Over the years, as life proceeds further, we come across its different phases and one such phase is old age. And when the mind gradually starts fading away from its memories, all that is left is the beautiful mind. An insight from this beautiful mind is portrayed in the 2013 Marathi film Astu where Dr. Chakrapani Shastri (Mohan Agashe), a well known Sanskrit scholar and an Alzheimer’s patient is seen capturing this phase of his life as a newborn baby. A simple film that on one side captures the life of an old man and at the same time shows the dilemma of a family losing their dear ones.
A scene that makes an impression on our hearts is the one where Dr. Shastri calls Channama (Amruta Subhash), which is where we come to this important story arc of the film where Appa follows an elephant and goes missing. The elephant owner Anta (Nachiket Purnapatre) and his wife Channama, how they take Appa into their family and their love and compassion for him that does aim towards becoming a moral discourse, an example for his kids to follow. Strength, empathy, and humanity is what the film calls for, through this poor couple.
Director Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar are known for making films that are entertaining as well as socially relevant. Their films are more about the society and its people, they raise topics which are needed to be and they do the same through this film too.
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