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Last Film Show Movie Review

Last Film Show is a 2022 Indian Gujarati-language film directed by Pan Nalin and starring Bhavin Rabari. It is a sweetly natured, though familiar movie.

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“Go and learn“

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When the magic of movies conquers nine-year-old Samay’s heart, he moves heaven and Earth in pursuit of his 35 mm dreams. However, he is unaware of heartbreaking times that await him. While being eerily reminiscent to ‘Cinema Paradiso’ that was itself a superior movie, Last Film Show is different enough that it can stand on its own. It’s an Indian version of that movies about movies subgenre, thus it felt more authentic.

The emphasis on poverty makes this movie more different as it’s not just this romanticized film about the magic of cinema, but it’s also grounded in reality in its depiction of these children not really having the means to explore cinema properly. This film is almost entirely set outside, which instantly made it unique and reminiscent of childhoods that all of us hailing from poorer countries and from before the Internet era had experienced. This was the most relatable element of a film that is so adventurous and charming in those outdoors sequences.

Bhavin Rabari is wonderful as the main star and he has that child movie star quality to him that made him quite memorable. His arc is very moving. His parents and friends are solidly developed, but by far the most interesting personality besides himself is Fazal, the projectionist. He offers a world of insight to our protagonist and the two share such a fun dynamic that is instantly very cinematic, but still quite emotional.

Again, none of this is truly original in any way, shape or form. We have all seen movies like this before, but at least Last Film Show is superbly shot, wonderfully scored and very well directed by Pan Nalin, who imbued the movie with a lot of polish, ambition and heart. The scenes where some Indian movies are played on the big screen are truly magical and the nods to famous filmmakers are also beautiful.

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The movie is almost episodic in nature as it doesn’t really have an ambitious storyline, but all those little snippets of the characters’ lives worked and it made the story a wonderful slice-of-life tale. The highlights were the emphasis on filmmaking in the minutest details as well as food scenes as those were mouth-wateringly delicious.