The search for a soulmate gets a literal spin in Abir Sengupta’s short film Soulmate, out on Eros Now. Adah Sharma plays a girl struggling to find the perfect match. Her split, or soul – also played by Sharma – joins her on these dates, wryly rejecting men who fail to sense her presence.
Until, one day, magic happens. “We can’t always have a checklist to date or marry someone,” says Sharma. “We are constantly evolving as people. What matters, then, is to find that initial click and take a leap of faith.”
Besides the prompt costume changes, Sharma had to mind the technicalities of playing a double role. The ‘switch’, as instructed by her director, had to be a subtle but effective one.
Sengupta says he’d read an interview of Sharma’s where she had spoken about her love of fairytales. Promptly, he sent her the script and got back a response. “It was so instinctive how things panned out,” the director recalls. “I had just finished a script and here was an actor talking about how she believes in finding a soulmate.
The double role, too, came out of a conversation I had with her.” Sengupta has also finished another film with Sharma, titled Man to Man. A romantic comedy, it follows a boy (Naveen Kasturia) who gets married only to discover that his wife is a man. “I feel fortunate to get offered such quirky and unique parts,” says Sharma, who also has Commando 4 on her cards.