Vandana Kataria’s first film as a director, Noblemen, is set in an elite boarding school in Mussoorie, showing a much lesser seen side of the lives of teenagers who grow up in hostels and the garb of privilege.
The first scene of the Noblemen trailer hits hard. A young man Shay (Ali Haji) is awakened at night by a few boys who shove a ball into his mouth. The classmates then take him away forcibly to bully further, in a school where the principal is complicit in the act of bullying. Shay keeps up a brave front for his ailing mother (Soni Razdan) on video calls. But the woman has regained movement and announces she’ll make her first outing to his school for the Founder’s Day, where Shay is playing the lead in the play The Merchant of Venice. The boys bullying him want him to give up the role, which he’s refused. Would Shay be able to withstand all the pressure on him? Watch the trailer.
Kunal Kapoor stars as the inspiring drama teacher leading the theatre production, which is really a Shakespeare’s tale of revenge. As he points out and as seen in the film, “theatre imitates life”. And if you watch closely, you also see a kiss between the teacher and the student (Kunal Kapoor and Ali Haji). The film is probably titled Noblemen as inspired by The Merchant of Venice, where all the characters are meant to be noblemen, but hardly are. The song aptly used in the trailer is a new rendition of Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaye Toh Kya Hai from the Guru Dutt’s film Pyaasa.
The film also stars Mohammad Ali Mir, Muskaan Jaferi, Shaan Grover, and Hardik Thakkar. Noblemen is slated to release on 28 June 2019, the same day as Ayushmann Khurrana starrer Article 15. If you haven’t heard of Article 15, go here.