Rituparno Ghosh’s THE LAST LEAR aims to target a finite selection of Indians who are hardcore Shakespearean fans and enjoy dialogue-heavy films (I’m sure there are literally dozens of them). But alas…there aren’t too many, and that becomes the films biggest flaw. The concept is fairly simple and because of that it’s important to develop the characters with some density, or at the very least providing the audience with a common connection. However, even Ghosh’s main character Harry (Amitabh Bachchan) fell short of that development.

So what could possibly attract Amitabh Bachchan, Priety Zinta and Arjun Rampal to a film where the subject matter and its heavy Shakespearean theme would not flow with mainstream India? Probably the fact that this movie was released in September of last year at the Toronto film festival. Ghosh’s film, which only has a few lines of Hindi and some Bengali, is entirely in English, meaning it was intended for International recognition as opposed to making a box office splash in India.

Model turned actor, the handsome hunk Arjun Rampal is simply elated and the reason is obvious. His latest film, ROCK ON!! has generated excellent shares across the multiplexes and trade predicts that the movie is going to be a sure fire hit.

However, not many will be aware that ROCK ON!! is Arjun's third hit after DON and OM SHANTI OM. No mean achievement, considering that this feat has been achieved by an actor who the critics as well as the trade had written off just a few years back, after a series of flops.

Actor Arjun Rampal, who plays a film director in Rituparno Ghosh's 'The Last Lear' today said that working on the film was a "refreshing change".
"All the mainstream actors myself, Bachchan, Preity Zinta gave ourselves to a non-commercial director as we believed in the unusual script. Besides, the film being in English language was another novelty," Arjun told PTI.

He said, "We did the film out of passion and love for doing it. We were not thinking whether we are making a blockbuster film or doing a promotional video. We were true to ourselves and brave enough to do the film." Arjun said he did not want to get into the debate of commercial versus art movies.

"Every film has an audience. All kind of genre can co-exist with each other. This gives actors an opportunity to explore different kinds of genre and grow as actors," he added.

Big B and Preity Zinta may have embarked on their UNFORGETTABLES tour but when they are back in a few weeks from now, they would be holding the center stage once again. This time it would be for the big screen as their art-house film THE LAST LEAR has finally closed on a release date for itself. A Planman Motion Pictures' production, THE LAST LEAR has now been confirmed for 12th September.

Based on Utpal Dutt's play 'Aajker Shahjahan', THE LAST LEAR is a film in the English language and is directed by Rituparno Ghosh whose Bengali film KHELA released in the week gone by). Apart from Big B and Preity Zinta, the film also stars Arjun Rampal in a key role (who goes offbeat for the second time after MOKSHA). Others in the starcast are Shefali Chhaya, Divya Dutta, Jishu Sengupta and Prosenjit.

Bengali filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh, who worked with Arjun Rampal in his English language film “Last Lear”, has discovered that the actor is an amazing photographer. “Arjun is a fabulous photographer. I didn’t know this until we shot together. While shooting I suddenly saw Arjun with his camera snapping me at candid moments.”

At first, Ghosh was taken aback because he felt he was being constantly watched by Arjun.

“He’d creep up from nowhere and click me… all candid pictures. At first, I was a little alarmed. But then I saw what Arjun had shot. I was amazed! Arjun has a great sense of framing and colour. He’ll make a terrific director, I’m sure of that. In fact, I think he’d make a better director than an actor.”