Pan Nalin’s Gujrati film The Last Film Show aka Chhello Show has made India's entry to the 95th edition of Academic Awards under the Best International Feature Film category. It is great that the regional cinema of India is earning significance at the global level and it is definitely an indication of India's progress on the International stage. The movie is a semi-autobiographical story of the director, and it depicts his journey from a small village to a creator of images.
The Plot:
The film revolves around a nine-year-old boy named Samay (Bhavin Rabari) from the village of Chalala in Saurashtra, Gujarat, India. Samay used to spend his entire summer watching movies from the projection booth of a rundown movie place. For watching the films, he used to bribe the projectionist named Fazal (Bhavesh Shrimali). He was influenced by films and filmmaking so much that he decides to become a filmmaker, but he was unaware of the heartbreaking times that await him.
The Review:
The film is predictably nostalgic since it has an autobiographical angle to it from the director. The relationship between the young aspirational boy and the projectionist is well played out both from a practical as well as an emotional angle with shades of differences in age, caste, social status and religion playing out as themes always in the narrative. Similar to the movies of its genre, a 'Slumdog Millionaire' or a 'Lagaan' that have held International attention to Indians winning in life even though they face numerous difficulties for simple things growing up, Chello Show too shows the triumph of the human spirit over all else. It is little wonder then, that it caught the attention of International juries enough to lead us to the Oscars.
The Release:
The film premiered at the Spotlight section of the 20th Tribeca Festival on 10 June 2021. Chhello Show was the first Gujarati film that was selected for this section of the festival. Almost a year later of its premiere at Tribeca, actor Siddhartha Roy Kapur's Roy Kapur Films attained the rights to show and distribute Chhello Show in India, in partnership with PVR Pictures which is the motion picture distribution arm of PVR Cinemas. The film is now released theatrically in Gujarat and across India on 14 October 2022.
The Director:
The Director Pan Nalin in an interview expressed his view and thoughts about the film saying “for me, it’s very special. That’s what I have always strived for. For the films that I have made in the past, I have always looked for wider distribution in India. I was lucky enough to have good distributors for my films abroad, but most of them had a small, niche distribution in India. And so it’s a privilege for me that people are talking about Chello Show. I have never made films for festivals, awards, or the Oscars. My primary goal always has been to reach out to audiences, just like any other filmmaker.”
Well, Nalin and his team have certainly made us proud and we are happy we are able to see a movie like this because of visionary distributors and production houses who still believe in seeking out talent over home-grown nepotism.
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