General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Astitva (अस्तित्व)

Astitva (अस्तित्व; meaning self-identity or existence) is a 2000 Indian drama film directed by Mahesh Manjrekar and made as a bilingual in Hindi and Marathi, starring Tabu as a housewife whose decades-long secret, an affair with her music teacher, is exposed when she inherits her former lover's estate.¹^•²^•³ It was produced by Jhamu Sughand and released on 6 October 2000.¹^•⁴ The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Marathi for 2000.⁵

Key fact	Detail
Release	6 October 2000, in Hindi and Marathi; runtime 1 hour 49 minutes¹^•⁴
Director / producer	Mahesh Manjrekar; produced by Jhamu Sughand¹
Writers	Imtiaz Hussain and Mahesh Manjrekar²
Principal cast	Tabu (Aditi), Sachin Khedekar (Shreekant Pandit), Mohnish Behl (Malhar Kamat), Sunil Barve (Aniket), Namrata Shirodkar (Revati)²^•⁶
Music	Rahul Ranade and Sukhwindara Singh¹
National award	Best Feature Film in Marathi, 2000; Rajat Kamal and Rs 20,000 each to the producer and the director⁵
Other honors	Tabu won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress; Manjrekar won Screen Awards (2001) for Best Story and a Special Jury Award⁷

Spoilers

Plot

Aditi Pandit (Tabu) is a homemaker devoted to her family: her husband Shreekant (Sachin Khedekar), a chauvinistic businessman who refuses to let her work and believes a woman's world must revolve around her man, and their son Aniket (Sunil Barve), who is soon to be engaged to Revati (Namrata Shirodkar).¹^•⁶ Years earlier, while Shreekant traveled constantly on business, Aditi had an affair with Malhar Kamat (Mohnish Behl), the young man who taught her singing; she gave birth to Malhar's son without her husband's knowledge, and Shreekant presumed the child was his.¹

The secret surfaces when Aditi receives a letter naming her the beneficiary of the estate of the late Malhar Kamat.²^•⁶ Shreekant, who has kept a diary, works out that Aniket was born only eight months into the marriage and confronts Aditi; she comes clean but pleads not guilty.¹ Shreekant makes her leave the house, and Aditi goes to lead a life of her own.¹ In the climax, Aditi delivers a monologue in which she calls out Shreekant's own extramarital affairs and questions why only she must shoulder the blame, then walks out of the house.⁶

Production and direction

Manjrekar, a Marathi theater and film director who had debuted in Hindi cinema with the underworld drama Vaastav, described the film before release as being about a woman's search for her identity in a male-dominated world; he said it was not a feminist approach but an attempt to hold a mirror to the men in society, and he called it a positive film.⁸ He cast Tabu and Sachin Khedekar because he needed committed actors who could portray their characters' growth over time, from age 21 to 47.⁸ He made the film bilingual because of his roots in Marathi cinema, which he felt was declining despite its talent.⁸ After release, he said a free premiere screening for women drew so many people that the police had to be called in.⁹ In an interview around the film's release he said he made Astitva because he felt women in India had been ignored or abused.¹⁰

Reception and awards

The Times of India's review at release gave the film four stars, praising the performances of Tabu and Sachin Khedekar, the music, script, and screenplay, and calling it one of the better films of the year; the review noted that the extra-marital affair was handled without melodrama and that the film avoided becoming male-bashing, presenting co-existence rather than a battle of the sexes.¹ IMDb lists a rating of 7.3/10 from roughly 886 votes.¹¹ IMDb also records that the film became a hit in both Hindi and Marathi.²

The 48th National Film Awards gave Astitva the Rajat Kamal for Best Feature Film in Marathi of 2000, with cash prizes of Rs 20,000 each to producer Jhamu Sugandh and director Mahesh Manjrekar. The citation said the award was given because the film deals with social issues, adultery, and the subjugation of women, and ends on a positive note of a woman's empowerment as the protagonist extends her horizon beyond home and hearth.⁵ Tabu won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for the film, and Manjrekar won the Screen Awards for Best Story and a Special Jury Award in 2001.⁷

Themes and later assessment

The film's central argument is that the moral standard applied to adultery is applied unequally: Aditi's monologue targets the narrow viewpoint that holds only the woman responsible for the sanctity of a relationship.⁶ A 2022 retrospective in The Telegraph India wrote that the film's examination of patriarchy had not lost relevance two decades later, and noted that Tabu, then early in her career, played a mother of a marriageable son and dared to look older on screen.⁶ A 2020 Rediff retrospective called the film worth watching while acknowledging that it is in many ways one-dimensional and that the script at times pounds its message in.¹²

Scholarship has used the film as a case study in gender representation. A 2010 feminist discourse analysis of excerpts from Astitva examined how cinema's language constructs ideology about women's identity.¹³ A survey of women-centric Hindi cinema lists Astitva among films, alongside Fire, Arth, Lajja, and Lipstick Under My Burkha, that raised questions about why such films do not receive the appreciation due to them.¹⁴

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films of the 2000s › Drama films

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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