Every time acclaimed film director Ketan Mehta comes out with a new film, lovers of meaningful cinema arc agog. And it is no exception this time as his latest work RangRasiya (Colours of Passion), based on the life and times of eminent 19th century painter of Kerala, Raja Ravi Varma, is ready for commercial release next month.

Besides being a chronicle of the life and times of the painter, the film revolves around Raja Ravi Varma (played by Randeep Hooda) and his muse Sugandha (played by Nandana Sen, daughter of Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen).

Although Rang Rasiya is a period film. Mehta says it has a contemporary relevance, the reason for which he made the movie.

So impressed was Mehta by the

contribution of Varma to modern Indian art that the director did not deter from making the period film despite the box-office disaster of his previous historical movie Mangai Pandey. The Rising, a story of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, starring Aamir Khan in title role, three years ago.

But then Mehta was never driven by box office demands. In fact, he says he would return to period film making again as he plans to make a biopic on the Rani of Jhansi, Laxmi Bai.

Interestingly, the film Mehta made before Mangai Pandey. The Rising was another period piece, Sardar based on the life of Vallabhbhai Patel, the charismatic politician from the director's home state Gujarat.

It remains to be seen if Mehta once again runs into a standoff with the censor board over certain

scenes in Rang Rasiya as was the case with his 1992 movie Maya Memsahab, starring Shahrukh Khan and the director's wife, actress Deepa Sahi. Some of the scenes of the earlier film were cut by the censor board.

Mehta says he was introduced to Varma's works when he was a student of The Film and Television Training Institute of India in Pune but it was only a decade ago that he had first thought of making a film on the painter based on a novel by Marathi writer Ranjit Desai.

Rang Rasiya has been shot in Kerala, Mumbai, Varanasi and Jaisalmer.

Mehta instantly earned critical acclaim ever since he came on die scene with his first film Bhavni Bhavai in 1980. His next two films Holi (1984) and Mirch Masala (1984) cemented his place among reputed makers of parallel cinema.