Anup Singh Returns to Mumbai With 'Lasya: The Gentle Dance,' Reviving a Project Once Destined for Irrfan Khan

Anup Singh, the Switzerland-based British filmmaker behind Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost and The Song of Scorpions, is directing a new short film titled Lasya: The Gentle Dance, shot on the streets of Mumbai and produced by the Mumbai-based banner Pretty Pictures (Variety).

The film follows a father and son who beg on Mumbai's roadside over the course of a single day. Monsoon rains repeatedly destroy their shelter. The city offers them little beyond hostility and indifference. But the father tells the boy stories about his late mother — her boldness, her refusal to let go of playfulness — and those stories let the son see himself as more than a victim. He finds the will to dance among the ruins and rebuild his life (Variety).

Singh described the film as "a desperate attempt to see whether cinema's gentle ways of reaching audiences can be reaffirmed in a time of AI, quick and violent action, and celebration of demagoguery in storytelling" (Variety). The title carries a deeper resonance: in an earlier interview, Singh described "lasya" as the goddess Parvati's gentle dance, set against Shiva's tandava — the dance of fire and water (The Caravan).

Pretty Pictures, led by Zeeshan Ahmad and Pretty Aggarwal, is backing the short. Ahmad said the banner supports Singh's vision "that marginalized people's lives be affirmed for their joys and beauty, not documented only for their pain" (Variety).

The project carries a long history. In 2017, Singh and Irrfan Khan discussed their creative partnership and the projects Lasya and Scorpions at a Variety Studio talk in Dubai (Variety, 2017). A report from that year's Singapore International Film Festival noted that Singh was set to reunite with Khan on Lasya – The Gentle Dance, which would have been their third film together (Variety, 2017). Khan, the celebrated actor whose international credits included Life of Pi and The Lunchbox, died in 2020.

What was once planned as a feature for Khan is now a short film. But the feature may yet follow. Pretty Pictures plans to begin work with Singh early next year on his next feature — the third film he was set to make with Khan. Ahmad said the banner is "excited to make the next Anup Singh feature film in homage to Irrfan Khan" (Variety).

For Singh, the short and the planned feature together form a return to a story he has carried for nearly a decade. The Mumbai streets where Lasya was shot are a long way from the Swiss base he calls home, and a longer way from the Rajasthan desert where The Song of Scorpions unfolded. The setting has changed. The questions the film asks — about gentleness, dignity, and what cinema can still do — have not.