The Last Lear—–Off Beat cinema
Posted on September 15, 2008
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Movie: The Last Lear; Star Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Arjun Rampal, Preity Zinta, Divya Dutta, Shefali Shah, Prosenjit and Jishu; Director: Rituparno Ghosh.
This is full-length bollywood English-language film and also the first film where one plays an actor doing a film within the film. This movie is a first for many as the Bollywood venture in English. Rituparno Ghosh, the director known for non-commercial movies, has once again come up with a masterpiece that has won rave reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival, the London Film Fest and the IFFI, too.
The film script has been taken from a play by Bengali actor and playwright, Utpal Dutt and the realistic performance of Amitabh Bachchan makes the audience to stay glued to the screens from the very outset. Indian cinema generally has less of Shakespearean stuffs but in Hollywood you have many actors who did Shakespearean roles. Bachchan looks very powerful in the movie, as if everything has been made for him to perform that way; in a way establishing how he is also capable of surviving in Hollywood, too. It’s amazing to watch him perfect confident in the film.
Movie is basically about an aging actor who has Shakespeare deep inside him. An actor who have had good time with theater but was never on movies. This aging actor Harish Mishra (Harry) played by Amitabh Bachchan is a very versatile, he is at a stage of life where he has reached some sort of expertise and the person is genius in himself. His skills in theater is exploited by a movie director as he is called to perform a role in modern cinema. The actor is left with fatal injuries after the shoot. The film tries to say that cinema as a medium is less powerful and unrealistic, when compared to stage.This character exhibits a lots variations and Mr. Bachchan just preformed it right. I can’t imaging anyone else to replace or to act for this character.There is a movie director who is young and intelligent Sidhartha (Played by Arjun Rampal), he find Harry just suitable for his upcoming project and he convinces Harry to play role in the movie though Harry is a bit confused to start in movies at this stage of life. So in short, movie revolves around Harry and his dream role as King Lear in the movie The Last Lear.
Looking at performances, everyone has done the finest role. Be it Preity Zinta as Shabnam or Arjun Rampal as the innovative young movie director. Rituparno Ghosh, whom we know for his off beat style and as a good story teller has given us wonderful movie. Though not for masses but being Amitabh there, I hope this movie can do some good business.
Amitabh Bachchan has been delivering strong performances in the past also. Arjun Rampal is evolving into a fine actor; which is very clear in this film. This is another performance that would fetch Arjun great applause. Preity is ok enough. Shefali Shah is superb. Divya Dutta is wasted. Prosenjit is alright. Jishu is impressive.
The good part of the film is that the cinematography is beautifully done. The locations are superb. Most of the shooting has been done in Himalayan location of Uttaranchal.
The problem with ‘The Last Lear’ is that there’s too much of Shakespeare in the movie, which, to put it bluntly, isn’t everyone’s cup of tea for a simple reason that Indian audience are not much into Shakespeare. Besides, certain themes may hold some appeal for those into theater, but don’t work on cinematic level.
Also, Rituparno Ghosh’s choice of the subject has its limitations. It’s good to think different, but only when you know you can appeal to the crowd.
On the whole, ‘The Last Lear’ has something for the Festival circuit, but nothing for the cinema-going general audience in India. At the box-office it can attract people mostly from the urban sectors of the society.
A good movie and must watch if you love to go offbeat cinema .
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