AB's Shakespearean Tempest rocks Toronto

He's the last "King" of Bollywood. Even at the other side of 60, Amitabh Bachchan is the reigning Shahenshah of moviedom. And no flames of Aag can lick this man.

But all those suffering a momentary loss of faith have to do is view Rituparna Ghosh's movie which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last week.

Even Shakespeare must've stirred from his 400-year-old slumber on hearing Big B's rendition of his play. It had the celeb-studded audiences enthralled all right. His almost theatrical performance as an ageing Shakespearian actor leaves you feeling, "Yes! All the world's definitely a stage for Amitabh Bachchan." Truly.

"Ironically, the role I play is that of an actor in Bengal, and in my early days I actually did do a lot of English amateur theatre there. This film gives a realistic approach not just to contemporary Calcutta, but to theatre and Shakespeare which many of you admire,
" said Bachchan at the gala opening at the grand Roy Thomson Hall.

This is AB's first ever English language film, not that there's any love lost for Hindi just yet.
"English is an integral part of our lives because of the colonial rule we all were subjected to; but, to put it kindly, it has left an indelible print in our lives. It has been a source of influence and in some way had a major social impact in our lives in India. Whether it is in our administration, parliament, the construction of our law, or our conversations in our daily lives. Many of us think in English but speak in our regional languages. I have observed an interesting trait in Indians , whenever an Indian has a conversation with a Britisher, he starts talking like a Britisher. When he talks to an American, he starts talking like an American. That's the versatility of Indians. Somewhere there are glimpses of that in the film. However, when an Indian is drunk, he's back to his roots... he becomes a Bengali, Mahara-shtrian or whatever,' smiles Big B, bringing the house down with his clipped 'British' repartee.