The Saint Who Thought Otherwise (2013)

"I love enclosed places.. isolated places" says the Saint (Mahesh Manjrekar), not without a tinge of remorse in his voice. He has grown up in such places. in dark corners.amidst deafening silences. He has craved for freedom. wanting to get away from here leaving his childhood behind, a childhood best forgotten.. Tossed aside like a crumpled piece of paper. Out in the sun he wants to feel free, but he can't. He welcomes the scorching sun on his face while others with normal pasts run for the shade. The sun has aged him, made him wiser. But when the sun sets the crumpled piece of paper returns. His hand unknowingly reaches for it, deep in some dark corner of his pocket. He opens it up lovingly. It's contents - a blotch of carelessly spilled ink, stains left by glasses of tea and holes by burning cigarettes, with some jottings from the past - stories waiting to be told. Stories revealing a thought process worthy enough to label the writer a saint. Stories drawn from his own experiences - a love story gone terribly wrong long long ago.. The story of a beautiful betrayer (Tripta Parashar) whom he had given his heart too. The hurt still remains; a deep unhealed wound that gradually oozes hatred. A prostitute (Kamal Sidhu) who refuses to sell her soul, a rebel questioning the moral standards of society. A philosopher at heart whom the murky by-lanes of the red light area have taught more lessons on living than any self-help book possibly could. This story is a strong reminiscence of his dark childhood. The story of Menka (Sandhya Mridul), who only has her name to call her own perhaps.. A junkie whose dreams have long been blown up in the dense fog of hashish. Bad lives make good stories. The stories of the saint are no exception to this rule. But he is a genius who goes unheard, unpublished. Shattered, he stands at a strange crossroad in life. Left to choose between a path that will lead him to ultimate sainthood and an other that will make him fight society and label him a sinner. Both saints and sinner are rebels in their own ways. In every saint resides a potential sinner, in every sinner, a potential saint. Every saint has a dark side, a dark side worth exploring. When Sangita Kadam (Sayali Bhagat) begins exploring it, perhaps it is too late. She struggles hard and almost ends up playing, being, symbolizing his conscience, striving to make it win over his dark side and keeping his sainthood intact. While doing so, she enters the dark recesses of his mind and learns a lesson or two, which leave a lasting impact on her. The saint too understands the true meaning of what he himself had earlier stated - "At the end of the road, when death stares at you in the face, you realize that life was an illusion, an abstract dream broken by the advent of the ultimate reality - death". And it is this understanding, which makes him proclaim, "I am not afraid of death. I am afraid of life.."