"'The Unforgettable' is based on a true story of a ruthless girl" - Arsala Quereishi 
By Joginder Tuteja, May 12, 2009 - 15:27 IST
In their debut English film The Unforgettable, co-director Arsala Qureishi and Sabrina Louis aren't shying away from calling a spade a spade. They are
happy to disclose that the film is based on true events that happened around them with the film's protagonists based on some real life characters. They go
one step ahead and mince no words in declaring that they have based their female protagonist on a girl they knew who was a ruthless character in real
life.
"What you would see in the movie though is just a sketch of what this girl was in real life", remembers Arsala Quereishi, "In fact the real happenings in the
life of this girl and her man were so much more blatant and unacceptable. We had to mellow it all down to a huge extent and cut short the ruthlessness that
she brought with her in real life."
"If I had a free hand and not much worries about bringing the story on the big screen, I would have had even lesser mercy in the characterisation of the
female protagonist of our film", Sabrina Louis takes off here, "I don't think we could even come close to such a character for our film. If we would have
done that, it the film would have become too dark and morbid. This is why we played the two characters quite evenly and in a subtle way put forth the extent
that they would go to."
"When I was writing the story, I could feel the pain that this guy must have been going through", says Arsala, "In fact it took me two years to get my final
draft of the script in place. I think there were such extreme emotions that these two people were going through that we could have never ever known that such
feelings do exist."
"At the end of the day, it's all about possessiveness", Sabrain chips in here, "We saw these two people in love but somehow there wasn't much positive energy
in their affair. We used to become really uneasy in their presence. There was jealousy, obsession and lies involved and it was just not a happy feeling at
the end of the day.
Pitched as a film about two extreme characters (played by Raji James and Sofia Hayat), The Unforgettable is touted as a film that defies rules and
stereotypes. While the man completely believes in control of all desires, the woman feels that one should just surrender to the desires if need arises.
Screened at The Berlin Film Festival last year, The Unforgettable is aiming for a 8th May release in India.
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