Hansal Mehta on the decline of liberal discourse and his work Faraaz

• Hansal Mehta’s latest film Faraaz looks at the real-life events behind a terrorist attack in a Bangladeshi café.
• The film, starring Aditya Rawal and introducing Zahaan Kapoor.
• Follows a group of youngsters that turn violent in the name of religion.

Faraaz, Hansal Mehta’s most recent film, examines the actual circumstances surrounding a terrorist assault in a Bangladeshi café in 2016. Aditya Rawal plays the lead role in the movie, which also features Zahaan Kapoor and depicts a group of young people who become violent for religious reasons. The drama also introduces Sachin Lalwani, Jatin Sareen, Ninad Bhatt, Harshal Pawar, Reshham Sahaani, and Abhirami Bose. Faraaz made its international premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2022 and will be distributed in theaters on February 3.

The movie stars newbie Zahaan as Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain, a young Muslim who refuses to leave his pals when the café is taken hostage by militants. Zahaan is the grandson of actor Shashi Kapoor and filmmaker Ramesh Sippy. After the attack, the young guy received the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award. A companion piece to his previous films Shahid (2012) and Omerta (2017), which also examined terrorism and religion, Hansal referred to his most recent work as such.

In an interview , the director responded as follows when asked if his movie was a reaction to the declining liberal discourse: “It is crucial to understand that rabid voices have replaced the liberal voices in the debate over good Muslims and bad Muslims as a result of the withdrawal of the former. The people who supported Shahid have dwindled in number as skepticism and fear have gradually taken hold.”

Added he, “I wanted to have that conversation since I come from a liberal environment rather than avoiding it. Faraaz does not dispute with the concerns when the terror group’s head asks him why he does not see what is occurring in Palestine or what the US is doing in West Asia. He claims that the world is filled with many problems, but he queries whether this is the solution.”

Kareena Kapoor will play a detective and mother in Hansal‘s upcoming movie, provisionally titled The Buckingham Murders, similar to Kate Winselt in the online series Mare of Easttown. Additionally, he is the director of the Netflix original series Scoop, which stars Karishma Tanna as crime reporter Jigna Vora who was imprisoned for another journalist.

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