Cause and compromise

A review of Marathi film Sukhant (Happy Ending)
The problem with most 'issue-based' films is that they often end up being very overtly conscious of the 'issue' they're handling. The script, the characters, the dialogues are then only driven to serve an end - of creating awareness and spreading a message. Instead of letting the story develop organically from the characters and circumstances, and letting the issues grow naturally from the soil of the film, many directors use their stories as instruments to orchestrate the all-important issue. The characters and situations look planted and the (imposed) plot becomes a progression of events designed to mark off the director's check-list of research. The result is, though the viewer walks out of the theatre knowing a lot more about the subject, he is left 'feeling' very little for the protagonists, their emotions, their lives.
This is exactly what happens with Sanjay Surkar's Sukhant, which deals with the highly contested subject of euthanasia. Though we've heard the director bring home the importance of this film – its the first Marathi film to enter this tricky territory – the film loudly announces its concern in the first scene itself. Atul Kulkarni is an advocate fighting a case of mercy killing – arguing in favour of the death-wish of his client Sitabai Gunje (Jyoti Chandekar), a quadriplegic who's been bed-ridden for two years. She can't bear her life of absolute dependence and the loss of self-respect she has to suffer daily.

The flashback then tells us she was a strong-willed woman of substance – running a cottage industry in her village after her husband left her and her son to fend for themselves. She's an icon-of-sorts for the community and Adv Pratap Gunje (Kulkarni) is her proud son. Minutes into the flashback, the Gunje family meets with an accident in which Sitabai suffers a debilitating head injury. The rest of the film takes us through her struggle to come to terms with her spoon-fed, incontinent existence, the inevitable turmoil her son's family goes through, and her 'justified' wish to end her life by choice.
The director, known for tackling significant issues in films like Chaukat Raja, Tandala, and now the TV serial dealing with autism Aap ki Antara, does his
homework right. The legal, medical, moral, social and emotional aspects of the subject are covered satisfactorily. There are even token nods given to arguments working against the case (the likelihood of mercy killing petitions turning into a 'business', the medical oath to strive for 'life', 'what you can't create, you can't destroy'). But the complications never seem intense, and though various voices are presented, a sense of debate is never integrated into the structure of the film. The question of financial pressure, which often becomes decisive in such a case, is glossed over.

Also, the intimate connect with the patient's agony or the son's searing dilemmas is missing because the film is more pre-occupied with its universal concerns than telling an honest, personal story. So, there's little that Chandekar's able performance can achieve. And little that can really stay with the audience.