The heartbreaking love saga between Amrita (Shabana Azmi) and Zulfikar Haider (Farooq Sheikh) continues well past Amrita’s death in Aapki Soniya. Much like Tumhari Amrita, the set is unadorned with the two actors seated a short distance from each other facing the audience, reading out letters in turn. The lack of action is more than compensated by some delightful dialogue delivery, heartfelt emotions, and a lyrical Urdu script.
No easy feat this; more ever since Farooq and Shabhana have carried it out with ease all these years, the onus was on Sonali Bendre to step into some pretty big shoes. This time around the letters are exchanged between Zulfi and Soniya (Sonali Bendre) who is Amrita’s loathsome daughter. If the prequel was a story of unsuccessful love, this is a story of futile hatred and an ailing Zulfi is once again made to do some deep soul searching. Soniya, who is brought up single handedly by her inebriate French father has led a miserable childhood devoid of love and belonging.
She holds Zulfi directly responsible for her mother abstinence through her childhood years. She spits out venom in her letters to Zulfi, who is totally ignorant of her existence. Through the exchange of letters a bond grows between the two - a bond with no name.
Will Zulfi be the soothing balm for Soniya’s scars? Or will her fire burn him in his guilt? This you will have to see for yourself. Farooq’s continues from where he stopped in Tumhari Amrita with a spellbinding performance again! Tinseltown girl Sonali Bendre displayed a good grasp of Urdu, but didn’t match up to the chemistry between Farooq and Shabana - maybe it was wrong of us to even expect it.
All said and done, Aapki Soniya is one of the finest Indian plays around and is sure to pleasure audience for years to come.