By Gayatri Manu
Have you seen Renuka Shahane’s Marathi short film Saathvan yet?
Shahane became a household name as presenter of the Doordarshan show, Surabhi. She also made cameos in films such as Highway but she essayed one of her most iconic roles as Salman Khan’s sister in Hum Aapke Hai Kaun (and recently expressed her frustration on social media after her former co-actor’s casual comparison of himself to a rape survivor).
Shahane’s written, directed and produced a short film about a grandmother (and is a tribute to her own grandmother), referred to in the film as Ajji. The narrative hinges on simplicity, telling the story of two kids who would watch their grandmother sip tea and nap along with her bestie Sudha, a sophisticated and stylish woman always in a sleeveless sari blouse and with a glamorous flower in her hair. Years later, as grown-ups with children of their own, the siblings’ memories of their Ajji are triggered by the artefacts of a bygone era that their grandmother kept so carefully; a ‘Burma Teak’ cupboard, an embellished mirror, a wooden box of treasures. Saathvan, which means mementos in Marathi, is a film dedicated to these artefacts as much as it is to the lady who preserves them, and is told in a tone as soothing as the one your Ajji uses in her bedtime stories to keep you from wriggling out of bed.
Watch the trailer below, and the whole short film here.