SRI AMITABH BACHCHAN ON BEING THE LAST LEAR...

                                SRI AMITABH BACHCHAN ON BEING THE LAST LEAR


                                                             "SHAHENSHAH"


               A PROUD STAGE ACTOR WHO THINKS CINEMA IS INFRA DIG. THAT'S "SRI AMITABH BACHCHAN" IN THE LAST LEAR, HIS FIRST FILM IN ENGLISH, DIRECTED BY THE RITUPARNO GHOSH, BIG B TELLS- HOW LEAR IS DIFFERENT FROM "BLACK", WHY THEATRE IS TOUGHER THAN FILMS AND WHY KOLKATA REMAINS CLOSE TO HIS HEART......


            "RITU WAS VERY CAUTIOUS IN SEEING THAT HARRY DOES NOT LOOK OR BEHAVE LIKE THE CHARACTER IN BLACK. BOTH HAD CERTAIN IDIOSYNCRASIES AND WERE OF COURSE IN THE SAME AGE BRACKET.... BUT THEIR PREMISE WAS DIFFERENT AND HOPEFULLY THE ENACTMENT BROUGHT THAT THROUGH"


Previews are saying this is your best performance. Where would you place it among your personal favourites ?


BIG B SAYS THAT, I feel honoured and blessed if the previews are calling this performance my best. The film and the character have been different from some of the recent roles that I have done at this age of my career. I really do not have any personal favourites; I would like to believe all my roles to be equal favourites, but yes if you were to push me I would place this pretty high.


After the screening at TORONTO, it was said that your performance has shades of "BLACK", but is more restrained and compelling. What are the differences or similarities between the two films and roles ?


BIG B SAYS THAT, I am glad that you mention that, because Ritu was very cautious in seeing that Harry does not look or behave like the character in "BLACK". Both had certain idiosyncrasies and were of course in the same age bracket, similarties ending there, but their premise was different and hopefully the enactment brought that through.


          The character in "BLACK" was failed and frustrated  teacher, who got an opportunity to redeem himself when he was put on to a specific case. A case which he doggedly pursued and eventually had the great pleasure of seeing fructify, despite his own personal handicap and the odd circumstance he found himself in. Lear and Harry are roles apart from "BLACK". 


           Harry in Lear is a retired "SHAKESPEARE" stage actor, proud and possessive of his craft and stature, now cajoled into performing for film; to him a ludicrous proposition, the pride and ego of a stage actor's superiority over celluloid comming in the way. 


Did you relate to the character of Harish Mishra, a stage actor getting into films ?


BIG B SAYS THAT, Not entirely. I did do stage, albeit on an amateure level, and did come to film thereafter. But my personal commitment to stage was not as strong and severe as Harish Mishra's from Lear. My  limited experience however on both helped me in a minuscule manner to assuage the character and the drift of the script. Stage has a longer and more exciting history than cinema. It is according to me the more difficult craft. It is and has always been pristine and purer than 35 mm  and multiplex. It is but natural therefore that are associated with stage have an air of superiority. And rightly so, For them and the purists of the art , cinema and everything related to it is, to put it design some of the aspects of Harry in the film. Happily they have through rather well.


                     "CALCUTTA THEN, KOLKATA NOW HAS ALWAYS BEEN A
                       FASCINATING CITY FOR ME. IT GAVE ME MY FIRST JOB, 
                       MY FIRST INDEPENDENCE AND EXPERIENCES THAT REMAIN 
                       WITH ME TO THIS DAY...."


Did you do any kind of home work, like re-reading Shakespeare ?


BIG B SAYS THAT, Ritu insisted that I do and made it mandatory that I revisit KING LEAR and some other tragedies. He gave me literature and recordings to go through. But in the final count it was all RITU. I merely followed the direction.


Which is your favourite Shakespeare play and why ?


Very difficult to choose one when they are all so brilliant. But Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet, Harry V and The Merchant of Venice would rate high.


How sensitive did you find  Rituparno Ghosh the director ?


BIG B SAYA THAT,  Ritu  is an actor's delight. He is the antithesis of what is the norm. And that is why he is so attractive for us. He compels us, diligently, not to "ACT", an aspect most actors find very difficult to do. But he persists. And even though at times you feel he is destroying your career, when you see the final result you cannot but marvel at his foresight and vision.  It is the little things that matter for an actor once the camera rolls, in order to fall into the bracket of sensitivity. If you have missed it, Ritu will come by and remind you of them and do a retake. Very seldom will he come around and personally enact what and how he wants a moment to be performed. But he will with his vast and extensive knowledge of varied references to history and art and culture and literature build a beautiful path for you, where all you have  to do is simply walk. This is genius. How wonderful for a actor to enjoy his professional enactment and get educated  as well. Working with Ritu does all that to you.


How was it to 'act' in English for the first time on screen ?


BIG B SAYS THAT, To speak English and not Hindi for the first time when the cinema rolled  on "ACTION" was just momentarily odd. But within seconds, all of us were flowing and comfortable. Having done stage in English for a substantial period of time helped.


Did you like working in Calcutta ? What memories did you take back ?


BIG B SAYS THAT,  Calcutta then, Kolkata now has always been a fascinatting city for me. It is a unique metropolis and I shall require a huge amount of space to be able to do justice to my  memories of it. It gave me my first "JOB", my first "INDEPENDENCE" & EXPERIENCES THAT REMAIN with me to this date, valuable and necessary to any growing individual. Its history and culture and the practice of it. despite the invasion of modernism, has remained strong and erudite. The brilliance with which it has straddled time, then and now, is its most endearing quality. I have not found this in my other city world wide. 


And I shall tell ( you ) how it does this. It is because of the people of Kolkata, those that live there and make it so vibrant. Their passion for art, culture, literature, poetry, painting, sport, business, celebrity, indeed every aspect of life, is just immeasurable. As a star and a celebrity if you are having problems with your status, go to Kolkata. I would strongly recomemded because they have the capacity to put you on cloud nine, with their "LOVE" &"AFFECTION". No other place in the world has the ability to do this. But "KOLKATA" does. I talk from "PERSONAL EXPERIENCE".


FINALLY, WHAT DRIVES YOU ON ?


BIG B SAYS THAT, THE DESIRE TO WORK. THE DESIRE TO BE CHALENGED. AND THE FEAR AND INSECURITY OF NOT HAVING DONE ENOUGH !!!!


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