 Known for percolating exceptional themes and winning laurelses, Rituparno Ghosh pitches 'The Last Lear', based on the classic play 'Aajker Shahensha' by Utpal Dutt. Alas! It's a paradise for minuscule audiences while for the rest its 120mins, world of hellhole. Unlike his previous flick, 'Rain Coat', this trenchant piece of work goes dashing down the hopes of many. Reason is so simple: Lots of Shakespearean poesies and you know who loves it the most? Nevertheless, 'Last Lear' would be an epithet of how an enchanting play would be metamorphosed into a blemishing wretched film because of it screenplay.
Siddharth (Arjun Rampal), a struggling auteur with dreams of making films on realisms is on search of some actor who would be a worthy actor to play lead role in his film. He finally settles down on an aged play actor Harry (Amitabh Bacchan), who has no likeliness towards cinema.
 But the actor still looks cherished on uttering libretto with a bold tone of voice. Residing in house of closed windows and dim-lit rooms, Harry finds Siddarth going much similar with his ideologies. Well, it all starts with cup of vodkas, cheerful interaction and then what? The curtains rise up in the frame, where Harry plays the role of an ageing clown named Maqbool. Over these hours of shooting for the film, Harry gets into a new friendship with actress Shabnam (Preity Zinta). While, the film is winning grand round of applause at premiere show, but Harry tightly holds him back into his dim-lit dark room with the doors tightly shut. No one cares and the premiere still goes on and here reveals the selfish motives of entities…
On the traits of screenplay, Rituparno Ghosh fails at certain points and more specifically at the flimsy climax. Despites possessing fantabulous theme and strong characterizations, nothing works out the magic. It's not just about these two characters of Harry and Siddarth, but Rituparno depicts a strong color of feminism. Fine! Preity Zinta, Shefali Shah and Divya Dutta dominate the screen during most of the times. But they are worthless, when it comes to narration and Ghosh should have spelt out purely for commercial panoramas. This happens to be the queasiest spoiler of this flick.
But don't miss out the comedic encounters between Arjun Rampal and Amitabh Bachchan. Pointing the individuals moving through their home by roadside and guessing about their profession are a great relief to the anxious audiences. Indeed, their tiff over adding 'Soliloquy' in the film reveals of a realistic encounter between an ambitious filmmaker and stubborn actor.
Nothing to blame on the performance of star-casts: especially the breathtaking performance of Amitabh Bachchan… His stunning action of pleading Arjun Rampal about performing the climax sequence without any dupes is a chef-d'oeuvre.
 The exotic locations captured by Abhik Mukhopadyay's cinematography is a grand fiesta of visual treat. While nothing more to do with background score or editing.
If you are planning to get relinquished of watching an exceptional film and if you are ardent fan of Shakespeare and Fedrico Fellini's style of films, The Last Lear would be best one. While for others, it's about dashing their hopes.
Verdict : Fiesta for miniscule audiences
Rating : **1/2
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