More a tale of love and life

Sanskar in collaboration with Alzheimer's and Related disorders Society of India (ARDSI) screened a Marathi film ‘Astu’, which is as much about the disease as it is about love and human emotions

On Saturday evening at LV Prasad Preview Theatre, where the Marathi film ‘Astu’ was being screened on the occasion of the World Alzheimer’s Day – a motley crowd was waiting to watch the film, directed by National Award winning duo Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar, that has already garnered critical acclaim at the film festivals.

The audience was made up of film fanatics (read passionate lovers of cinema), people who have had their loved ones suffering from the disease and had the first hand information of the travails of the caretakers,

the members of non-profit trust, Sanskar – the organisation responsible for screening the film that is yet to release in the theatres, and the ARDSI-Hyderabad Deccan,

who have been working to create awareness of the condition that continues to be less understood and often considered a taboo.Amidst them was the inimitable Mohan Agashe (who co-produced the film and acted in the lead role) dressed in black with his trademark colourful hat and was his usual self –

an easy to converse, down to earth theatre and film personality, who keeps the audience under his spell with his acting skills and earthy humour, when you meet him otherwise.

“This is a film about love – keep away all your other impressions and watch it,” – he instructed.The film opens with Iravati Harshe (Ira) at a theatre workshop asking the students to mediate, to forget their name,

relationships and memories, and identify with the one they idolise…but she is disturbed by her present, as she deals with her father, the once scholarly Sanskrit pundit professor, Dr Shastri, who has lost his memory and is suffering from Alzheimer’s.

As they say the disease is not just about caring for the affected, it also has a lot to do with the caretakers, who undergo trauma when the affected people forget who they are and refuse to recognise their kith and kin.

Ira, after realising her father is suffering from the disease, decides to keep him in her house even as her routine takes a beating, and all she ends up doing and thinking is about her father.

At one point, she decides to take him back to his own place, unable to cope with the pressure. During one of her quick shopping errands, she keeps him locked in the car.

Dr Shastri is fascinated with an elephant on the road and manages to get out of the car and eventually loses his way. He follows the elephant owner till his makeshift hut.

Despite their limited means, the Kannada family consisting of wife, husband and their young daughter decide to keep him with them.

The wife says - he looks a learned man, let him stay as long as he wants, and laments – wonder why God writes such a destiny…poor man.

And, in one of his spurts of memory, Dr Shastri talks about how human empathy is but a reflection of Godliness – this may be the awareness of truth that even as Dr Shastri, unaware of himself and his memory of past, is blissfully happy about being one with nature and living with the poor couple (he calls the woman Aayi – mother),

his family is desperately trying to reach him. Ira once remembers her father reciting a Sanskrit sloka that says forgetfulness is bliss, and he does seem extremely happy with his life, despite having to sleep under the open sky and eat whatever little that can be managed.

‘Astu-So be it’ is made up of many such thought provoking moments and sensitive scenes that deal with the complexity of human relations.

Music by Saket Kanetkar and Dhananjay Kharwandikar perfectly complements the soulful film, especially the Kannada lullaby that haunts even as the film ends.

‘Astu’ is as much about the disease and how even the most aware and knowledgeable fail to remember how the patients need to be loved and cared like children, as it is about human relations that transcend logic.

The screening was followed by the insightful discussion with Mohan Agashe himself at the helm of the discussion, which was equally engaging.

By:Rajeshwari Kalyanam