It seems the best way to explore something – a relationship, a concept, a war – is briefly. Imagine trying to explain to someone the impact just watching the sunset one morning had on your entire life’s trajectory. Or the grand but silent event of falling irreparably in love. More words cannot and will not capture the gravity, the emotion, the outcome.

Just as words can’t do justice to a seminal life event, it seems longform content may sometimes just be detrimental to communicating the exact heart of a story to the audience. We recently saw Prince Charming deliver a strong message about alienation within a marriage, in a mere 11 minutes, and Usman Mukhtar’s Bench tells us everything we need to know about a marriage in its last few minutes.

Starring Rubya Chaudhry and Usman Mukhtar as the soon-to-be-divorced focus of the film, Bench is written by Ali Mudar, and features music by Natasha Humera Ejaz. The man behind the camera is Omar Bari, who does a fantastic job capturing his subjects’ well-conveyed expression and nuance.

What Bench also serves as is a reminder of how diverse an actor Rubya Chaudhry is. While we may associate her most with the fashion industry, and be more accustomed to seeing her walk a ramp at a fashion week, Rubya has been acting for as long as she has been modeling.

In Bench, she is the half of the couple very drained by the marriage she is in. You can tell, through every gesture and rise and fall of her voice, that she loves her husband, but also that she is done. While Usman Mukhtar as the husband who has wronged his wife in ways big and small, has seen his share of acclaim as an actor (Sabaat, Hum Kahan Kay Sachay Thay), Rubya Chaudhry’s acting prowess may have been, over the years, seen through the admittedly biased filter of her looks.

While she herself cannot view herself “objectively, since [she is] so normal,” Rubya does say that her looks are working to her advantage now, specially onscreen.

“If I had a more conventional face, I would definitely be booking a lot more jobs,” she says, “but then I would also blend in with the rest.

“I suppose though I have never considered my looks to be especially ‘different’ but if me being on screen paves the way for other women who don’t fit the conventional idea of the kind of faces that should be onscreen, I’m all for it.”

For Rubya, her career as an actor has really come into focus in the last two years. The four years that preceded these two years were, “full of emotional turmoil,” which led her to question everything from the world around her to her judgment. However, these four years served to reignite her passion for acting as she worked on a series called Mohini Mansion Ki Cinderellayain.

Before this series, Rubya says she, “found herself disillusioned with the kind of roles [I] was being offered. Mohini Mansion just lit up the fact that I wanted to do more wholesome roles. I started turning down roles I didn’t vibe with – and when you start refusing work, the offers dry up.”

Right before COVID-19, she found herself in two interesting indie projects: Usman Mukhtar’s Bench and Hamza Bangash’s 1978.

“The quality of work I have been doing has improved, but I realize the quantity has to match up too,” she says. She also looks forward to writing, creating roles, and work with as many “awesome people” as she can.

“I think my fashion background and work in music inform my acting,” says Rubya, and adds: “the experiences help refine my performance as an actor. Acting is what I feel most at home with, and I hope to continue doing more of that.”

Bench is one of Rubya’s favourite projects so far. “It was an absolute privilege to work with Usman,” she says. “And Mohini Mansion is another. I had the opportunity to work with Shabnam ji, who had me mesmerized with how great she was. And the project itself was raw and emotional, and that to me, is just incomparable.”

When we see Rubya, we may just see the statuesque model, but what we’re discovering as her audience now is her commitment to acting.

“I just want to do more of everything I have been doing,” she says. “I’m grateful for the experiences I have had, and I hope to continue adding to the list of my favorite projects.”