A still from the movieDirector: Saibal Mitra
Language: Bengali
Inspired by two events in the lives of blind Indian painter Binod Bihari Mukherjee and American painter Mark Rothko, The Last Mural deals with the motive and purpose of art.
For whom does a painter paint? Is it for the art’s sake or for the commercial interests of many? The film attempts to answer these questions.
Bijan Bose, a painter who has lost eye-sight, is not ready to quit and decides to work on a mural, which he considers it to be his last piece of art. He decides to make the mural for a restaurant in Kolkata and is offered a huge amount of money. Bose is all excited and thinks that he will be remembered for his last piece of work.
A young woman, who is an aspiring painter, assists him in the assignment. Initially, Bose is not impressed by her work. But over the course of time, he understands that the rookie is talented.
Once the painting is ready, Bose realizes that the manner in which it will be displayed in the restaurant is undignified. Hence, he returns all the money and takes back his mural – symbolic of artistic discontent in a money-oriented society.
The film shows the painting techniques of Braille, used in Shantiniketan to help people with blindness to excel in this field.
The film has used original works of Binod Bihari as the director understands that it is always difficult to recreate a work of art. Saibal Mitra has superimposed his frames in Bihari’s paintings to give an aesthetic sense to the story. The Last Mural also shows how conflicts arise due to the generation gap between two painters.
