The teaser of Vikas Khanna’s directorial debut The Last Colour was unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, the celebrity chef announced on Twitter on Thursday.

Based on Khanna’s novel of the same name that will be launched on May 18, The Last Colour tells the story of Noor, a widow in Vrindavan who wishes to play Holi but is forbidden by tradition. Noor meets a young tightrope walker, Chhoti, and the film traces their impact on each other’s lives.

The film stars National Film Award-winning actress Neena Gupta as Noor, while Aqsa Siddiqui plays Chhoti. The teaser hints at trauma, angst and violence and proclaims that film is about “a victory of the human spirit”.

Khanna told Mumbai Mirror that he started working on the story in 2011 when he learned that widows are not allowed to play Holi in Vrindavan. “One of them [the widows] reminisced, ‘Aarey bachpan mein toh main Radha ki tarah Holi khelti thi(as a child, I would play Holi like Radha)’ and those words have haunted me since, so I wrote this piece of fiction imagining the glorious change that would come about if they were allowed to celebrate the festival of colours too,” he said.