Last Film Show

India, 2021, 110 minutes, Colour

Starring Bhavin Rabari, Richa Meena, 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, it 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 Samay 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 Samay’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 Samay 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?

By Fr Peter Malone

Published 22 September 2023

The Last Film Show is currently being screened at Palace Balwyn and Lido Hawthorn.