The Last Lear (USA Premiere)
130 Mins; English; India; 2007

Lead Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Arjun Rampa, Divya Dutta, Shefali Shah and Jisshu Sengupta.

Festival Played/ Awards Won: Toronto International Film Festival 2007

Synopsis: When we first meet veteran thespian Harish Mishra, he is gravely ill. His co-star, Shabnam is wracked with worry, but their director, Siddharth keeps strangely distant and refuses to visit his ailing star. In flashbacks, their story emerges. Siddharth first had to woo Harish from the comforts of his retirement, and the interaction between the two yields some of the film’s most delightful scenes. The impatient young auteur attempts to win the trust and collaboration of the aged performer, who sits raging against the modern world from the sanctuary of his study. Sporting a silver mane, Bachchan is irresistible here – vain, forceful and impetuous. He trumpets the superiority of Shakespeare over anything cinema can create. And yet, the movies hold out a new challenge. Once he agrees to act in the film, The Last Lear becomes a captivating reflection on the comparative artifices of stagecraft and cinema. As the outsider in the cast, Harish is hilarious in dismissing movie fakery. His theatre skills are grander. Standing on a hillside, he teaches Shabnam how to project her voice clear across a valley to the next hill.

Director: Rituparno Ghosh
Rituparno Ghosh was born in Kolkata to a family of artists. He graduated with a Master’s degree in economics from Jadavpur University and has served as editor of the Bengali film magazine Anandalok. His films have screened at festivals around the world, winning numerous accolades. Since making his feature debut in 1991 with Diamond Ring, he has directed fourteen feature films in total, ten of which he also wrote. Among them are Crossfire (97), The First Monsoon Day (01), Chokher Bali, A Passion Play (03), Raincoat (04), Dosar (06) and The Last Lear (07).