Mouni Roy, is a 35 year old actor in Mumbai, India. She has never earned enough money to lead a comfortable life being an artist and she sees bankers, and working professionals as sell outs. Somewhere within, she is jealous of people who have a more comfortable life but she'd never admit it.
It has been her dream to move to the UK and work in the Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre. One day, she ends up at an online audition with Adnan, a 55 year old retired banker from Frankfurt, Germany who is going through depression. Adnan has never seen himself as anything other than his job and now that this job is over after 30 years, he desperately needs a distraction and his daughter sends him for the audition.
For Adnan, the lines he has learnt are his lifeline and he has memorised them. So he is doing a terrible audition. Mouni now improvises and brings the scene alive by having a breakdown in the scene. This brings out the human being in Adnan and the scene becomes crackling with life. They are shortlisted.
Adnan, who had been distracted from his depression even for a short bit, begs her to teach him to act or at least give him 20 minutes at a coffee shop to ask her some questions about her process over a video call. This coffee conversation sets off a day of an acting class between two countries and two very different people from a social point of view, over a long video call. But they're also two people who at heart, beyond their labels, are very similar human beings.
It unravels their pasts, their fears, their pains and joys and leaves them changed. Like any good acting class should. We explore both Mumbai - dirty, grimy, soiled, dark, dense, intense and Frankfurt - squeaky clean, bright, colorful and as we see with the people, so also we see with the cities, that at the heart they're very similar. Mouni gets Adnan to take her through Frankfurt as she's moving through Mumbai and soon their roles of teacher and student are reversed.
Showroom Community
Our Showroom Community strand features collaborations with local communities to host film screenings, events, and activities, both in our cinema and across community spaces in Sheffield.
Director Aditya Kripalani
Year 2025
Duration
2h 1m
Language Hindi with English Subtitles, English
Cast Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Chitrangada Satarupa.