REVIEW: Avwanchhit (Marathi)

Producer-Preetam Choudhary

Director-Shubo Basu Nag

Star Cast-Kisore Kadam, Abhay Mahajan, Mrinmayee Deshpande, Mrunal Kulkarni, Dr Mohan Agashe, Suhas Joshi , Rohit Mane, Barun Chanda and Yogesh Soman

Genre-Social

Rating-**1/2 (Two and a half)

Sensitive to the Core

Jyothi Venkatesh

Avwanchhit is the story of a father and son who, despite living under the same roof for two decades, are total strangers.

The father Madhusudhan Gavhane (Kishore Kadam) has spent most of his life as a manager in a home for the aged called Nirupama in Kolkata caring for the elderly orphans left behind mercilessly by their wards, the son Tapan (Abhay Mahajan) is a lecturer of psychology in a college.

Tapan resents not only his father with whom he shares the same roof otherwise, but the whole world.

After having lost his mother Bhakti (Mrunal Kulkarni) in his childhood years till he bumps into a beautiful divorcee girl called Aashima (Mrinmayee Godbole) with whom he develops a bond instantly.

Aashima is a rich Marathi speaking fashion stylist living in Kolkata. The film which is about the father and son in different junctures of their life coming to terms with a complex solution suffers from a very basic wafer thin plot and on top of it.

To add to your woes, the director does not justify the proceedings on the screen as a result of which the film takes on a languid pace and reminds you of television episodes.

The director fails to justify the animosity that the father and the son have for themselves.

Also the manner in which the romance starts blossoming between the main protagonists seems to be too fast to be believed.

The old age home also consists of various old men who are too over the top, including the otherwise talented Dr Mohan Agashe who resorts to overacting of the worst order.

Mrunal Kulkarni has been wasted in just the flashbacks. The director also fails to exploit the lovely Kolkata locations by shooting most of his portions in the old age ashram though Avwanchhit is the first ever Marathi film to be shot entirely in Kolkata

As far as the performances go, Kishoe Kadam steals the show with his expertise in acing and renders a par excellent performance as an old man who is at crossroads in life, who owes his allegiance to the old age home he is conducting as well as his son with whom he is estranged.

While Abhay Mahajan is just about average, as the son who is at loggerheads with his father, Mrinmayee Godbole as Asheema is good as usual.

Mohan Agashe is good but far too loud for comfort as per the role that he has been saddled with in the film, while Mrunal Kulkarni has been wasted as the mother of the protagonist.

Anupam Roy’s sensitive score stays true to the requirement of the plot and also the essence of the story.

On the whole, I’d say that Avwanchhit is a sensitive story which has its right in the right place and worth watching at least once for the sake of its director Shubo Basu Nag