Kaasav (Turtles), Marathi, SonyLIV

Kaasav(Turtles), Marathi, SonyLIV

Starring Iravati  Harsh, Alok Rajwade

Directed  by  Sumitra Bhave–Sunil Sukthankar

Rating: ***

Finding  Kaasav is  like  finding a small treasure that needs  preservation. In fact  protecting the endangered  is  an ongoing theme  is Kaasav. On the the one hand it addresses  the issue of  turtles being allowed to nest in peace  on  the beach before plodding back into the water. On the other hand it also tries to tell us how  important it is for us as a society to  buffer and  protect the  mentally distressed.

The  direct  attempt at  bringing the two themes of  eco-preservation together  gives the  film a  distinctly docu-feel. Though the end-product is  none  the poorer for it. The bare stripped-down minimalist narration focuses largely on the  indescribably  tender relationship that  grows between a compassionate  divorcee  Janaki(Iravati Harshe) and a suicidal depressive  young man  whom she  finds on  the street and provides  a  home.

Straightaway it would be in the  fitness of things to state that young Alok Rajwade  who plays Maanav in this  elegiac if a tad didactic  exposition on  solitude, is the  find of the moment. Rajwade’s eyes convey a haunted dissociation with the world around him. He is  so into his character that I  fear Rajwade no longer exists.

“Why  do I need to live ? What is  the purpose?” Maanav asks Janaki who  has no answers  to provide. She is struggling with her own inner turmoil  trying to come to terms with her intermittent  panic attacks.

I wish   writer Sumitra  Bhave had  explored the  central  relationship into  a  deeper place. Her two actors seem  equipped for it. Sadly  the  growing relationship between  the  two emotional derelicts  doesn’t go anywhere beyond a surface-level empathy. I expected  Janaki and Maanav to  get to know   each other far more closely than the  tentative screenplay allows.

The jumpy ending with  Janaki suddenly taking off for  the US seems  a  bit of a cop-out ,though one that  causes no  visible damage to the  fragile , tranquil beautiful film. Kaasav is shot with fetching austerity and  a emphatic  intensity on a  beach resort where turtles move as stealthily as  the beating of  the human heart.

Everyone needs healing: the  characters  in Kasaav as much as  those  fanning fuelling and funding the  film about healing and  nurturing , with a  stand-out by  Alok Rajwade. When he cuts his wrist his  for the  first time I instinctively senses  the  wrist  is history.