Ventilator

Story:

Ventilator is a 2016 Indian Marathi-language comedy drama film written and directed by Rajesh Mapuskar and produced by Priyanka Chopra. The film features an ensemble cast of more than 100 actors, including Ashutosh Gowariker, Jitendra Joshi, Sulbha Arya and Sukanya Kulkarni. It tells the story of the Kamerkar family, whose eldest and most beloved member goes into a coma and is put on a medical ventilator a few days before the Ganesh Chaturthi festival celebrations.

PLOT

Every year, the Kamerkar family assembles in their ancestral village to celebrate the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Three days before the festival, a doyen of the family—the much-loved and respected Gajanan Karmerkar who is fondly known as Gajju Kaka—goes into a coma. He is put on life support—a medical ventilator—in a Mumbai hospital. Gajanan’s nephew, Raja Kamerkar, a popular Bollywood film director, receives this news from his father during a screening of his film starring Priyanka Chopra, who suggests Raja leave for the hospital. Gajju Kaka has been very kind to Raja, who is having some issues with his own father. On his way to the hospital, Raja tells everyone, including the family in the village. Although his relatives are worried about Gajju Kaka, they are also worried about the upcoming festivities. Gajju Kaka’s death during the festival would mean a period of mourning, spoiling their festive plans.

All of the family members and their neighbours visit Gajju Kaka in the hospital, praying to Lord Ganesha for his quick recovery. Gajanan’s wife Manda and their son Prasanna are happy to see Raja at the hospital, while others are excited about Raja’s upcoming film and his popularity. Raja meets everyone in the hospital, most of whom are occupied with concerns other than Gajju Kaka’s health. Raja is amused by the chaos around the family members and their different attitudes to the situation. Even in this difficult time, Prasanna is busy with political endeavours and his plans to win a competition to prove himself to his boss. Meanwhile, Pritam, Prassana’s and Raja’s cousin from the village, is on his way with his uncle (Gajanan’s older, unmarried brother), his mother, father, wife and other relatives.

Prasanna has a dysfunctional relation with his father Gajanan, of which all the family members are aware. On the contrary, Prasanna’s sister Sarika shares a deep relationship with their father. Manda reminds Prasanna that Gajanan had always loved him and that Prassana should have been there for him. Prasanna’s boss dismisses him and gives his job to his assistant. The family from the village arrives; they learn about the ventilator and are shocked to know that he will always depend upon it. Prasanna decides to keep Gajanan on the ventilator until the following afternoon and the family understands. Raja, who had problems with his own father, asks Prasanna to go to Gajanan’s ward and see him for the last time. Prasanna reveals his anger towards his father and how he could not be like “his favourite Raja”, and that Gajanan never understood him and overlooked him in favour of his sister Sarika.

The next day, Raja and Prasanna’s cousin Lata arrives from the United States with her husband and their young son. The child has drawn a family tree, which he shows to the whole family. He asks Prasanna about his father; Prasanna tells the child his father never loved him. After overhearing this, Raja’s father and Gajanan’s brother remind Prasanna about his father’s difficulties after Prasanna was born with a thin nostril, and contrary to Prasanna’s belief, how much Gajanan loved him. This changes Prassana’s mind; he rushes to the ward to ask the doctors to keep his father on the ventilator as he makes peace with Gajanan. He rejoins his mother and sister, and they all hug each other. This gives confidence to Raja, who tries to bury his misunderstanding with his own father. While still on the ventilator, Gajanan is seen smiling.