Hansal Mehta says Faraaz is The Archies gone ‘dark’: ‘Riverdale Cafe of today’s times, where Archie and Reggie are in a bloodbath’

“My kids are approximately the age of those boys. This is the same generation, they talk the same language, the only difference is that they are carrying a gun. That exploration was important,” Mehta tells indianexpress.com. The film features Aditya Rawal as Nibras, one of the militants, and actor Shashi Kapoor’s grandson Zahan Kapoor as Faraaz.

“We have rom-coms made for young people and that’s great, that’s needed, but I thought this was equally important. A story of two young kids on the opposite side, they would have been playing football together if not for this. If they had met at the cafe without the gun, they would have made regular plans.”

Though Mehta has routinely mounted socio-political films–Shahid, Aligrah, Omerta– the filmmaker gets uncomfortable with the tag of being called “brave” for taking on a subject like Faraaz. For Mehta, it is a film that looks at the world today with all its bigotry, othering and hope intact.

“When people tell me, ‘Oh it’s bold, brave filmmaking’, I tell them there is nothing brave about it. It is just a film, that is looking at our world and our times. More than anything else, it is a youth film. For me the conversation was about young people and how we don’t understand them enough. We think sending them to a good college, giving them good education is enough.

“Faraaz’s mother mollycoddles him, treats him like a baby without realising that the baby actually has much more in him. When the hour of reckoning comes, the boy Tands up, stands tall. Nibras had also studied in a prestigious university in Kuala Lumpur. So how did this happen? Where did he suddenly pick a gun? He talks the same way, same vocabulary. It is important to find out. In many ways it is today’s, in a very dark way, Archies. This is a Riverdale Cafe of today’s times, where you have Archie and Reggie in a bloodbath.”

Since the trailer of Faraaz dropped last month, there were concerns if the film would end up following the ‘Good Muslim vs Bad Muslim’ trope. Mehta shrugs, insisting that he is merely trying to have a conversation which many have stopped even touching. If those who indulge in bigotry rise, someone has to answer– and not necessarily through Twitter.

“It upsets me, hurts me sometimes to see it trivalise in this manner. I am trying to have a conversation. There are many things we have stopped talking about and let people who engage in bigotry blow up these conversations, because of our silence. How do I voice my opinions? Through films. Twitter is an echo chamber. We are not politicians; I am not going to stand in elections and talk about it. There is nothing like a ‘wrong or right time’ to do this. The conversation had to be had. This story inspired me, felt necessary for the times.

“The answer is in the intention. Are you going to use the othering to create more othering? Or are you showing the othering to create an understanding of the world that we live in. If you make a film and show the othering to create hatred, then the intention is different. Ours is to create a larger understanding of the issue. It is also to make a film that is engaging,” he adds.

Faraaz is set to release in theatres on February 3. The film also features Juhi Babbar, Aamir Ali and Pallak Lalwani, among others. It is produced by Bhushan Kumar’s T-Series and filmmaker Anubhav Sinha’s Benaras Media Works.