It is an Indian Marathi language film. Written & directed by Gajendra Ahire. Produced by Vinay Waman Ganu. Starring Girish Kulkarni , Dilip Prabhavalkar, Vibhawari Deshpande, Radhika Apte, Subodh Bhave, Kishor Kadam, Sai Tamhankar.
It is about a postman who gets involved in the lives of people. It tells three stories about his life.
First story is about an old man who has worked all his life at a saw mill. The postman delivers letters from his children. The old man decides to retire & plans to live with his family. The mill owner, a sly fellow, asks him to pay his dues. He rounds it up to 1000 Rs.
The old man writes to his children for the money. But they refuse. Then he writes a letter to God. The postman’s wife is moved by his letter & gives all her money saaaaaaved till date. But it is only Rs 700.
Due to the insufficient amount, he has to work. A few days later he dies. In his last letter he has written to God, why did he create wicked men like the postman who stole his Rs 300 ! The postman sorrowfully reads the letter to his wife.
Then the postman is posted at a hill station. His daily duties include incinerating letters undelivered or returned. One day he is stopped by a man at the gate of a school. The man introduces himself as Lisa’s father. He has been waiting to meet his daughter, Lisa. He gives the postman a letter. But the Matron informs him there is no such girl in std 5th!
The school records reveal that she was a student in std 5th in 1942. Postman realizes he is meeting the ghost. On leave, the soldier traveled to meet her. But the bus fell into a valley killing all the passengers.
The postman decides to track down the daughter. She is now a bar owner. She breaks down at the news & curses the postman for bringing her the sad news.
The third story is about the postman’s job at another village. Everday a woman calls out to him, qasim, the bringer of news. She is a dancing girl, a nautch girl, who is waitng for her lover.
She wants to go with him. But he promises her that he will get money to free her & then get back to her. The postman sees a medicine man on the roadside. He has a wooden mask for sale. It is charmed & can grant wishes. The postman recognises the mask made by the old man at the saw mill as a present for his grandchild. He remembers the same mask hanging on the wall of the bar. He remembers her saying it cost Rs 300. The medicine man is asking the same price.
Some days later he finds the mask at the dancing girl’s place. She wishes it to bring her money so she can buy her freedom & join her lover. In a few days, the postman brings her a large sum of money & a letter from her lover’s firm.
He had an accidental death. The insurance money , he had willed to her. The postman is disturbed by the turn of events. He leaves the village to his next posting. He watches the girl , pale & dreadful going to return the mask.
The film ends with the postman & his family boarding the bus. The soldier appears on the bus & is giving a bunch of grapes to the postman’s daughter.
The film won ‘Critics Best film’ at the Filmfare Marathi Awards along with ‘Elizabeth Ekadashi’. There were 5 nominations also.
A sombre, serious film.
Asian Entertainment 