movie reviews ... and more
The Last Lear - Preview
The Last Lear
NOT A REVIEW - Just a bit on the names involved with the movie...
A tale within a tale. Theater in cinema. And apparently, the plot assumes that theater is superior to cinema, and yet cinema is used as the medium to portray the thought.
In
an interview, director Rituparno Ghosh talks about his passion to bring Utpal Dutt's work outside Bengal -
Utpalda has always been known as a comedian and a character actor. He never got the recognition he deserved. I wanted to revive this play as a tribute to him, as his contribution to cinema is very important. His work was known and confined only to Bengal. I wanted to change that.
In the same interview, the director is all praise for his cast Preity Zinta, Arjun Rampal, and of course Amitabh Bachchan. But not-so-complimentary things have been said in reviews by people who have seen The Last Lear in the festival circuit. And the third English review on imdb is just about lukewarm. The gist being that it’s confusing, slow and the actors are good at over-acting.
I was wondering how it'd feel to see Amitabh Bachchan in a play. 'Awesome' is the only word that I can think of. And this is the closest we are going to get watch him in a play. But, come to think of it, theater-acting, in general tends towards over-dramatization. Which is also the typical fashion in which Shakespearean dialogue is delivered. So, it'll be interesting to see him when he's not the character in a play/movie.
Which brings me to a quote from the official site and other promo material: "this is Bib B's best till date" Now, that's a tall claim. Obviously, I don’t expect them to advertise that the response at the festivals was not the best. But, this marketing claim in combination with producer, Arindam Chaudhuri's name reminds me of the huge controversy about 3 years ago revolving around his business school.
Anyway, still nothing can take away from the fact that the movie is certainly going to be a different experience. Whether the experience will also be special or not, is a question I'll be able to answer tomorrow.
The Last Lear - Movie Details
- Official Sites: Website
- Producer: Arindam Chaudhuri
- Director: Rituparno Ghosh
- Lead Cast: Amitabh Bachchan
![[Has twitter account]](/site_media/images/icons/twitter_small.png)
, Arjun Rampal, Preity Zinta, Shefali Chhaya Shah, Divya Dutta - Supporting Cast: Jisshu Sengupta
- Screenplay: Rituparno Ghosh
- Dialogues: Anjana Basu, Rituparno Ghosh
- Cinematography: Abhik Mukherjee
- Editor: Arghya Kamal Mitra
- Background Score: Sanjoy Das, Raja Narayan Deb
- Reviewer: meetu
- Categories: Hindi Movies
- Genres:
The Last Lear - Trailer
The Last Lear - All reviews summary
External Reviews
17 reviewers have given The Last Lear an average rating of 2.5/5.0. 4 yays, 4 nays, 9 so-so. See all external reviews »
Comments (13)
the best movie of the year so far, guys go watch it...
!!! Spoilers in this comment !!!
I vehemently believe that you are being absurd in majority of the parts of your review for this movie. Your question, "what was it about?" is at the peak of utter absurdness. What was "Sholay" about? A widow who was falling in love? A woman who was a cart driver? A police officer who lost his hands? A dacoit who was defeated by two heroes? "A little bit of each, a whole lot of ultimately nothing."? How stupid your questions for The Last Lear sound is beyond any human to express. The movie is simply about how extreme passion can ultimately get to destroy oneself and the people related. Harry had to give up his life for the passion of "controlling" his scene himself, without any stunt man. Siddharth had to live on with a heavy guilt all his life due to his "perfect" climax. The three women were used as subplots. That is all. It was a perfectly sweet and beautiful film in the end.
PS: Your notes like for this movie were really interesting and magnificent. But your review really disappoints. Reflection suggested.
Rajat, when you put it that way, it makes sense. But, none of this came across to me while watching the movie. The focus of Sholay was crystal clear. That the cart driver, the widow were clearly sub-plots in 'Sholay'. The women in "The Last Lear" had much more substantial roles.
"Reflection suggested."
Suggestion accepted. Thanks!
The film represents a major miscalculation in its adaptation of what must be a fairly static play and its use of Bachchan as an aging Shakespearian actor.
But it is still a pleasure to watch Mr. Bachchan declaiming lines from “ Lear” and rendering wisdom in his rich, stentorian voice. Honestly speaking,the script is extremely melodramatic, which is unexpected from a Ghosh's film.
Hey, this is a cool blog..just stopped here!!
Its a one-stop blog for any movie review.
I have a suggestion Meetu. Since the main blog now contains all sorts of articles - reviews, to-each-his-owns, pre-reviews, happy birthday etc, can we please have a link to "reviews by date posted" under the "Reviews Index" menu on the left hand side? This will only contain links to all the reviews, sorted by date, most recent on top. That will be really helpful and improve navigability on the website.
Thanks, Sara!
Thanks for the suggestion, Sanket. The scrolling of posts has been annoying me too. Currently working on a complete site-rehaul. Much much more user-friendliness is promised. Meanwhile, I'll try to see if the review category can be set-up in the navigation bar itself or like the way you said.
Guess....those who have seen Utpal Dutt ...doing a shakespearean play.....can only..recommend AB take his ....theatre..lessons...from the late Utpal Dutt.........
the best movie of the year so far, guys go watch it…
!!! Spoilers in this comment !!! I vehemently believe that you are being absurd in majority of the parts of your review for this movie. Your question, “what was it about?” is at the peak of utter absurdness. What was “Sholay” about? A widow who was falling in love? A woman who was a cart driver? A police officer who lost his hands? A dacoit who was defeated by two heroes? “A little bit of each, a whole lot of ultimately nothing.”? How stupid your questions for The Last Lear sound is beyond any human to express. The movie is simply about how extreme passion can ultimately get to destroy oneself and the people related. Harry had to give up his life for the passion of “controlling” his scene himself, without any stunt man. Siddharth had to live on with a heavy guilt all his life due to his “perfect” climax. The three women were used as subplots. That is all. It was a perfectly sweet and beautiful film in the end. PS: Your notes like for this movie were really interesting and magnificent. But your review really disappoints. Reflection suggested.
Rajat, when you put it that way, it makes sense. But, none of this came across to me while watching the movie. The focus of Sholay was crystal clear. That the cart driver, the widow were clearly sub-plots in ‘Sholay’. The women in “The Last Lear” had much more substantial roles. “Reflection suggested.” Suggestion accepted. Thanks!
The film represents a major miscalculation in its adaptation of what must be a fairly static play and its use of Bachchan as an aging Shakespearian actor. But it is still a pleasure to watch Mr. Bachchan declaiming lines from “ Lear” and rendering wisdom in his rich, stentorian voice. Honestly speaking,the script is extremely melodramatic, which is unexpected from a Ghosh’s film.
Guess….those who have seen Utpal Dutt …doing a shakespearean play…..can only..recommend AB take his ….theatre..lessons…from the late Utpal Dutt………
Leave a new comment