Soumili Biswas shoots a flashback scene for Morning Walk in Kumartuli. Picture by Aranya Sen

A scuffle broke out between a band of baton-wielding cops and a group of “revolutionaries” shouting slogans in an alley at Kumartuli on Thursday afternoon. Leading the march was actress Soumili Biswas and her “lover” Tanmoy Sengupta.

Inching a few steps forward, Soumili looked into a camera placed in a corner to give a close-up shot for Mumbai-based Arup Dutta’s directorial debut Morning Walk, starring Sharmila Tagore and Anupam Kher. Soumili’s track is a flashback scene in the Hindi film, where she plays a young Sharmila.

“I am the young and rebellious Nilima; Sharmila Tagore plays the elderly Nilima. I am trying to emulate Sharmila as she was in her youth. It’s a small but important role for me. Also, it’s my first Hindi film and so I am doubly excited,” chirped Soumili, sporting the Seventies look of tangail sari, high-neck blouse and long plait. Tanmoy, an assistant director to Dutta, plays the young Anupam.

For a few hours on Thursday, Dutta had transported a strip of Kumartuli to the dark days of the Naxal movement to film his “emotional drama” revolving around Nilima and Joymohan (played by Anupam Kher).

Nilima is a student of Presidency College, while Joymohan is a lecturer. “The lovers are torn apart by the cops, marking the first spin in the story,” said Dutta, who felt the crumbling buildings in Kumartuli provided the perfect backdrop for the scene.

“Morning Walk explores the relationship between Joymohan and Nilima, who meet again after 10 years during a morning walk in Shimla. Both are married to different people. But they bond and take a trip down memory lane, only to separate again. Their paths cross one more time 27 years later, this time during a morning stroll in Mumbai. Following this meeting, Joymohan starts suspecting that he is the biological father of Nilima’s daughter,” said the director.

“The title of the film is significant because all the twists and turns occur during morning walks that steer the characters and the story towards a new direction,” explained Dutta, who has been an episode director for Balaji Telefilms and other production houses in Mumbai.

“I have always wanted to make a Hindi film. I approached Sharmila Tagore with the script. She read it and readily agreed to do the film.”

Morning Walk is being produced by the Calcutta-based Cinemawallah, which had financed Rituparno Ghosh’s Utsab and Titli, and Anjan Dutt’s Bow Barracks Forever.

Apart from bringing Anupam and Sharmila together for the first time, Morning Walk also features Nargis Bagheri (last seen in Priyadarshan’s Garam Masala) as Sharmila’s daughter and Shayan Munshi as her fiance.

Theatre actor Rajit Kapur plays Anupam’s son, married to Divya Dutta. There’s Suman Ranganathan and little Avika Gor of the hit Colours serial Balika Vadhu too.

In the past few days, the Morning Walk team shot at Victoria Memorial, the Race Course and in Dakshineswar. Dutta has canned the title track, a thumri sung by Rashid Khan and Shreya Ghoshal, on a steamer on the Hooghly.