Rituparna and Saheb, (top) with Tota on the sets. Pictures by Aranya Sen

Subhrajit Mitra’s Mon Amour: Shesher Kobita Revisited is on the “extended possibilities” of the Amit-Labanya love story from the Tagore novel. Here, Rajarshi (Amit) is a cellphone-toting busy film-maker, while his lost love Brishti (Labanya) is married to common friend Indrajit (Sovanlal) and is now the mother of a six-year-old girl.

In Subhrajit’s film, the three characters meet after seven-eight years to carry the story forward. So, a house in Salt Lake has been turned into Rajarshi’s lavish residence where the trio comes together to relive their past. The cast — Rituparna Sengupta, Saheb Chatterjee and Tota Roy Chowdhury — get ready for the crucial moment.

The scene: White settees contrasted with a bunch of lampshades liven up Rajarshi’s drawing room. A huge medieval painting adorns one of the walls. On a table is a cluster of diyas lit up in a bowl of rose petals. “Do you like my house?” Rajarshi asks Brishti. “It’s terrible!” she says.

Woman in red: Dressed in a maroon jamevar, Rituparna takes a look in the mirror. “I play three different women in this film. First, as the bubbly college girl Brishti, then as a wife and a mother. My third character is Tilottama, who appears in Rajarshi’s dreams,” says Rituparna.

The man from her past: “Rajarshi is a polished guy; he is also very intellectual. For him, love transcends all barriers. He is also very Indian at heart and the character is close to Amit Roy of Shesher Kobita,” says Saheb.

The husband: “My character Indrajit is very exuberant but at the same time has a lot of pain within himself. That was the most intriguing part for me,” says Tota.

The teamleader: Though all the actors are pretty relaxed on the set, director Subhrajit is a bit tense. His script is sprinkled with a smattering of French and German, and Subhrajit is bent on getting Saheb to speak the right diction. “That’s how Rajarshi communicates with Brishti, when her husband is around...” says Subhrajit. “Mon Amour is about the film that Rajarshi is making. So it’s like a film within a film. My film is about how a meeting changes everything around the characters, especially their relationship with each other.”

The crew: Produced by the NGO Men At Work, the team will shoot in Sandakphu in October. Kalyan Sen Barat is the music director, while Chandrani Singh Flora has designed the costumes.

Kushali Nag