December ’25: Films & Pop Culture

1. Windows to Happy Alleys by Rituparna Sengupta
2. Adaptation, Aesthetic and Performance: Reading Rituparno’s Lear, Shakespeare’s Lear and Amitabh Bachchan as Lear by Srijani Dutta

Windows to Happy Alleys by Rituparna Sengupta

I speak out of the depth of night

Out of the darkness I speak

If you come to my house, friend

bring me a lamp and a window through which

I can look at the crowd in the happy alleys

These lines, from a poem by the late Iranian trailblazing feminist poet and filmmaker, Forough Farrokhzad, form the epigraph to director Sreemoyee Singh’s debut film, And, Towards Happy Alleys (2023), also inspiring its name[1]. As I read the lines on the screen, my eyes linger over the fourth line—someone being asked to bring over a lamp to dispel darkness is familiar poetic imagery, but a window?

The window reappears in another poem we soon hear recited in the film:

And the song of canaries

which sing to the size of a window

Ah! This is my lot

My lot is a sky taken away at the drop of a curtain

Over the course of the 75-minutes-long documentary that follows, we see and feel the claustrophobic darkness of censorship that pervades contemporary Iran that is particularly punishing of women and artists. But what about this window for which the poet yearns, which overlooks crowded happy alleys? When Sreemoyee Singh, a young Indian filmmaker fascinated with Iranian poetry, cinema, and music, visits Iran to capture something of its culture and people, does her camera offer that window?

Singh recounts arriving in Tehran unfamiliar with its language, yet feeling an uncanny sense of déjà vu. She describes how she felt like a spectator viewing a film, with verses of Persian poetry and scenes of Iranian cinema coming to life. Eventually, she herself turns director, following the trail of her heroes and meeting many new ones. Newer intimacies are forged, blurring the boundaries between presence and absence. She slides a note to filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami under his door a week before his death. She discovers that she is staying at the same house that was once also occupied by Farrokhzad. She learns the language, mingles with the people, and all sorts of windows begin to open.

Singh’s search for her icons takes her to filmmaker Jafar Panahi, a director of international renown with a history of arrests and bans imposed by Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Panahi’s strong presence in the film signifies the futility of suppressing the artistic spirit. When we see him coaxing Singh to sing while he collects his glasses at an optical shop— behind closed doors, since public singing is banned for women in Iran—we encounter the irrepressible director in him. When we see him cuing his former actor, Aida Mohammadkhani[2], to tears with his calmly intent gaze, we see the directorial command he still possesses. At some point, Panahi speaks of his initial despair at being prohibited from making films, of walking into the sea to end his life, but returning from it transformed, with a renewed resolve to make cinema (a resolve he has held up since). The sea reappears later, when Mohammad Shirvani, another filmmaker, compares self-censorship with crouching by habit in a dark cave when a step away lies the open sea. And thus glimpses of Farrokhzad’s sky keep surfacing in the film.

And what of women, particularly female artists? For them, simple everyday choices become marked with protest. From defying standards of beauty and refusing nose jobs, to resisting drab uniforms at work, to gathering in public places to watch a World Cup football match, we see women fighting for their right to dignity and occupying public space fearlessly. Then there are battles that are waged at a larger scale. One unidentified woman takes off her headscarf on a public bridge and screams her defiance. Another stands with an uncovered head in a heavily-patrolled public square, refusing to move, before being violently pushed off by the police. Activist-lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh refuses the chador as compulsory prison uniform and wages a successful campaign against it, only to later be sentenced for defending young women who dared to remove their scarves. My lot is a sky taken away at the drop of a curtain.

Who drops the curtain? The air hangs heavy with scrutiny and suspicion, such that everyday acts of self-expression meet constant interruption. The sound of construction drilling drowns out a conversation about sexuality and cultural conservatism. Trees are noisily trimmed right behind a man playing music at Farrokhzad’s grave. The gaze of surveillance shadows Singh around as she navigates the city. It is present on billboards featuring clerical eyes staring down at the public. It is there in the courteous words of the two men who patiently explain to her the value of the hijab as an internal state of modesty. It also follows along in the form of a young boy who stops his cycle to ask her (a stranger, foreigner, and adult) why her head is not covered. Her experiences in the city create a curious split in Singh’s consciousness as she wonders about her two new impulses— she sings more in this country; she also keeps reaching out for her falling headscarf.

Over time, Singh has become a subject too, for the Iranian state and for her own camera. But she has also become a different kind of subject for the Iranian people—a singing subject. Several times in the film, we hear her sing in Farsi, with the sound of her voice ringing out clearly and melodiously in the air around her.  At the beginning of the film, hers is the only female voice singing to a room full of male audience starved of feminine voices; they listen rapt and record her. What does it feel like, to hear one’s song in another’s voice? By the end of the film, her bold singing persuades a schoolroom full of young girls to overcome their inhibitions and join her in singing lustily. No longer the song of canaries/which sing to the size of a window.

In some ways, then, Singh can be seen as bringing over a lamp for the people she meets, each of whom is in search of their own way out of the darkness. But perhaps more importantly, it is the people she meets who show her their own windows—of hope, joy, dignity, humour, and resistance in times of dark despotism not just in Iran, but the world over. They show us how forbidden poetry, music, cinema, and laughter can transform into sites of resistance and resilience. And that just beyond the obscurity of darkened rooms, in the glow of shared light and windows, there lies the life-affirming sight of crowded and happy alleys.

---

[1] I watched the film in a special screening at the inaugural edition of the Kos Minar International Documentary Film Festival, organised by the Jindal School of Journalism and Communication, at O P Jindal Global University in March, 2025.

[2] She appeared as a child actor in his iconic 1995 film, The White Balloon.

Adaptation, Aesthetic and Performance: Reading Rituparno’s Lear, Shakespeare’s Lear and Amitabh Bachchan as Lear by Srijani Dutta

In my essay, I have attempted to read the meaning of adaptation and representation of subtle themes in Rituparno Ghosh’s The Last Lear (2007). It has been adapted from King Lear (1623). He has taken references from the different plays such as Macbeth (1623), The Tempest (1623) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1623). King Lear is the story of an old, mad, proud king who wants to divide his kingdom among his three daughters. The first two daughters exaggerate their love for their father while the young one does not flatter at all. In this movie, the father daughter bond is replaced with the bond of husband-wife, patient-nurse and veteran actor- an actress reflecting the human bond and sentiments. Harish Mishra is a veteran Shakespearean theatre artist and has quit performing on the stage many times ago. He plays the role of Lear in the adapted film text. But, the director Siddharth wants to do a film with him. It is not easy to cast him in his film. Initially, he does not want to do the film but later he agrees with him. My piece will also try to address these questions- how much faithfulness does Rituparno show for the construction of Shakespeare’s Lear as his Lear? How does Bachchan justify himself to be a perfect portrayal of Lear? Will the ‘aura’ or the pure aesthetic tone get reduced in the case of adapted movie? What is the relation between cinema and theatre?

The entire movie is set on the premiere day of the movie The Mask starrer by Shabnam and Harish. The word ‘mask,’ means the veil. Usually, the performers use the mode of acting or veiled behaviours on the stage. In the play, King Lear, Lear carries Cordelia’s dead body in his arms whereas in the film, that situation is reversed. Harish Mishra, the symbol of wisdom, prowess and snobbery is in bed while Shabnam sits by his side. During the shooting of The Mask, she is drawn by his art of performance and charisma. Amitabh Bachchan has marvelously slipped into the character of the mad king, Lear. Goutam, the journalist goes to his house to take an interview of him but their meeting makes him dumbstruck. Goutam’s words “Every day you’ve spent with him must be eating into you/ starting from first day” ( The Last Lear) epitomize the timeless relevance of Shakespeare in our life, and how he lives with us even in our mundane flow of existence.

Rituparno Ghosh is a true artist with meticulous power of observation. The interesting thing lies in Ghosh’s brilliance to create the atmosphere of a particular Shakespearean play enabling Harish to deliver the famous dialogues of Shakespeare. In the interview scene between Harish Mishra and Goutam (the journalist), he tries to check his knowledge on Shakespeare. He refers to some characters like Titania, Hermia, Robin from Shakespearean plays. Unfortunately, he cannot answer. Siddharth kumar, the perfectionist director goes to his house. Harish Mishra is looking at him through his window. Then, he comes downstairs. Vandana, his wife is seen looking at them from that window and answering to Harish’s words. This scene subtly hints at the iconic balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet. Goutam does not identify the play but Siddharth has managed to do that. This time, Harish is impressed by Siddarth’s knowledge about Shakespeare, and welcomes him to his house. The striking thing is that he wants to address himself as ‘Harry.’ It depicts the constant and unavoidable desire to modernize one’s old self or the existing belief. People fear to get lost yet they try to contextualize themselves to find relevance. The question of relevance gives birth to the notion of absurdity, nihilism and identity. While their conversation is going on, it is revealed that the actor loves live performance, the stage performance. Harish, being the symbol of the ancient oak tree believes in the traditional values, techniques with a zero interest in the modern film making process as it includes the extreme usage of technology. He gets enraged listening to the word ‘show reel’ explained by Siddarth. According to Siddharth, it is the collage of the best works. He loves acting so much that sometimes, it is hard to detect whether he is delivering his dialogues or just communicating with people. To him, acting is merely a ‘series of incomplete moments.’ He utters- “All your lenses and close-ups and whatever / when you see the face. You cannot see the hands. When you see the face and hands, you cannot see the full body/ And when you see the full body, you’re so far away. You cannot make out the expression of face.” ( The Last Lear) Harish believes that the actors have to keep on trying as there will be the rare, best moment waiting for them. In the modern times, the actors are under the surveillance of the cameraman. He believes that the authentic movement, spontaneous expressions are hampered due to this intervention. But, Rituparno Ghosh has become successful to sustain the Shakespearean aura in his film because of his distinct auteurship. The cinematic use of the camera focusing on his face, close-up shot and the interplay of light and shade- all interweave the garland of the restrained melodrama and beauty. His brown sofa is his throne, and his posture appropriately gives him the status of a king. He lives in Shakespeare, acts in Shakespeare and breathes in Shakespeare. His kingdom is his stage.

A film within a film intensifies the tension of the story. In this case, The Last Lear tries to unearth the demarcation between the illusion (performance) and reality by utilizing the technique of Brechtian alienation. The outside road, loitering people in the black and white scene in the television mirror the past and the unattainable nostalgia. The veteran actor says- ‘Life’s a walking shadow.’ (Macbeth)  In one scene, Harish and Siddharth sit next to each other. It signifies the confluence of tradition and modernity. To the veteran actor, window generates a different kind of meaning.-“Windows could mean…view from a window. Windows to the outside world, an opening…it works at many levels.” To Siddharth, window is the screen, the computer. This movie poses some critical questions, and tries to answer them – What is art? What is the role and position of art in our contemporary society? What is the value of art? What is the role of technology in creating art? Thus, their reserved yet a little bit of philosophical conversation brings together the past and the present. In the background voice over of Goutam, it is said that Siddharth wants to make a film on someone whose art is losing its value and relevance – “…whose skills are dying just like the circus.” ( The Last Lear) Here, Siddharth becomes the cinematic mouthpiece of Rituparno Ghosh.

While the voice over says “People flock to the local cinemas while the clowns found themselves out of work,” ( The Last Lear ) the veteran actor, the director and a shadowy figure of a clown on the stage are shown in deep melancholic gesture. This clown is Macbeth, a performing artist. Then, the voice over briefly tells the story of the rage of the melancholic clown- “It seems he went a bit mad and set fire to the local cinema hall.”  Through the portrayal of rage, the director attempts to focus on the famous line “All the world’s a stage” (” As You like it” )  and how the circus, cinema and the theatre (play) become intermingled with life and performance.

Besides being a director, Rituparno Ghosh was a sensible person. He felt intensely. All the characters of Shakespeare are trying hard to make a meaning out of their wretched lives. Rituparno has modernized Shakespeare to tell their tales. In one scene, all the three women of this film are sitting together. They are sharing their stories. Through this climatic scene, the director has unraveled the silent sufferings of women. He uses flashbacks to break linearity, to debunk the notion of time and narration. In the shooting scene, she (Shabnam) feels a little bit of difficulty to execute her dialogues, and she wants to handle it alone. But, the veteran actor believes that all art is a composition and the characters are like materials or ingredients. Harmony is one of the important aspects of art.  He says- “For an actor sometimes, hearing his lines is a lot more helpful than reading it. At least that’s what I think.” ( The Last Lear) He also says- “You do a bad job and mine gets affected as well.” ( The Last Lear) Thus, he tries to make her evoke out all the buried emotions for the sake of a performance- “You have to bring everything out.” ( The Last Lear) In the lap of the mountainous terrain, they are shooting. He is shouting, and it creates an echo. Similarly, Shakespeare has written his famous plays long time ago but we feel his relevance even today. This film does show the conflict between the individual and the society, past and modernity, art and technology and internal crisis. Macbeth is psychologically alienated from his ambience just like king Lear. In the shooting scene, the veteran actor has expressed his point of view in favour of that particular scene which Siddharth wants to cut it out from their film. They pose their different point of views regarding the relevance and irrelevance of soliloquy in theatre and film respectively.

We can see the layers of adaptation in this film. The story of Macbeth is adopted into a new story, and it is executed by Siddharth. Then, it is executed under the umbrella story of The last Lear by Rituparno Ghosh. He also experiments with time, name and location. The veteran actor mingles two, three Bengali words with the English language. Harish Mishra loves Shakespeare and memorizes all his famous lines by heart. At the last scene, he also utters some of the dialogues of the play, king Lear. Harish Mishra is bedridden. The veteran actor’s wife, Vandana always stays with him.  He cannot remember anything. But, in the last scene, it is shown that Shabnam goes to his room. He looks at her. She mentions her name and says- ‘Remember.’ Gradually, Harish utters- “You’re a spirit I know.” ( The Last Lear) Thus, Cordelia’s true love for his father is transformed, and proved in this scene. Then, he goes on saying- “I am mightily abused; I should e’en die with pity. To see another thus. I know not what to say. I will swear these are my hands. Let’s see. I feel this pinprick. Would I were assured of my condition! …I am a foolish fond old man, fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less, And to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind…” ( The Last Lear) Thus, he dies uttering the soliloquy from king Lear.

This movie centers on the art of narration, the art of filming a film. “The house was nothing like what it looked from the outside / nor was the man who sat in front of me” ( The Last Lear) – Goutam’s words sum up the essence of the Shakespearean characters, the nuisance of ‘acting. He has also extended his perspective stating “He acts as the divine power, and his presence in certain moments almost acts as a divine intervention.” ( The Last Lear) Ghosh does not translate the play (King Lear). He adopts the theme of the play in his own way by making Harish Mishra the surrogate voice of himself- “I am your father’s age”( The Last Lear) Thus, Harish tries to create a fatherly bond with Shabnam, Goutam and Siddharth. Thus, Ghosh also tries to transform the father- daughter bond of “king Lear” into father-son bond to narrate the ordinary lives of human beings. At the end, it can be said that Shakespeare’s Lear initially was a proud king. Later, he became a soul full of repentance. Shakespeare’s King Lear is undoubtedly a gloomy play where the characters go through the emotional catharsis. The aged, tall Amitabh Bachchan carries the erudite, traditional figure of a veteran artist who does not believe in modern film making process. Later, he also embraces it. The film, more or less remains true to the theme of the original story as sometimes, the meaning gets blurred in the process of re-contextualization and adaptation. The Bard of Avon, Shakespeare never dies. He was there. He is still alive in the readers’ mind as he crosses the boundaries of time and age. This is the sole reason behind the contextualization of Shakespeare (theatre/play) even today. Ultimately, Rituparno Ghosh comments on the significance of reading, adapting Shakespeare in the new era, shows conflict between technology and sublimity of ‘art,’ authenticity and faithfulness and somehow tries to give the open-ended answers to the broad question of aesthetics of adaptation. By doing so, he creates the theatricality in his movie to highlight that cinema itself is the stage. And theatre and cinema coexist even in the age of mechanical or technological production. Thus, the readers get to see the application of adaptation studies in the said film which remains true to the theme of the original play text by slightly changing the characters and setting.