as one of the 10 best
movies of 2005 from across the world by Time magazine.
Black, described by the magazine as the "ultimate
Bollywood love story", is about a deaf-blind girl
played by Mukherjee and her teacher enacted by Bachchan
who introduces her to the world of words.
"This is an unusual film for India: no songs,
a running time under two hours, and most of the dialogues
in English, yet it became a box office hit. It could
also be a test for Western audiences unused to the fever
pitch of Indian melodrama; they may need a warning label
- Caution: Extreme Sentiment (May be Contagious),"
the magazine said about the movie.
Other films that made it to the Time list are Thailand's
'Citizen Dog' at number six, followed by 'The Constant
Gardner' of UK-US-Brazil-Kenya, 'Once You're Born' of
Italy, 'Wallace And Gromit In The Curese Of The Were-Rabbit'
of UK and 'Memoirs of Geisha' of US.
International magazines have often erred while depicting
Bollywood because of the misinformation touted to them
by vested but influential interests. Parveen Babi, a
heroine with a lesser stature (commercially as well
as talent-wise) once made it to the cover of the same
Time magazine.
Bhansali’s black, though marketed well and appreciated
by the critics, is not an original film. It is a remake
of `The Miracle Worker`, produced in 1962. It is because
of these limitations that it was not nominated for Oscars
and a Shah Rukh Khan starrer `Paheli` has become the
official Indian entry.
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