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Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Arjun Rampal, Preity Zinta

The Last Lear "I shall be good simply because I cannot be bad." This is Harry, an aging, eccentric, Shakespearean actor in Rituparno Ghosh's The Last Lear. The line works equally well for the actor playing Harry: Amitabh Bachchan. Here he delivers soliloquies, breathes fire, hams and generally chews up the scenery but even when he's way over the top, Mr B commands attention. He holds your gaze, even as the rest of the film wilts away. Working from Utpal Dutt's play Aajker Shahjahan, Ghosh creates a character study of a theatre actor who lives largely on vodka and memories of past glories. Harry had spent precisely 30 years and 9 months on stage but then he suddenly quit and never came back. A movie director convinces Harry to act in film. Harry takes on the role of a circus clown but this adventure ends in tragedy.

Ghosh's affection for Harry is palpable. The film works best when Ghosh is setting up his character - a man who has tins hanging on a rope instead of a door-bell. Harry insists this should work just as well - all it needs, he says, is that visitors have a little imagination. Harry's relationship with the director Sid is also nicely established - there is a wonderful scene of Sid and Harry trying to catch passers-by as they pee on the walls of Harry's house. However, these sparkling moments are bogged down by a ponderous pace and a meandering script. Ghosh spends too much time setting up his film within a film framework. There is also a tedious sub-plot that involves an actress, nicely played by Priety Zinta, and her abusive lover. Post-interval, the script becomes even more incoherent and the climax is totally unconvincing. We are never persuaded by the events that take place so it's hard to conjure up ache for the tragedy. Ghosh veers between underlining too much-there is annoying voice-over telling us what we already know-and not telling enough - we don't find out why Harry left the stage until the last reel. As a filmmaker, he also sends out a decidedly mixed signal telling us that theatre is a much higher artistic calling than cinema. The Last Lear is a poignant story that doesn't realise its potential. It's frustrating because the material and performances are rich. Go to the theatre prepared to be patient. .

The Last lear Trailer

The Last lear Trailer

1920 - Movie Review & Trailer

Cast: Rajneesh Duggal, Barkha Bhist, Dilip Thadeshwar

1920 Film Director Vikram Bhatt is all set with his latest venture titled 1920, a period horror film, produced by Mr. Surendra Sharma, Mrs. Amita Bishnoi and Mrs. Bhagwati Gabrani of ASA Production and Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. of MUMBAI SALSA fame. Vikram Bhatt’s horror movie ‘1920’ doesn’t leave you zombied. But it does scare you enough to have a few sweaty, sleepless hours when you hit the bed at night. The movie derives its title from the year it’s set in, when huge mansions (in present-day Yorkshire) stood tall on the suburbs of Mumbai and horse-drawn carriages plied on dusty grounds carrying dandy men in suits and women in Victorian gowns and hats. Sadly, there aren’t any buxom ladies in tight corsets here.

Rajneesh Duggal plays Arjun, an architect, and Adah Sharma plays his catholic wife, Lisa. The couple, wedded despite parental disapproval, arrives at a haveli that the suave architect plans to convert into a hotel as his big project. The only trouble is – the haveli is haunted by a spirit that eventually possesses Lisa. Even as the girl transforms from a beautiful bride to a withered zombie that talks in multiple voices and levitates in bed, the guy doesn’t run away but stands beside her, his love unshaken, until he finds a way to exorcise her of the demonic spirit. Plotwise, ‘1920’ doesn’t offer anything remarkably novel or nightmarish. It abounds with clichés that collage any typical horror film – a large, empty and dimly-lit mansion with huge portraits staring down ominously at its audience. Or its rich architecture that glistens through the shifting shadows. Or a lantern-carrying housekeeper with mysterious facial expressions.

Despite this, the film works to an extent because Vikram Bhatt holds it tight until the very climax. The director lays the ground in the first half and shoots up the scare-quotient in the second half considerably enough for you to feel a full bladder mid-way through your carbonated drink. The film also works because its actors, Rajneesh Duggal and Adah Sharma, deliver credible performances in aptly-suited roles. Adah’s blanched complexion particularly makes her well-suited to play a possessed girl. Raj Zutsi as the scowling priest is too stilted. The music is quite evocative except the Rakhi Sawant number which stands out like a sore thumb in this sufficiently spooky tale. Just don’t go expecting too much and there are chances that you might get some paisa-vasool scares. .

1920 trailer

1920 Trailer

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