Vinod Kamble

Kastoori

Vinod Kamble

14-year-old Gopinath Chavhan comes from a family of manual scavengers. He accompanies his alcoholic father and sometimes assists him in his work at the civil hospital morgue. His classmates harass him with casteist remarks and even Gopi begins to think his clothes smell of dead bodies and human excreta. When Gopi is invited to an event to collect a prize for topping a Sanskrit exam, he becomes obsessed with the idea of obtaining kastoori, an Indian musk, whose divine scent has been described in the Hindu mythological stories he likes listening to.