Dev and Rukmini speak about their characters in Kabir

Terrorism is a menace in almost every corner of the world. And Aniket Chattopadhyay’s Kabir takes a look at the need to unearth the reasons behind its existence. The film, which stars Dev and Rukmini Maitra in the lead, begins with a few bomb blasts in Mumbai and reaches a conclusion that terrorism has little to do with religion and a lot to do with a handful of powerful people, who keep adding fuel to the fire to fulfil their personal interests. CT spoke to the cast and the director about the film and their characters. Excerpts:

Dev: The film revolves around bomb blasts in Mumbai and on the India-Nepal border, the people behind the mission and how it was carried out. The Mumbai blasts also have a Kolkata connect and most of the film has been shot on a train. And for the first time, I’m playing a negative character, Altaf, who hijacks the train. The way the film has been made makes it nothing less than any Bollywood film.

Rukmini Maitra: I play

Yasmin Khatoon

, a less-than-ordinary girl who lives in her own world, is reserved and hardly speaks to others. It is a layered character and just the opposite of what I am in real life, so playing her was not easy.

Aniket Chattopadhay: The film shows two parallel journeys — one tries to trace the roots of Islamic terrorism and the other is the personal quest of terrorist. At one point, the two quests merge. How that happens is what the film is all about.