The Last Film Show * * * ½

This is a pleasing Indian film. 

It's about a boy called Samu who sees a film and immediately becomes obsessed with cinema.  (He should have read this blog, that might have brought him to his senses).  

Actually the local cinema projectionist tries very hard to bring him to his senses by explaining to the young lad how it all works, but the lad is smitten.  It's light and magic and he wants more of it. In some ways It's a bit like the legendary Cinema Paradiso. 

Set in a village, the local cinema is called The Galaxy.  Nearly all the films it shows are Bollywood of course. His father takes him one time "This will be your first and last film show".  He hopes that Samu will be as dismissive of cinema as he is. Quite the opposite happens.

Samu and celluloid

Samu's father once fell on hard times and now supports his family by selling tea to passengers when the train pulls into the station.  Samu has to help him, but lately Samu has been absent from work and from school.

Samu gets to know the projectionist and bribes him to watch films from the projection booth by sharing his delicious lunch. Samu's Mum is a pretty good cook. 

Samu and his friends decide they'd like to start their own cinema and so they cobble together a projector with fans and a sewing machine and a torch.  They obtain films by stealing them from the reels from the storage shed at the station.  Consequently when the films arrive at the cinema the last reel or a middle reel is often missing, causing outrage from the viewers.

The Last Film Show is a good film with some beautiful cinematography.  It loves it's own subject matter and grieves for the romance of celluloid film along with hulking projectors and their operators.

Though I was rather confused about Samu's age, which made sense in some scenes but in other scenes he showed a maturity and an allowance that completely belied his appearance.