Tehzeeb: Film that seeks to transcend
Hindu-Muslim barriers

          Film fans can look for some powerhouse performances and soul-searching drama in Khalid Mohammad's 'Tehzeeb' which claims to break cliches. An adaptation of Swedish film "Autumn Sonata", the film, exploring the troubled mother-daughter relationship, stars Bollywood's oomphy Urmila Matondkar in the lead role.

          The journalist-turned-director Mohammad, who has a penchant for writing women-oriented scripts, said the film does away with the cliches attached to Hindu-Muslim tensions in India. "I think there is an element of secularism inherent in the film, when you do a Muslim household story but don't make it so obvious. You don't make a Muslim social setup...you don't have gararas or burqas, instead they live and lead their lives as normally as everyone else and I think that's the point because if you say there is a Muslim family in the movie, you expect certain cliches and those are the cliches that I have tried to avoid," Mohammad told reporters in New Delhi.

          The movie also features five-time National Award winner and social activist Shabana Azmi who plays an ambitious singer mother to Matondkar and former Miss Asia Pacific Diya Mirza. Azmi said the movie focusses on human emotions and relationships with an underlining message. "There is no social message levied through this movie on viewers because the director is telling you a story of relationships and hidden emotions and about wounds, which are being opened up. The social message comes subliminally, its not in the face", added Azmi.

         Co-starring bigwigs Rishi Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Diya Mirza, Namrata Shirodkar, the film also introduces former Miss World Diana Hayden who does a cameo in the movie. Set within a Muslim milieu, the movie presents Matondkar in an author-backed role of a daughter who since childhood has nursed a grudge against her mother. Matondkar said the film is about contemporary women who take the responsibility of the decisions taken by them. "I think it shows very very strong women who are both equally confident and comfortable with the choice and options they take in their lives and then what all happens with them", remarked Matondkar.

          Based on real life incidents, the film was shot in a month. Produced by Seven Studio Pictures in association with the Culture Company, the movie has a classy soundtrack by music maestro A.R. Rehman. Twentieth Century Fox has acquired the overseas rights of the film. The much awaited and talked about film, touted as an "unconventional movie", is all set for a nation-wide release on December 5.

Dec 3,  2003