There is something to be said about restraint. A lot, in fact. We aren’t very aware of the stuff in Bollywood, struggling to tone down our item songs, and here, we have a nice little film like Black & White, positively brimming with it. For one, it features newcomer leading man Anurag Sinha, armed with less than 50 lines of dialogue in the entire enterprise and made to emote with his dramatically intense eyes. It’s a striking, somber debut and one that should be appreciated. Even more constrained than the leading man, however, is here the director. Subhash Ghai, he of the wide-brimmed hat — always synonymous with mega-budget cinema and much celluloid excess — now trades in the blockbuster gimmickry for an earnest, well-intentioned message movie. Black & White is a commendable effort and — while over-simplistic in a clear effort to reach the most audiences — proves to be most valid considering India’s increasingly disturbed religious climate. If the promos haven’t already made it clear, let us spell out what the film’s first few scenes tell you, in conveniently expository dialogues: Anurag plays a fidayeen suicide bomber sent from Afghanistan to India, aimed at making Independence Day celebrations more explosive. Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, where he goes, is a land the filmmaker paints in broad communal-harmony brushstrokes, yet this film impressively negotiates hardcore cliche territory without really getting grating, and manages to ? thanks to skillfully written dialogue ? make the maudlin and idealistic points without much grandstanding around them.