Plot

An aging Shakespearean actor takes on one of the bard's most challenging roles. Based on Utpal Dutt's play "Aajker Shahjahan".

Film-maker Siddharth Kumar is receiving guests at his premiere 'The Mask' which stars Harish Mishra, Shabnam, amongst others. He finds out that Shabnam is not attending and is not available. The reason why she cannot attend is that she has gone to visit the ailing main actor of this movie, Harish, who was injured while filming. She sits with his mistress, Vandana, and Nurse Ivy, and recount Harish's life; his meeting with Journalist, Gautam, and subsequently Siddharth himself; the installation of a camera to view people walking on the street as well as males who urinate on the walls. As they await to hear the initial reviews of the film both Shabnam and Ivy must also deal with personal issues involving their respective spouses.—rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

The story revolves around Harish Mishra (Amitabh Bachchan), a retired Shakespearean theatre actor who spent precisely thirty years and nine months on stage and then suddenly quit, and his first and last act as a cinema artist. He is immensely passionate about Shakespeare, believes that nothing even comparable can ever be written, knows all his plays by heart, lives in those stories, condemns modern cinema and considers theatre as a much higher art-form for directors and actors to convey their message to an audience.

It is Diwali, a time when box offices are flooded with new releases and Shabnam (Preity Zinta) has to attend the premiere of her latest movie: The Mask. Shabnam's husband knows she is seeing someone behind his back, but she won't reveal who it is. Shabnam decides to skip the premiere and visit her co-star Harish and heads to a cubbyhole of old Kolkata where Harish is bedridden in a coma. He is being taken care by Vandana (Shefali Shah) and a nurse, Ivy (Divya Dutta). Vandana treats Shabnam with spite as she blames her and the entire cast and crew for Harish's condition. But soon they are seen bonding over tea and are involved in a conversation about Harish. In flashbacks, their story and equation with Harish emerges.

Shabnam decides to stay back and help Vandana when Ivy has to leave suddenly without any replacement from the nursing agency. They discuss how Harish's spinal cord is fractured and he is paralyzed. He has brain damage as well. Ivy's boyfriend is late in arriving and Shabnam learns from Vandana that the boyfriend doesn't trust Ivy and calls her every night checking where she is and what she is doing. Shabnam can relate to this, as her own husband doesn't trust her the same way.

It is clear from the dialogue that there was some sort of accident on the sets due to which Harish was injured badly. Palaash (Prosenjit Chatterjee) is the main actor of the film, opposite Shabnam. The movie sees parallel narration from Goutam (Jisshu Sengupta), a journalist who recalls his encounters with the veteran actor almost a yr ago (another veteran stage actor had died and his magazine had asked him to interview his fellow co-actors) (Harish has called his deceased friend a homosexual and chased Goutam out when he could not tell the name of a Shakespeare play from the names of its characters). He had suggested Harish for the lead role to his elder brother Siddharth (Arjun Rampal) who happens to be an ambitious perfectionist director.

After a casual meeting with Harish "Harry", Siddharth realizes that to convince Harish to act in his film (Harish thinks Cinema is not the right medium for his talents), he has to win his trust and establish a relationship with him. Vandana thinks Sid wanted Harish for his own selfish reasons as he wanted to create a "perfect" film. He was opportunist. And, hence, the impatient young artist attempts to win the trust and collaboration of the aged performer, who sits raging against the modern world from the sanctuary of his study. Harish is offended by people urinating against his wall, so Sid installs a CCTV to keep an eye 24 hours and make a guessing game out of it. They spend hours together in front of the CCTV feed, seeing human life go by.

Sid's film is about a popular circus clown named Maqbool, whose film is dying like the circus. He set fire to the local cinema after one of the clown's killed himself. Sid gets Harish to do trust exercises (go up and down the stairs without his glasses) in his house, which put the old actor in danger of injury. Maqbool escaped to a hill station and worked as a gardener.

Harish finally agrees to act in the film. Shooting happens on the stunning Himalayan foothills of Mussoorie. On the sets he befriends Shabnam and teaches her lessons on acting, life and Shakespeare. As the story unfolds one gets to know his relationship with Vandana, the reason behind his quitting theatre and last but not the least the reason for his illness. Harish was supposed to play King Lear many years ago. This was a role he dreamed of. He prepared, researched and compared all interpretations. Then, just one week before the opening, he quit the stage forever. Harish got scared of the critics and felt he would never do justice to his dream role and stepped back from acting.

In the last shot of the film, Harish was to be shot by a cop and fall off a cliff. A dummy (The stuntman was charging them more than Harish was charging them for the whole movie) was to perform the shot, but Harish insists on doing it himself. Goutam makes Harish realize that this was the first time someone else will be standing in for him, in his entire life. Harish's pride comes in the way, and he decides to sign off on a clean chit for his career. Sid tries to convince Harish not to risk his life. Harish begs Sid to let him do the shot.

Harish is made to sign a bond that only he is responsible for this decision. He is not entitled for any recompense; in case anything goes wrong. Harish signs a blank sheet of paper. he is supposed to jump off the cliff and hang on to some bushes directly below, to avoid falling several hundred feet straight down. It was a perfect shot. Nothing happened.

But Sid is upset, since Harish was tensed in the shot. He was prepared to catch the bushes and the shot seemed "manufactured".. there was no spontaneity. Sid tells Harish that they have to do the shot again, by lying and saying that the stock footage of the shot was ruined. The next day, shot is ready, but Sid has removed all the trees and the bushes, without telling Harish. The cameraman refuses to take the shot, so Sid takes it himself. Harish jumps.

Vandana reveals that she fell in love with Harish, when she saw him play Othello on stage. Vandana started living with him. She was pregnant the day Harish announced he was quitting stage. She got an abortion done. In the morning, Shabnam goes to meet Harish. Harish doesn't recognize her, but reads Shakespeare with her, as he used to do in the mountains.