Director Paresh Mokashi's Vaalvi, a Marathi film which released in theatres a few weeks back, just dropped on ZEE5. Vaalvi, a Marathi word which loosely translates to termites—small wood-eating white insects which if left to themselves begin to hollow out entire structures over a period of time.
In Vaalvi, director Paresh Mokashi allegorically places the concept to the presence of metaphorical termites of infidelity, greed and betrayal that infest the relationship of a married couple and leads to its decay over the years. The film begins as a gripping thriller, with a married man Aniket (Swapnil Joshi) and his dentist girlfriend (Shivani Surve) planning the murder of his wife Avani (Anita Date-Kelkar). They go over the plan again and again while seated inside her clinic, in a bid to ensure nothing goes wrong. But then the best of plans have a way of going awry, and that is exactly what happens here.
The racy plot begins right when things go awry on the very night of the murder; the story flows from there and then meanders into diverse genres (from a crime thriller to a love story to a comedy ..) and territories before ending up as a trivial melodrama towards the end of the second half. Avani, a microbiologist who fosters insects and termites at home for her experiments, is wished dead by three people - her husband, his wife and Avani's psychiatrist-turned-boyfriend whose baby she's pregnant with. All three plan her murder and then move around with her dead body in a bid to find "the right way and the right place to dispose of it."
As they dump the body in a car and set off in the middle of the night to dispose of it, they gun down a cop and a lady, both of who get a whiff of all that's conspiring inside the car. Not having found the right way of doing it, until the wee hours of the morning, the trio returns home with all three dead bodies and just as they arrive, a termite-infested chandelier drops on them killing them, all on the spot. A film with a much deeper meaning on Karma, Mokashi hit the nail on its head with Vaalvi that spoke at so many levels in a span of 106 minutes.
In an interview with THE WEEK, the director opens up on Vaalvi and more:
What was the thought behind 'Vaalvi'?
As you see, until now I have been making films on various different themes and stories. Accordingly, I wanted to make something different. Now it is quite known, that once my wife had a visual that a husband and wife are facing each other and they were holding themselves at gunpoint, ready to commit suicide. She had this thought long back but it is only now that we really kept thinking about the entire storyline of Vaalvi.
The film begins as a thriller but soon loses steam in the second half and ends up as a comedy of sorts...what do you think?
I have not come across any such reaction. In fact, I think people gradually get on with the flow. And the film keeps one hooked to the screenplay I think. Also, it is the ending that comes as a complete shock to the viewer, which was the main idea as we were making it. I think we are successful so far as we kept the anticipation building right until the end.
The end is stunning, shocking and unanticipated. Did you think of any other possible ways to end the story before finalising this one?
Not really. The way we developed the script was to ensure poetic justice was delivered. We did not want it to be a police-criminal kind of story.
How challenging was it to get the right people on board for this sort of intriguing story, given that each character is beautifully crafted and sets the right tone for the film?
It was not at all difficult to finalise the names for all of four leading characters. They are all from theatre and we are all friends. This script provided the opportunity to work together and in one single meeting, the cast was finalised.
