National Award-winning filmmaker Onir, who launched Ashish Bisht in his last directorial outing Shab, is all set to introduce poet-actor Zain Khan Durrani in his next, Kuchh Bheege Alfaaz. The film, releasing on February 16, has many firsts to its credit. It is Onir’s first out-and-out love story and the first one to have the female lead with vitiligo. Written by Abhishek Chatterjee, the movie stars National Award-winning actor Gitanjali Thapa in the lead.
The modern-day romance set in the age of dating apps in Kolkata traces the journey of love through lead characters RJ Alfaaz played by Zain and Archana aka Archie played by Gitanjali against the backdrop of old Hindi films songs like ‘Pehla Nasha’. “Zain had auditioned for Shab. But I saw a spark in him and was waiting for the right opportunity to cast him. He had assisted me in Shab and the documentary Raising the Bar. When I read Abhishek’s script, I knew he was perfect for the lead role, but as I wasn’t producing the film, I asked him to go through the audition, and he was selected,” says Onir on casting Zain. Sharing
his fondness for Gitanjali, whom he still refers to as Archie, Onir says, “When I first met her, I knew that she’s fit for the role.”
Says the Kashmir-born Zain about his journey, “I moved to Mumbai in 2014, attended workshops, trained and learned the nuances of filmmaking and appeared for this film’s audition, and bagged the role.” The debutant actor plays the role of a man, whose character in is deeply wounded within. In real life, however, Zain’s idea of romanticism is limited to writing poems.
Gitanjali, whose on-screen character Archie has leucoderma, sees the white patch as a metaphor to her insecurities and complexes. “It is a sweet love story with a modern twist, and when Onir narrated the script, I loved it. It was challenging and exciting,” she says.
And it is the story’s old world charm that has upped the expectation around the film that is all about the courage to fall in love again and discover the beauty within.