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Genres: Drama Rating: 4.5/5 Censor: UA Duration: 93 min Studio / Presenter: SonyLIV, Vichitra Nirmitee Producer(s):  Dr. Mohan Agashe Director: Sumitra Bhave Sunil Sukthankar Story, and Screenplay: Sumitra Bhave Cast: Iravati Harshe, Alok Rajwade, Dr. Mohan Agashe, Kishor Kadam DOP: Dhananjay Kulkarni Editor: Mohit Takalkar Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

Renowned director duo Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukhtankar made 17 Marathi films together and won various national and international accolades for their previous films like ‘Doghi’,‘Dahavi Fa’ , ‘Vastupurush’,‘Devrai’, ‘Samhita’ and ‘Astu’ (movie review). Two of these films were based on mental illness such as Schizophrenia and Alzimer’s disease. And they presented these two subjects very skilfully handling the subject with the support of Dr. Mohan Agashe himself a Psychiatrist, who was part of both these films.

In ‘Kaasav’ (कासव) we saw Dr. Mohan Agashe contributing in the form of a producer along with the film maker duo Bhave and Sukhtankar. This film has won the National award for the best feature film at the 64th National Film awards. Unfortunately, this film could not be released in a big way in theatres like other Marathi films, but was released recently on Sony Liv OTT platform, which has made it possible to reach out to the Marathi film lovers scattered all over the world.

‘Kaasav’ truly stands to the appreciation it received during the Golden Lotus National award for best feature film. The film’s story is presented in a beautiful cinematic way, to show the relevance of the issues of depression suffered by the youngster (Alok Rajwade) in the film, in relation to the life and nesting cycle of Olive Ridley Sea Turtles, being researched by Janaki (Iravati Harshe) a middle aged divorcee, who herself consults a psychologist for her panic attacks.

Shot at the beautiful beach location of Devgad in Sindhudurg district, the film captures some realistic moments to show, how this middle aged woman tries to treat the depressed youngster, by understanding his problems with the help of a local doctor. There are few other important characters in the form Yadu( Kishore Kadam) driver cum cook of Janaki, Dattabhau (Mohan Agashe) a local, who is working on an olive ridley sea turtles conservation project, Devika Daftardar ( short appearance) playing the step mother of the depressed youngster and others with their perfect Malvani accent, who provide very good support.

Beautiful cinematography by Dhananjay Kulkarni captures the beauty of Devgad beach, while Saket Kanetkar’s music provides good support to this artistic film with a timely message of showing the purpose of living life to a depressed youngster. Perfect editing by Mohit Takalkar has made this 104 minutes length film look very interesting. But, the overall credit goes to the director duo Sumitra Bhave – Sunil Sukhtankar for handling this difficult subject brilliantly with the help of Dr. Mohan Agashe, who has contributed his bit as an actor, but more as a producer. Certainly a worth watch film for all.