Nadi Vahate Movie Review {4/5}: Critic Review of Nadi Vahate by Times of India

Story: How the flowing of a river affects not only the ecological balance it supports but also the humans who depend on her. Review: In his book, Siddhartha Hermann Hesse writes, “Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?" That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.”Sandeep Sawant’s Nadi Vahte reminds you of Hesse’s universal observation about rivers. It’s melancholic running through narrow streams and wider rivulets is poetic in itself. Add to that the background music by Tushar and Jairaj, and the apt sound designing and mixing by Mandar Kamalapurkar, Nadi Vahte is an ode to all those who go to the water when they are lonely.Plot-wise, this might seem like a story of a group of villagers who want to save their river Antee from being exploited for monetary and political gains. Anagha (Poonam Shetgaonkar), her mother (Asha Shelar), Guruji (Vasant Josalkar), Bhau (Hrudaynath Jadhav), Mangesh (Vishnupad Barve) and Tukaram (Mahadev Sawant) are a mix of villagers/activists who want to save Antee. And for that, they are willing to go against the local politician Appa Naik (Jayant Gadekar). Naik’s young son Akash (Abhishek Anand) is a reluctant and confused entrant in the activist lot. Like the titular river, the story about their quest goes up and downstream, at its own pace, wild at times and soft at other times.It took Sandeep Sawant 13 years after Shwaas, which released in 2004, to come up with Nadi Vahte. And if you watch the latter, you’d know his delay was justified. The story, penned by Sawant does not follow your commercial cinema tropes, there’s no villain, there’s no drama and there’s no triumphant climax. And therein lies the success of Sawant’s narration, told beautifully by the cinematographical prowess of Sanjay Memane.Don’t go to this film expecting a film, go there for the story and characters you’d love to relate with.