Yashpal Sharma to play writer and ex-Maoist in Chhipkali; see poster

Yashpal Sharma will next be seen in Chhipkali, which marks the Hindi film debut of the Bengali director Kaushik Kar. The veteran plays a writer, Aloke Chaturvedi, who is in his 60s but is still unsuccessful. 

According to a statement by the makers, the character is a believer in "parallel dimensions of time".

"He is a nurturer of other entities since he feels that these entities parallelly coexist with us in the same time frame we live in. He is more spiritual and less materialistic. Though politically a Naxalite in the past, he now looks at life from a philosophical point of view. Highly optimistic in nature, he continues his quest to look out for real-life struggles of the oppressed class of people and incorporates their stories in his writings. Aloke is empathetic and emotional in nature,” the statement read.

Chhipkali is about a conversation between Aloke and Rudraksh (Yogesh Bhardwaj), a detective. They speak about the case of the murder of Aloke’s wife and son, which is recently reopened. As the conversation progresses, Rudraksh starts playing mind games with Aloke.

Speaking about the film, Sharma said, “Chhipkali will be a very special and memorable film for me all throughout my life. Firstly, the entire shoot was ]in Behrampore, West Bengal. Everyone was new and young. Secondly, the clarity and convincing power of the director, Koushik, was very strong. I have worked with many directors but I can say that I have never seen such a passionate director-writer like him.” 

Chhipkali came at a time when the actor was feeling low. “After corona hit for the second time in April, I was completely devastated and started thinking that films are not worthy anymore. But fortunately, this film helped me a lot and I was deeply involved in it. I tried to do whatever I could in a very limited period of time,” he added. 

Chhipkali also stars Bengali actress Tannistha Biswas in her first Hindi role. Meemo has produced the film under his banner Suan Silver Screen and has also composed the music for the film.