Movie Review (Shastry virudh Shastry-2023)

Gone are the days where children stayed with parents and visited their grandparents on vacations. In this era of rapid economic changes, parents have to eek out every ounce of their time and effort to earn their breads and to give their children a decent upbringing and a secured future. In this pointless rat race, they fall short in spending time with their little ones. 

To keep their children safe and engaged during their working hours, they need someone reliable and capable .There come the grandparents. Despite their frailty they embrace the opportunity to carry out their "Parenthood-2.O" undauntedly, expecting nothing in return. 

In due course of time, these grandchildren become both their strength and weakness. The void they feel in their old age is cemented, they gain a new reason to live, to wake-up everyday, to hustle, to fight the odds. The children too, like newly planted saplings, start to flourish. But, can these saplings withstand when the parents who once planted these saplings come to dig them out? Or the still fertile soil let them go that easily? 

This is the plotline of Shastry virudh Shastry. Where, the parents who leave their son Yaman (fondly called momoji) to his grandparents when he is just three months old, come back to retrieve him after seven years.

 Mr.Manohar Shastry, an austere music teacher and his wife Mrs.Urmila who are given the child as a three month infant as his parents can't look after him amidst their busy schedule, are now forced to return him as their parents are planning to relocate to the US. 

Being a good grandfather, Mr.Shastry is skeptical if his son, Mr.Malhar and his wife Mrs.Mallika can give the upbringing which Yaman enjoys in Panchgani(his grandpa's village). 

He believes, the parents can't afford to spend time with Yaman. His mother's work is demanding and she has to keep things running almost 24x7. His father who is an aspiring game designer has no stable job as he switches so often. His living is dependent on his wife. 

Things get worse when Mr.Shastry finds out that his son drinks too. He confronts Mr.Malhar and blames him for being too dependent on his wife and carefree about his own life. Even questions his worth to be an ideal man let alone being a good father. All these things inflate into a cold war between the father and son. When one of Mr.Malhar's friends gives him an offer for a startup in the US, his ego gets fed and he starts to pressure his parents to give Yaman back as they are planning to take him along to the US. 

The clueless yet relentless man, Mr.Shastry decides to fight for his grandson Yaman's legal custody. Mr.Malhar is also forced to defend himself with his lawyer to get his son back to them. 

Who will be given the custody? Who is Yaman's legal guardian? Father and mother or Guruji and dhaiji? Can't grandparents be potential parents in their old age? The movie answers.

Mrs.Mallika, despite being a busy bee finds it painful to be away from her son. When she visits once in two weeks, she can't even do any of the bittersweet motherly chores or to spend time with her son. She even thinks that Yaman will forget their bond and grow up as indifferent son. But, as a thoughtful woman and a duty-bound wife and daughter-in-law, she doesn't fight for her son rather leaves everything to her husband's wish. Throughout the movie, amidst the legal battle and the cold war between the father and son, we find these two women become voiceless. Mrs.Mallika herself says in one of the scenes that the family has no consideration for the mother who had to undergo physical and mental pain when she had to leave her son as a new mother just in three months. On top of all they have always questioned her ability to be a good mother. 

The movie is bit slow paced until the court scene. It clearly differentiates the parenting style of grandparents and that of the parents. When the grandparents enforce discipline, the absentee parents want their child to be just happy no matter what the situation is. All the characters have played their roles well. Especially the lawyers who take up either sides. Mr.Shastry's lawyer being his friend represents the agonies of being a devoted parents to grandchildren at this age and brings out its positives. On the other hand Mrs.Shalini, Mr.Malhar's lawyer being a contemporary woman and a working mother herself, brings out the cons of leaving the children under the guidance of grandparents who barely can take care of their own selves. 

Thus the movie highlights "generation gap" and difference in their outlook of life. In a nutshell, Shastry virudh Shastry was an emotional ride for me as it walked me down the memory lanes of the good old days I spent with my disciplinarian grandpa and loving grandma, just like Yaman.