Dir. Rituparno Ghosh. India 2007. 130 min.
An overly complicated film-within-a-film story, told through multiple narrators, causes confusion in Rituparno Ghosh's The Last Lear. The film was conceived as a vehicle for the greatest living idol of Indian cinema, Amitabh Bachchan, in his first full length English-language film. The role of a mercurial stage giant who is brought out of retirement to act for the first time in a film, the part fits Bachchan like a glove, and gives him the chance to go over the top as many times as he likes. Had the script devoted more time to his character and less to the emotional problems of three women moving in his orbit, the film would have gained in coherence. As it stands, the audience's engagement varies as topics are confusingly pieced together.

With matinee heartthrobs Preity Zeita and Arjun Rampal in tow, Ghosh cannot fail to score at home, but Indian communities abroad are still the best bet for the international market.

Harish Mishra (Bachchan) is a Shakespearean actor who mysteriously decided to leave the stage after 30 glorious years, and following a long period of hibernation is now making his first film. Siddhart (Rampal), a young film director, wants Harry as the lead in his next film, a story about the death of the circus art form. He is to play a clown who dies in the last shot of the film. The star allows himself to be courted by the flattering young man, but once shooting starts, the friendship is strained, and their confrontations reach tragic proportions.

Ghosh's film begins with the premiere of the film-within-the-film (entitled 'The Mask'), and it is soon evident that due to illness Harry is not in a position to come to the opening, while its female star, Shabnam (Zinta) has no intention to go. The circumstances surrounding the making of the film are then told in flashbacks.

The plotlines concerning the conflict between Harry and his director, and Harry's tutoring of the much younger Shabnam, should have sufficed. Piling up on top of it Shabnam's marital disaster, the tantrums of Harry's faithful companion Vandana (Shefalli Shah) and the heartaches of Ivy (Divya Dutta), Harry's nurse, is distracting and confusing.

The plot of 'The Mask' itself is never sufficiently clarified to have an actual impact on the film. The film is confused still further by the way several narrators are needed to spin out the various components of the plot, with each giving his own point of view.

Bachchan fully justifies his lofty reputation every time he launches into one of his character's beloved Shakespearean monologues, in a performance of often great intensity. Zinta, Shah and Dutta, however, all have a tendency to over-act.

As the maverick film director who will sacrifice everything in the interest of his film, Rampal is given too little material to make a go of his part. His grim determination to achieve his own vision of perfection is clear enough, but the justification for the infamy of the final act in the film is never satisfactorily explained.

Director
Rituparno Ghosh

Production companies
Planman Motion Pictures Production (In)

International sales
Planman Motion Pictures Production (In)

Executive producers
Shubho Shekhar Bhattacharjee

Producers
Arindam Chaudhuri

Screenplay
Rtiuparno Ghosh inspired by play 'Aajker Shahjehan' (The Emperor Today') by Utpal Dutt

Cinematography
Abhik Mukherjee

Editor
Arghya Kamal Mitra

Production design
Indranil Ghosh

Music
Raja Naraya Deb
Sanjoy Das

Main cast
Amitabh Bachchan
Preity Zinta
Arjun Rampal
Shefali Shah
Divya Dutta
Jisshu Sengupta

Topics