Maybe the true hero of b+w cinematic light, smoke and shadow was Indian. This really got to be something once the theatre scenes began - once it became a succession of audition pieces wherein a director tries to mould a poor woman into the image of his lost love. When the songs and mania really pick up. The grounding and flashbacks (ignoring that the whole movie is a flashback), while fine and necessary I suppose, swell, shimmer and excite nothing in comparison. It takes half the movie to get there but it’s a heavenly hell when it does.