August 8, 2023
FILM: LAST FILM SHOW
DIRECTED BY: PAN NALIN
STARRING: BHAVIN RABARI, RICHA MEENA, BHAVESH SHRIMALI
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Earlier this year Pan Nalin’s film Last Film Show became the first film from India to make the Oscar shortlist for Best International Film in 21 years. The popular favorite, the action-oriented RRR, wasn’t submitted to represent the country. It’s easy to see why. This is a film about cinema and a director’s coming of age with a deep love and devotion to the medium. Its release came at the same time as Steven Spielberg’s The Fablemans and Sam Mendes’s Empire of Light. Both of which were by Oscar-winning filmmakers who delved into their early love of movies. So what is different here?
Well, not a lot but each director had his own story to tell with varying degrees of success. (None of these made my top ten of 2022.) In the Last Film Show, young Samay (the stand-in for Nalin) lives in a rural and low-income area in India. His parents are very traditional. His father runs a coffee stand for trains pausing on their journeys. His mother spends her day at home making scrumptious looking food for the family. She’s a real beauty, and though its never mentioned, she seems to yearn for a better life. Samay has a group of friends who regularly get into mischief. Samay is their ringleader. What sets him apart is his obsession with light and telling stories. Samay has a way of weaving together a narrative out of a random series of picture cards. While he doesn’t initially put together the idea of combining his storytelling with his interest in light, he is introduced to movie projection while seeing a rare film with his parents.
Samay then skips school to assist in the projection room and becomes further obsessed with editing pieces of the film reels left behind. His approach is primitive, using scissors, as he decides to make and screen his own movies. Watching his “technique” one might assume the film takes place in the early days of cinema. In fact, the events unfold in 2010 which suggests much about the lack of technology in this region at the time.
Soon enough, his father’s job is put into jeopardy when electric trains replace the older locomotives and alter the need for a stop in town. Likewise, film projection is being scrapped for digital projection in the town’s only theater (something which happened around the world at the time) leaving the need and future for traditional projectionists uncertain. As much as Samay loves films, he is at a crossroads at his young age. Does he follow his family’s more traditional footsteps or explore a future in the business?
It’s an interesting story if somewhat cold presentation of the emotional effects surrounding these interests and changes. Samay is constantly on the move throughout the story. He’s not a particularly emotional kid but rather remains driven in his quest. The conflicts here relate to the larger swings of the story that arrive rather late in the narrative. Most of the time we follow Samay’s various pursuits. They’re fascinating to watch for anyone who loves movies and filmmaking but there’s not a lot of weight to the story.
I do like that Nalin utilizes the very techniques that Samay is discovering throughout the film. There are some nice applications of lighting and cinematography techniques as well as allusions to filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Satyajit Ray, George Melies, and many other pioneers of cinema that clearly demonstrate his passion and influences. Towards the end he over indulges a bit though with an almost fantasy-like sequence in which Samay watches the conversion of old film reels to women’s bracelets and other reincarnated objects. The factory setting is impressive but it feels a bit outside the reality of the story. Similarly, the end is a bit overly romantic even if it may be based on the director’s own story.
Last Film Show is far from an unsuccessful film. I saw it at a festival screening with Pan Nalin and the actor who plays Samay (Bhavin Rabari) in attendance. I just would have liked to see Nalin infuse the film with more of the warmth and personality he and his young actor possess in person.
Last Film Show is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime.
FILM: LAST FILM SHOW
DIRECTED BY: PAN NALIN
STARRING: BHAVIN RABARI, RICHA MEENA, BHAVESH SHRIMALI
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Earlier this year Pan Nalin’s film Last Film Show became the first film from India to make the Oscar shortlist for Best International Film in 21 years. The popular favorite, the action-oriented RRR, wasn’t submitted to represent the country. It’s easy to see why. This is a film about cinema and a director’s coming of age with a deep love and devotion to the medium. Its release came at the same time as Steven Spielberg’s The Fablemans and Sam Mendes’s Empire of Light. Both of which were by Oscar-winning filmmakers who delved into their early love of movies. So what is different here?
Well, not a lot but each director had his own story to tell with varying degrees of success. (None of these made my top ten of 2022.) In the Last Film Show, young Samay (the stand-in for Nalin) lives in a rural and low-income area in India. His parents are very traditional. His father runs a coffee stand for trains pausing on their journeys. His mother spends her day at home making scrumptious looking food for the family. She’s a real beauty, and though its never mentioned, she seems to yearn for a better life. Samay has a group of friends who regularly get into mischief. Samay is their ringleader. What sets him apart is his obsession with light and telling stories. Samay has a way of weaving together a narrative out of a random series of picture cards. While he doesn’t initially put together the idea of combining his storytelling with his interest in light, he is introduced to movie projection while seeing a rare film with his parents.
Samay then skips school to assist in the projection room and becomes further obsessed with editing pieces of the film reels left behind. His approach is primitive, using scissors, as he decides to make and screen his own movies. Watching his “technique” one might assume the film takes place in the early days of cinema. In fact, the events unfold in 2010 which suggests much about the lack of technology in this region at the time.
Soon enough, his father’s job is put into jeopardy when electric trains replace the older locomotives and alter the need for a stop in town. Likewise, film projection is being scrapped for digital projection in the town’s only theater (something which happened around the world at the time) leaving the need and future for traditional projectionists uncertain. As much as Samay loves films, he is at a crossroads at his young age. Does he follow his family’s more traditional footsteps or explore a future in the business?
It’s an interesting story if somewhat cold presentation of the emotional effects surrounding these interests and changes. Samay is constantly on the move throughout the story. He’s not a particularly emotional kid but rather remains driven in his quest. The conflicts here relate to the larger swings of the story that arrive rather late in the narrative. Most of the time we follow Samay’s various pursuits. They’re fascinating to watch for anyone who loves movies and filmmaking but there’s not a lot of weight to the story.
I do like that Nalin utilizes the very techniques that Samay is discovering throughout the film. There are some nice applications of lighting and cinematography techniques as well as allusions to filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Satyajit Ray, George Melies, and many other pioneers of cinema that clearly demonstrate his passion and influences. Towards the end he over indulges a bit though with an almost fantasy-like sequence in which Samay watches the conversion of old film reels to women’s bracelets and other reincarnated objects. The factory setting is impressive but it feels a bit outside the reality of the story. Similarly, the end is a bit overly romantic even if it may be based on the director’s own story.
Last Film Show is far from an unsuccessful film. I saw it at a festival screening with Pan Nalin and the actor who plays Samay (Bhavin Rabari) in attendance. I just would have liked to see Nalin infuse the film with more of the warmth and personality he and his young actor possess in person.
Last Film Show is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime.