India’s entry to the 95th Academy Awards, visually breathtaking LAST FILM SHOW (Chhello Show) is an ode to the power of cinema . When the magic of movies conquers nine-year-old Samay’s heart, he moves heaven and Earth in pursuit of his 35mm dreams.
VIDHI’S BOLLYWOOD FILM CLUB presents independent Indian film: Last Film Show (2021), for our continued collaboration with Vidhi Salla, curator, journalist and host of the popular WVEW 107.7 radio show, Vidhi’s Bollywood Jukebox. Vidhi will present a brief introduction. Indian chai and refreshments will be available before and during the film along with a pop-up stall of Vidhiism Handicrafts curated from different makers in India. Last Film Show was India’s entry to the 95th Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category. The film premiered at the 20th Tribeca Film Festival in 2021 and was the first Gujarati language film in the festival section. It will be screened inside the sanctuary at Epsilon Spires in the original language, Gujarati, along with English subtitles.
About the film:
Last Film Show is a Gujarati-language film bearing the original title, Chhello Show directed by Pan Nalin. The film is about a nine-year-old boy named Samay living in a remote village in Gujarat in western India. Samay falls in love with movies upon watching his first film at a single-screen theatre in a town neighboring his village. Soon he finds himself going back to the theatre and befriends the projectionist by bribing him with his mother’s delectable home-cooked food and begins to dream of becoming a filmmaker. Chhello Show is a semi-autobiographical account of the director who grew up in a similar village in Gujarat watching masala Hindi movies and swapping lunchboxes with a local projectionist. Several critics have compared Chhello Show to Cinema Paradiso (1988) even calling it a “spiritual successor” of the latter.
Vidhi elaborates on her choice of film: “Indian cinema for years has been dominated by Hindi-language films popularly known as Bollywood. However, there are several regional-language film industries within the country, Gujarati cinema being one of them. Chhello Show’s success is a big win for Gujarati cinema and other regional films that have started to come out of the shadow of Bollywood in the last few years. The production design as well as cinematography of the film are exceptional and it’s a must-watch on the big screen. I can only imagine how magical it will look on the screen inside the sanctuary at Epsilon Spires.”
Curator Bio:
Vidhi Salla is a cultural arts curator, radio show host and journalist from Mumbai, India, now based in Guilford, Vermont. Through her internationally streaming radio show and movie events, Vidhi has cultivated an audience for Indian music and films around the world. Vidhi’s Bollywood Jukebox is a theme-based radio show that is live every Thursday from 3-5pm on Brattleboro’s community radio station WVEW-LP and is available for streaming worldwide on wvew.org. Starting July 27, 2023, Vidhi will be writing a monthly column on Indian cinema exclusively for the local publications, Brattleboro Reformer, Bennington Banner and Manchester Journal.
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