THE LAST LEAR

DESERVED A BETTER DEAL !

The Last Lear,definitely deserved a better deal.Even after hearing and reading such poor reviews,about the film,I went ahead to watch it,and good that I used my intuitions to guide me,or I would have missed a masterpiece.Like Paheli,Shabd and many other movies,this movie to,is being judged,superficially,without understanding the depth of the reality of life contained in it.Like the Pandora's Box,the story has a three layered story!

The first layer is the movie on its face,as it is presented,based in the time scale of a night,narrates the making of a movie,through flash backs.The story revolves around the film industry or rather more appropriately the entertainment world,giving a detailed insight into the lives of people involved in circus,theatre and cinema.placed in the current times.The plot is based around Amitabh,a retired actor of Shakespearean plays whose passion for Shakespeare,his plays and theater is more than that for his life.The story highlights the dying culture of circus,the decreasing love for stage and the increasing craze for cinema.Arjun Ramphal plays a Bengali director,keen to make a movie on arts and artists,who convinces Amitabh with great difficulty , to play the role of a joker who being rendered jobless,after the closing down of circus,commits suicide.Based on Utpal Datts novel,Aaj Ker Shahjahan,the movie is a splendid blend of the arts,where a hardcore stage artist.plays the role of a circus joker in a commercial film.The Directors brother tries to compile a book on actors,through his interaction with Amitabh,while shooting of the film.

The movie(in the movie)takes an unexpected turn in the end,when Amitabh refuses to have a duplicate substitute him,in the climax scene,when the joker jumps off a hill to kill himself.With the guidance from the duplicate and the help of foliage,Amitabh gives a good take successfully,but Arjun Ramphal,as the director,aspiring for the perfect last shot,is not happy,with the trees coming to the rescue of Amitabh,orders a retake,with the hill cleared of foliage,without informing Amitabh.Amitabh again gives the retake,with perfection,but in reality sustains potentially lethal injuries.

Ritoparno Ghosh's direction is par excellence,and the ambiance of Kolkatta and the Bengali film industry created,is realistically marvelous.Preity Zinta plays a leading Bengali star,and co star of Bachan in the movie.who is in the movie,to highlight the problems of a female actor in the film industry,With a semblance to Khoya Khoya Chand,this movie also focuses on the love affairs,exploitation,poor reputation ,disturbed married life and stress of actresses and even of other working women,specially with long and late or night working hours.The photography,cinematography,lighting,editing and the overall realistic impact is of the highest international standards.The story is touching,plot strong and dialogues ,mostly in English are highly impressive and meaningful,made more powerful with the most appropriate amalgamation with extracts from Shakespeare.The songs and music ,specially in the back ground give the movie,great authenticity.

Amitabh Bachan has actually given a life time performance,and probably his best.He has looked convincingly passionate and madly obsessed with stage,theatre and Shakespeare.He has not only established his histrionic capabilities once again beyond doubt but has also proved again that he is probably the best actor we ever had in Indian cinema.Arjun Ramphal has given a great performance as the obsessed Bengali director which may be one of his best.Preety Zinta has done justice to her role,but could have done better and she was definitely not the best choice for the role.Shefali Shah and Divya Datta have acted well,and so have the other characters in small roles.

In the second stage,the movie has brilliantly contrasted the theatre and movies.The theatres,are generally no frill,any budget production,with great professionalism and where the actor and the writer are of paramount importance,The sanctity of the script is respected to the minutest detail and much of the success of the play depends depends upon the performance of the actor,for that very show.there are no cuts,retakes or camouflaging with photography,dubbing and editing as in cinema.the movies in contrast are the display of money and technology,where the acting capabilities are secondary.There is a great scope of manipulation and falsification in cinema,where the director is generally the showman,and actors puppets in his or her hands.Stage represents the simple life of yesteryears,and the cinema,the upwardly mobile,technical savvy,complicated present day life!

The story goes further to other deep philosophy of life,and revolving around,Shakespeare,has very aptly depicted the world as a stage,in Shakespears words,and we,actors in the play of life.We play different roles in our lives,at various ages and stages,and often more than one simultaneously ! In playing these roles,we often hide or even loose our real selves,and what is known or seen or heard of us,is not all or not our real self.We ourselves often do not know ourselves well !! We use make up on ourselves to mask the true feelings and emotions.Every role in life that we play,has its importance and has to be balanced well for a good survival,and there is always a scope of improvement and hence we have to go on struggling and working hard to improve,in whatever we are doing,There is no place for stagnation and one always has to be on the alert to put the best foot forward as there is no retake in life !Present day life is full of treachery,hypocrisy,competition and a struggle for survival,and to outshine the other,where each one is in a hurry to reach the top,at any expense,even at the risk of hurting and even the career or at times the life of others,for personal success!Under the name of success and the upwardly mobile life,we are often lonely,insecure,dis trusting and crave for the simple tension free lives!

The insistence of Amitabh,to perform the climax scene himself,is the crux of the story,each one to his or her battle of life,we have to fight it alone,and no one,no matter how close or sincere,can do that for us.We have to live our lives,ourselves,as it is destined and as we have carved it to be!!

Last Lear is a masterpiece and a must see for all cine-lovers

Dr Sanjay Kapoor Lucknow