Aarcflick

A young boy with a passion for cinema befriends the projectionist at a small-town theater - narrate this to moviegoers around the world in a game of Guess The Movie and the most common response is likely to be the Italian classic Cinema Paradise. However, this is a recap of writer-director Pan Nalin's Gujarati film Chhello Show, also known as Last Film Show, which opens in Indian theaters today, just a few weeks after the announcement that it will be India's entry into the race for next year's Oscar for Best International Film. Nalin has said that Chhello Show is largely autobiographical. Unfortunately for him, his childhood story bears a strong enough resemblance to the basic premise of Giuseppe Tornatore's coming-of-age drama, one of the most beautiful ever made, that the memory of that film diminishes it. . A shame, because Chhello Show, despite the relative thinness of its content, is sweet, funny, and touching in its own way. Chhello Show (Last Show) is set in Chal...