Banner: Gaurika Films
Producers: Sheela Rao & Dr. Mohan Agashe
Directors: Sumitra Bhave & Sunil Sukhtankar
Star Cast: Dr. Mohan Aghase, Amruta Subhash, Milind Soman, Iravati Harshe, Devika Daftar, Nachiket Purnapatre,
Shubhangi Damle, Ila Bhate, Tejas Rao, Aditi Kulkarni – Shweta, Sanghursha Sankad & Dr. Shekhar Kulkani
Music: Dhananjay Kharvindkar & Sanket Kanitkar
The director duo of Sumitra Bhave & Sunil Sukhtankar have given many milestone movies of varied genres in Marathi Cinema. And most of them have bagged National as well as International awards besides garnering critical acclaim & rave reviews galore. Their latest outing Astu, a heart touching & heart warming story of an old man lost in the concrete jungle of mankind, has already achieved the same feat and is still on its way to achieve added crowning glory.
Dr. Chakrapani Shashtri aka Appa (Dr. Mohan Agashe) is an over the hills retired gentleman, acutely suffering from amnesia, living with his daughter Ira Pathak (Iravati Harshe) & Son – in – law Madhav Pathak (Milind Soman) and sometimes also with his grandson Satyavrut (Tejas Rao). Once when Satyavrut is busy with his college exams, Ira brings Appa to stay with her but on the way she stops to shop something for her daughter (Aditi Kulkarni – Shweta) and leaves Appa unattended in her car. Just then Appa sees an elephant named Laxmi on the road and gets down from the car and follows her. Soon enough Appa gets lost in the concrete jungle of mankind and is given shelter by none other than the mahut (Nachiket Purnapatre) of the elephant Laxmi, and
his wife Chanma (Amruta Subhash) who look after him like their own child.
Director duo Sumitra Bhave & Sunil Sukhtankar rightly deserve a standing ovation for bringing such an emotional story for the Maharashtrian as well as the global audiences who were so used to their staple diet of lavanis and tamashas.
Astu teaches a simple basic lesson that our parents, who sacrifice their entire life to take care of us, need equal, in fact, more care & love in their old age stage and more especially when they are suffering from varied ailments and are so helpless to take care of themselves. The well – deserved credit also goes to the behind the scenes team comprising of Milind Jog (cinematographer), Mohit Takalkar (editor), Deviprasad Kharvindkar (lyrics), Dhananjay Kharvindkar & Sanket Kanitkar (music), Santosh Sankhad & Sumitra Bave (art), Vijay Koparkar (Sanskrit singer), Amruta Subhash (Kannad singer) and above all once again Sumitra Bhave (story – screenplay – dialogues).
Performance wise it is naturally Dr. Mohan Agashe who walks away with all the honours. Oh! What a performer he is even at this age & stage. While the rest of the actors comprising of Amruta Subhash, Milind Soman, Iravati Harshe, Devika Daftar, Nachiket Purnapatre,
Shubhangi Damle, Ila Bhate, Tejas Rao, Aditi Kulkarni – Shweta, Sanghursha Sankad & Dr. Shekhar Kulkani have really given off their best histrionics contribution for Astu.
Tail Piece: Go for it guys as films like Astu are rarely made in modern times as almost all fimmakers reel more under the pressure of commercial cinema.
