How similar is this to the Indian movie 'Black'?

It's been awhile since I've seen them but I know the first half of Black is almost exactly like the miracle worker, which was why I didn't enjoy Black as much as I would've if I hadn't already seen The movie it was inspired from.
Amitabh comes to teach her and they go through the ropes just as in miracle worker - The protagonist eating like a animal, and the "water" scene is in there as well. It's basically just like it.

Black unlike the miracle worker goes a bit farther.
In the second half when it shows the protangonist all grown up and struggling through a regular college with the help of her teacher. That part seemed a bit unreal to me but whatever. I don't want to spoil it if you haven't seen it but the second half is pretty much original from what I can tell.

The two movies are inspired by the same true story, but there are some differences.

The American movie is based on the play by William Gibson who wrote the screenplay of the movie. Also the play and the movie both are directed by Arthur Penn, and the two main characters (Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller) are played by the same actresses (Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke) in the play and the movie, so this movie is like a cinematic version from the play. They started and ended like each other.

The Indian movie "Black (2005)" has a different screenplay, they also had changed the name of the characters and made it as an Indian story happened in India. But they announce in the beginning that the movie is inspired by the American story.

As shatteredsky1513 said, the whole American movie is like the 1st half of Black, they are the same until they reach the "Water scene". Here, The Miracle Worker ended and Black continued. The rest of Black is based on the true story of Helen Keller, also there are some original fiction ideas in the teacher side of the story.

The biggest difference between the two movies that they changed the sex of the teacher in the Indian version to male!

I've seen Black before 2 years and I like it very much, then I saw The Miracle Worker this week, and I love it. In between, I've read the true story of Helen Keller and her incredible teacher Anne Sullivan, and I Think it's the greatest story ever.

No, "Black" is not based on "The Miracle Worker", but "Black" is an adaptation of Hellen Keler's autobiography "The Story of My Life", and that's what the director Sanjay Leela Bansali cited as the source material.

Just because both movies are based on the same source material, that does not mean one is based on the other. In fact, there have been several film adaptations of Helen's autobiography long before "The Miracle Worker", as far back as "Deliverance" (1919) which starred Helen Keller herself.

Also, like ninmm pointed out, whereas The Miracle Worker is only based on her childhood, Black extends the story to adulthood but with a number of obvious changes to the plot.


"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM???!!!!!"