The Last Lear: Playing the role of a theatre actor was tough for Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan needs no introduction, one of the finest actors of Indian cinema, he has played a wide range of roles but in The Last Lear, for the first time, Amitabh Bachchan played the role of an actor and not a movie actor but a theatre actor and critics have already labeled it as one of his best performances.
In The Last Lear, Amitabh Bachchan played the character of Harish Mishra, a theatre actor, who mainly acts in Shakespeare’s drama. He is a very passionate actor and can not stand movies. Still, he was convinced by a young director Siddharth Kumar (Arjun Rampal) to work in a movie. The Last Lear, revolves around Harish Mishra’s experience of working in his first movie.
According to Amitabh Bachchan, playing the character of Harish Mishra was a tough job for him. It took him back to his schooldays. During his school days, Amitabh Bachchan performed few dramas of Shakespeare. He had great interest in Shakespeare. Amitabh Bachchan’s father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, famous poet and professor of English literature in Allahabad University, translated famous dramas of Shakespeare such as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear in Hindi. Amitabh Bachchan’s mother, Teji Bachchan, performed in Macbeth and Othello.
Harish Mishra is a theatre actor. He is very passionate and has a huge ego. Since he is a theatre actor, he possesses a very loud personality. Even when Harish is talking with a person, he talks in a way, as if he is acting on the stage. To portray such a complex character, writer and director Rituparno Ghosh made Amitabh Bachchan do a lot of homework on Shakespeare. He made him read books and watch DVDs of the famous dramas of Shakespeare.
The Last Lear is inspired from Aajker Shahjahan, a stage play by legendary Bengali actor, Utpal Dutt. Amitabh Bachchan had the opportunity to work with Dutt in the 70s and the 80s. Barsaat Ki Ek Raat, Bhuvan Shome, Saat Hindustani.
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