I remember watching Shwaas for the first time when I was around 12-13 years old, well I can’t recall much about what I understood that time, but when I was rewatching the film a couple of years ago, I was definitely touched with the story. There are many films which have made most of us cry with their stories, but Shwaas even stands out in that category, nothing seems to be more real than that. Human emotions are so strongly portrayed that it seems no more like a film.
How chaotic Medical System, facilities, etc can be is what we see through this story and more importantly the mindset of common people when it comes to diseases like cancer or even the word operation which brings a feeling of fear within them. In a scene of this film, where Parshu’s (Ashwin Chitale) grandfather after visiting the doctor calls back to his hometown in order to inform Parshu’s mother about the operation, she replies to it that “Try going to some other doctor and find some other solution than an operation,” that’s the actual fear which is still present among the people and which is I guess impossible to wash away.
This film talks about Hope. No matter whatever the problem is, life must go on. A scene from the film where we can see the grandfather recalling all his moments with Parshu in their beautiful village, he is seen asking him few questions related to his studies, “Name the sights in a city”. After answering, Parshu asks him when will we visit the city?
And the shot cuts to the present where they’re in a city but the circumstances are not the same and not even his grandfather would’ve thought that he would visit the city with his grandson that too in a way no one would want to. Shwaas turned out to be a milestone for Marathi Cinema, as it was nominated for Oscars too and is a great film that greatly explores Human Emotions. Apart from writing and acting, this film is very well directed, exploring the beauty of Konkan.
Directed by Sandeep Sawant, the film stars Arun Nalawade, Amruta Subhash, Ashwin Chitale, and Sandeep Kulkarni.
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