Nayyar and co. have just wound up the shooting in a village near Kharar and if everything goes as per the plans, the film will be submitted to Mandi House on March 31. Titled `Keher', the telefilm is sponsored by the Punjab State AIDS Control Society. And watching the shooting was an interesting experience for it turned out to be a get together of local talents from various fields.

So we have Atulveer Arora, one of the pioneers of theatre movement in the city and a professor at the Panjab University, playing the role of the unyielding father along with real life wife Madhurima, an actress-cum-writer, doing the same role on screen. City's budding poet and scriptwriter, Irshad Kamil, who has written the screenplay and dialogue for this film, does a negative role. Since counselling plays a vital role in combating the disease, Sadhna Mukesh, Rana Nayyar and Parveen Kalia form the team of doctors on this mission.

If these are from the city, the rest hail from the region and topping the list is Nissar Khan whom you may have seen in the serials `Shanti' and `Kohra'. Nissar is the protagonist, the truck driver who receives the deadly disease as a souvenir after a night of pleasure at a city brothel. But the volcano erupts only when his pregnant wife is diagnosed and is duly thrown out of the house by the in-laws. The saving grace comes in the form of his doctor-sister who digs out the truth and makes him part of her campaign to fight the disease from all fronts. "It is not a didactic statement but shown in an indirect way through interesting sequences and frames on intimate human relationship," Sewak Nayyar pointed out.

"If there is a cancer patient, do we throw him out of the house? But the moment an AIDS patient is revealed, the first reaction is condemnation. Here I am looking at all the possible aspects and showing the peer pressure among drivers." The film's two female leads are in the hands of Arti Puri and Anu Verma. Sewak Nayyar, who has written the script too, is assisted in direction by Ravi Mahajan whose `Afsaane' on DD and `Parchchawe' on Jalandhar DD have been hits. Pramod Rattan, who has done the score for Jaspal Bhatti's forthcoming film `Mahaul Theek Hai', has directed the music for this film. "We have used many visuals from the just-concluded rallies by school children. Dr Chahal of the Punjab AIDS Control Society has been very helpful in providing all the information regarding the disease at all the stages of finalisation of the script." Now let us wait for DD to pass it so that we can see our own Chandigarhians join the crusade against AIDS.