Veteran actors were earlier seen in Khamosh and Bhumika; film expected to roll in June
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 21, 2018)

After the 2017 Marathi comedy, FU: Friendship Unlimited, featuring Sairat fame actor Akash Thosar, National Award-winning filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar is now set to direct his next. He has roped in Naseeruddin Shah and Amol Palekar for his untitled Hindi film. Confirming the news, Naseer told Mirror, “Mahesh doesn’t want us to disclose too much about the plot, so all I can say is that it’s a family drama with a great deal of intense scenes and a bit of action.”

The 67-year-old actor is looking forward to reuniting with Amol with whom he had earlier worked in Shyam Benegal’s 1977 drama Bhumika, broadly based on the memoirs of the well-known Marathi stage and screen actress, Hansa Wadkar. Amol played Keshav Dalvi the much-older, jealous and resentful husband of Smita Patil’s character Usha, while Naseer played Sunil Verma, a nihilistic and self-centred director with whom Usha gets into a relationship. “We didn’t have any scenes together in Bhumika, but we went on to do Khamosh (Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 1985 murder mystery) and Jalal Agha’s Nirvana with Sarika which was never released,” recalled Naseer who had lent his voice to the male puppet in Palekar’s 2005 directorial, the Shah Rukh Khan-Rani Mukerji starrer Paheli. “Amol hasn’t acted in a while but he had a large fan following and was a very big draw when I was a beginner. After that, his priorities changed I suppose, it’s great to have him back.”

Naseer was last seen in Neeraj Pandey’s Aiyaary, while Amol’s last filmi outing was his 2009 Marathi directorial, Samaantar, with Sharmila Tagore as his costar. He was also seen in the 2015 TV series set against the backdrop of the medical profession, Ek Nayi Ummeed – Roshni. When Mirror contacted Amol, he kept it short, reiterating, “Talk to Mahesh.”

The film is expected to roll in June and will be shot mostly in Mumbai. “Mahesh finds these crazy locations in the interiors of the state which he knows really well and we could go to one of these places,” said Naseer.

Buzz is, Jisshu Sengupta who was last seen in Shoojit Sircar’s Piku, and will play Kangana Ranaut’s royal husband in the upcoming Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi is also a part of the cast.