This story is from March 5, 2008

Will Black & White fight BO blues?

Nishant / TNN / Mar 5, 2008, 00:00 IST

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With films having sepia sequences, and some B&W Bollywood classics being re-released in colour, we wonder how will a complete B&W film fare at the BO.

doweshowbellyad=0; Still from Saawariya.More picsWhat if you get to know that a movie, complete with a black and white palette and a contemporary theme is all set to release? Word of caution- when we say black and white movie, we mean one where there are no colours, as opposed to the one-off monochrome shades in RDB, Golmaal, Black and Saawariya.
Teacher and film buff Sujeet Srivastava, for one, is all for such a film.��I would be eager to watch such a movie,�� he enthuses, adding, ��It will indeed be zara hat ke, as they say in filmy parlance.��
Collegian Vanraj Kohli echoes Srivastava��s thoughts saying, ��a black and white movie will for sure appeal to the viewers as it will be beyond their expectations and will strike an instant connect,�� even as he adds that the packaging too will matter for the film to click. ��The audience is concerned with what��s being offered to them and how it is packaged,�� he cautions.
Indeed there is something enigmatic about a black and white movie, a form of cinematic expression that shaped the Indian film industry as it stands today. But the question is - will it work now, what worked then? Although the audience sounds positive, people involved with the business of films do not seem to buy the theory entirely.

Film critic Komal Nahata totally rubbishes the idea saying that it would be like ��wearing a dhoti kurta and going to a discotheque.�� Furthermore, according to him it even would be foolish to attempt such a project in these times ��until and unless the subject cries out loud for a black and white treatment.��
Agreeing with Nahata, well known filmmaker Prakash Jha questions the mere idea of making such a movie. ��What is the objective of making such a film?�� he wonders. And when told the audience is ready to accept the change, his reply is: �� Let the audience wish what they want. But as a filmmaker, given a choice, I would not attempt that.��

Preferring to tread the middle path, noted filmmaker Muzzafar Ali provides an interesting perspective: ��It all depends on whether the financier is ready to take that risk.�� But will it be a risk, we ask? ��Not exactly,�� Ali reasons, ��as it will be an interesting attempt. Also, we need not forget that the success of a film depends largely on various other aspects also such as the subject or the characterisation of the movie, or even the music.��
Kohli��s thoughts find a resonance in Ali��s words when he too cautions that ��Not all subjects can be treated with a black and white palette, so the filmmaker has to be cautious before attempting the experiment.��
That filmmakers and film viewers are on different planes seems apparent when another film aficionado, Amitabh Laloriya, branch head of a private insurance company, gives black and white films his stamp of approval. He says, ��I don��t think these films will look bizarre or will fail. In fact, people will be more than keen to watch such a movie on the sheer basis of its uniqueness.�� What��s more Laloriya is positive that a well made B&W film will make money as well.

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