LAST FILM SHOW

India, 2021, 110 minutes, Colour.

Bhavin Rabari, Richa Mee Gregna, Bhavesh Shrimali Dipen Raval,

Directed by Pan Nalin.

India loves movies. And India probably has the largest film industry in the world. And this is a very pleasing story is a kind of love-letter-movie to Indian Cinema and beyond. In fact, several directors are mentioned in the opening credits and, there is an admiring long litany at the end, naming and paying tribute to a very wide range of directors.

The film is set in 2010, in a small town in Gujrat, which does have its own cinema, the Galaxy, with the huge 35mm projector, lots of film stock, and patrons lining up for each film, the Galaxy often having to put up the House Full sign.

But this is a story of a young boy, Samay who discovers a love for cinema, who is delighted with the light, playing with the light, finally wanting to study light and make movies. The film’s writer-director, Pan Nalin, is much older than Somay in 2010 but the story is evocative of his childhood and his art fascination that led to his becoming a director.

The young Bhavin Rabari is one of those child actors who commands our full attention, his eager face, his intense eyes, his delight in the movies, his capacity for friendship, the local boys, and, especially, with Fazal, the Galaxy’s projectionist. As we ourselves gaze at the close-ups of Somay’s delighted face, rapt in the films, we might wonder what we would have looked like had anybody taking photos of ourselves when young, delighted with watching the films. Moviegoers (and, especially, reviewers) can readily share Samay’s wonder.

But, the drama is not plain sailing. Samay’s father takes him to a film (a religious one, hoping he will get over it), is a proud Brahman and does not want his son involved. But, once at the movies, a desire to be always at the movies, Samay sneaking in, ousted by the managers, befriended by the projectionist (and sharing the wonderful lunches his mother prepares – and food fans will appreciate the many lunch preparation sequences). And Samay, whose job it is to sell cups of tea to the passing train passengers, his father having a stall at the station, builds his own mini projector to show cans of films which he purloins to his friends, then getting them to create their own sound effects as they watch.

But, it is 2010 and a dramatic change we might not have anticipated – 35mm film, projectors becoming obsolete, the digital age. The projectionist has no English to read the player instructions and is fired. And the sympathetic local teacher has advised Sunday that to get anywhere he needs to learn English.

There is an important sequence where Samay follows the trucks with the old projectors and cartons of film, discovering a factory where they are recycled, the projector turning into cutlery, the celluloid turning into brightly coloured bangles.

There is great pathos as the film comes to an end, the decision his father (who had been fond of caning his disobedient son), the farewell to his mother and sister, to his friends, but getting the projectionist a new job working at the station, and venturing off to the city and to a career.

Who would not enjoy this pleasing film?

1. The director’s love for film, his own experiences, child, art, ambitions, his career?
2. The Gujrat setting, the small town, the railway station, the trains and selling cups of tea, the stall, home, cooking, the cinema, the audience, the projection room, the cameras? The visit to the city, the industrial plant for the projectors and celluloid? The musical score?
3. Films, the Indian traditions, the excerpts shown during the film?
4. Samay’s story, his age, his strict Brahman father, his loving mother, his sister, working at the station, cups of tea, going to school, Mr Dave and the sympathetic teaching, his encouragement for Samay to learn English, going to the movies, the religious movie, his father taking the family, enjoyment? Samay at his fascination, the images, the action, the light, his hand in the light? His returning to the cinema, sneaking in, his being ousted, the encounter with Fazal, his supplying food, Fazal showing him the projection room, letting him watch the films, handling the celluloid, the projector, the lenses? The repercussions, his friends and talking, the ruined building, stealing the cans, the films, editing them, building the projector, showing the films, the delight, the little girls, their all making the sound effects?
5. Samay, his supportive mother, the food? His father, strict, the canings, the work at the station, discovering so may going to the films, punishment?
6. The managers of the cinema, confronting Fazal,ousting so may come the police coming to the town, the school and rolling, Samay in jail, the other boys, his father getting him out? The plan for painting the outside of the Galaxy, the owners, happy, the children all watching the films?
7. The boys, playing together, Samay and his work, the phone call, coming to the cinema, riding the track, the bikes, discovering the transition to digital? Watching the dismantling of the projector, the truckload with all the schools and waste, their pursuing it, Samay going to the warehouse, the dismantling of the projector and recycling it, the celluloid, the making of cutlery, of coloured bangles? His disappointment?
8. Fazal, his character, wife and children, enjoying the food, the projection, being fired, not knowing English, unable to do the digital work? Samay and the stationmaster, getting facile the job, Fazal gratitude? His father’s change of heart? Allowing him to go, giving him the money, Samay and his explanation of wanting to study light and to make movies?
9. The farewell, the embrace of his mother, the farewell from his father, Fazal, Mr Dave, catching the train – and writing to his future?
10. A love letter to cinema, the acknowledgement of the directors, the final sequences and the huge list of international film directors?