Koel Mallick and Parambrata Chattopadhyay at The Park on Wednesday. Pictures by Bhubaneswarananda Halder

The lead pair of Hemlock Society — Koel Mallick and Parambrata Chattopadhyay — along with director Srijit Mukherji, music director Anupam Roy and producer Shrikant Mohta got together at Galaxy, The Park, to talk about the film on Wednesday afternoon. The meet was as much to unveil the film as to dispel any dark clouds gathering over the dark theme of Srijit’s first film without Prosenjit.

“Don’t go by the title or the posters (a bottle stuffed with pills or a hangman’s noose), Hemlock Society is about death, love and two journeys (Koel and Parambrata’s). It’s about a philosophy which can drive lives. We are in no way promoting either suicide or euthanasia. It’s just that the central theme of the film pertains to death but it also pertains to life and love.... The perspective from which I looked at these topics is quite unique,” explained Srijit.

Main man Parambrata is upbeat about the film, his first big release after Kahaani. “It’s a very special film for me and I really mean it. I play Ananda. We don’t get to know much about him. He is kind of a Captain Nemo or a little like Thodasa Roomani Ho Jayen’s Nana Patekar. Nobody knows where he comes from and where he goes. What we get to see is that he is a very light-hearted man who takes things very lightly. Ironically, he deals with something that is very serious, which is death,” said Parambrata. “As a solo hero, Hemlock Society is my most important film after Kalbela. And despite the theme, I want to assure all of you that it’s not a dark film. It’s a very fast-paced entertainer,” he stressed.

For Param’s co-star Koel, Hemlock Society was a very different experience after the many masala movies she has starred in so far. “Meghna is a very challenging character because I did get her character traits after reading the script but I have never met anyone like her in real life.... Meghna is a mysterious character and very unpredictable by nature. She has many layers. She is a strong, independent woman. I did not identify with her at all. The workshops with Sohagmashi (Sen) really helped,” said Koel.

Hemlock Society is slated for a June release.