Naseeruddin
Shah will be seen in the upcoming film Hope Aur Hum, releasing in May. Directed
by Sudip Bandyopadhyay, an ad filmmaker, the film talks about the Srivastava
family whose lives are affected by the senior most member of the family, Nagesh
(Naseeruddin Shah) whose obsession with his traditional copying machine, called
Mr Soennecken starts to take a toll on the relationship of the entire family.
While the ups and downs that the family take and this difficulty in letting go
is a crucial aspect of the film, a little-known secret is that Sudip
Bandyopadhyay wrote this film after a real-life incident.
The
director, a fine arts student from Kolkata used to get photocopies from an old
man near his college, that old man owned a machine very similar to Mr
Soennecken in the film. It was this machine that helped Sudip make many college
deadlines but soon like most old things it was time to dispose the old machine
and bring in the new. In a matter of days, Sudip saw the old machine being
thrown to the side and the new one being brought in. He knew right then, this
was a story in the making. While he didn’t have the ability to buy the original
copy machine that inspired this story. He sat with Art Director, Tapas Singha
and they decided to build a Mr Soennecken.
The
step by step process of building Mr Soennecken to look like the copier from
Sudip’s adolescence is itself a film in the making. The Director and Producer
knew the effort will pay off and it did when the whole cast and crew saw Mr
Soennecken for the first time and couldn’t believe it was created on set,
everyone including Naseer sir were in awe of the old looking new machine.
