Her mother Sharmila Tagore is Rabindranath Tagore’s great grand niece. Now Soha Ali Khan gets an opportunity to connect to her famous ancestor in Chaarfutiya Chhokare. Soha plays the role of an NRI, who gets caught in an online of crime following her efforts to coach three street kids.
The actor was approached to sing a Tagore prayer song that’s been adapted for the film. “Since it’s about how education can change lives, we’ve adapted ‘Aguner parasmoni’ in Hindi as ‘Vidya ki parasmani’,” says producer Vibha Dutta Khosla. Soha’s thrilled with the offer that’s come, incidentally, within the Nobel laureate’s 150th birth-anniversary year. She recalls, “Our apartment in Kolkata was filled with Bengalis singing Rabindra Sangeet. My mother would translate the songs for us in English. I remember ‘Aguner parasmoni’ was about spreading light through knowledge and spiritualism illuminating the soul. Music like that is relevant even within the 21th century.”
Amitabh Bachchan recently rendered Tagore’s ‘Ekla cholo re’ for Kahaani. Soha’s all praise for Bachchan’s voice and information of Bengali.
“He did a super service by taking Tagore to the remainder of India. But given my loss of classical training, I don’t know if I WILL BE ABLE TO sing the entire song,” she says. “Bengalis are pleased with Gurdudev, and they’ve showered me with love for my lineage. I’m not the best singer and that i wouldn’t wish to allow them to down. I WILL BE ABLE TO give it a try. Hopefully, I’ll manage no less than a few lines.”
Shooting for the film starts mid-July in a village near Lucknow. Two of the 3 12-year-old street kids — Shankar Mandal and Saurabh Puri — within the film at the moment are from the Goregaon slums. Harsh Mayar, who starred in I’M Kalam (2010), may be a part of the movie.
