Casetu Nagen (2025) Movie Review: A Wild Goose Chase in Rural Absurdity

After much derailment of its initial release plans, director Dhanjit Das’s “Casetu Nagen” finally landed on the screens of Assam on May 11, 2025. Essentially, the story of Kachubari, a rural settlement in the peripheries of the geographical and administrative boundaries of the state, the film is about Nagen or a man’s search for someone who goes by the name of Nagen. Kachubari is a distinctively remote village that no one visits or departs from very often. There is mystery in the air, and suspense among the villagers, and it manages to carry the film for a while, at least until Nagen’s true identity is revealed.

“Casetu” Nagen aspires to be a narrative-driven rural comedy while also trying to mimic the stylized choreography of action films. A very elaborate hand-to-hand combat scene plays out in the initial few minutes of the film, begging the question of whether a few characters in the village got themselves trained secretly in martial arts.

They might have. Anyway, the genesis of the idea behind “Casetu Nagen” relies much on the storytelling format and sensibilities of a Priyadarshan film. Whether it’s the narration introducing a village and the inhabitants, or the characters’ misunderstandings of each other’s intentions and names that lead to chaos and confusion, or the use of exaggerated characters in a rural setting. It’s all there. Perhaps the most notable of all is the use of greed as a motivational factor for the characters.

In fact, too many similarities can be pointed out if “Casetu Nagen” is compared to Priyadarshan’s 2006 offering “Malamaal Weekly.” But the notable aspect of Priyadarshan’s films is that they are mainly about the characters first. In “Malamaal Weekly,” it is the story of the villagers first – there is a feudal matriarch, the only wealthy person in the village, who treats her fellow villagers with disdain. Then there’s a milkman who dilutes his cow’s milk with water to sell, as most of his cows are mortgaged to the Thakurain herself.

There’s a good-for-nothing boy in love with his childhood sweetheart, but marriage is out of the question because he’s poor. Meanwhile, the brother of the lady landlord is also vying for the same girl, setting up a conflict between the two. And then there is a greedy lottery ticket seller. And it is through these interconnected stories that the larger plot unfolds — the mysterious death of a lottery winner, which sparks greed among the villagers as they scramble to claim the prize.

Now, some characters mentioned above might have a recall value in “Casetu Nagen” as well, but in “Casetu Nagen,” it is through the main plot of network marketing that the side stories are explored. In fact, the side stories are not even stories of importance. They are just background information about the characters, and they barely qualify as subplots. The only thread that comes close to being justifiable as a subplot is a side story involving a pair of thieves, but that, too, mysteriously vanishes halfway through the narrative. And if that arc was irrelevant to the main plot, why did we spend several precious minutes mourning a stolen duck? There is also a love story that is simply inserted to achieve a romantic song. It disappears right after.

There are wide shots of the village in plenty, which just re-emphasize how vaguely populated the village is. It is always the same characters that the narrative interacts with. In other words, the village feels empty, unreal, and staged. When films fail in their worldbuilding scope, the horizon of the story becomes very limited. Such is the case for “Casetu Nagen” as well.  Later, the film also tries to catch the tunes of a Public Service Announcement – about how greed is bad and we shouldn’t trust quick sources of earning money. Two characters also come in to lecture about greed in a few scenes in the latter half of the film. Thankfully, the film doesn’t dwell on the issues of geographical and administrative marginalization of the village.

But situating the village as a microcosm of larger social themes, Dhanjit Das definitely tries to comment on the functioning of a political system. Using the network marketing scammers as a symbolic stand-in for political institutions and the village as an allegorical electorate, the film nods at the purposeful exploitation of the citizenry. While Nagen appears to be a person within the narrative, the character ultimately functions more as a symbolic construct—a representation of human greed. The search for Nagen becomes, in essence, a metaphor for the pursuit of easy fortune, which doesn’t always yield.

However, leaving all analysis of its sub-text aside, “Casetu Nagen” is a film that is fairly enjoyable for the majority of its first half but falters terribly in its second half. The film prematurely reveals the identity of Nagen and the true identity of the man who had come to the village in search of him. From there on, an air of predictability surrounds the film, which makes the second half less engaging.

As the entire plot of the film revolves around the mysterious identity of Nagen and the search for him, revealing it casually defeats the purpose of the narrative. As viewers, we share the same curiosity and suspense as the villagers, and therefore, it would have been far more cathartic if either we or the villagers had the opportunity to uncover the mystery through our own efforts. In the movie, instead of letting the characters uncover the truth through action and emotion, it lets another character verbally explain everything partway through. This reveal not only flattened the mystery but also took away the characters’ agency in solving the mystery.

Among the better aspects of “Casetu Nagen” is the performance of its ensemble cast that includes Tapan Das, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Himanshu Prasad Das, Pranami Bora, Atanu Mahanta, and Anamika Sarania. Dhanjit Das’s diverse filmography definitely reflects a fair understanding of genre approaches. It is also a great relief to see Amrita Gogoi in a decent film against many of her cringeworthy roles in the Chandra Mudoi universe. She is not a bad actress, but her recent film selections have gone from terrible to the worst of the worst. And veteran actor Atul Pachani finally does a film in which he can proudly take the name of. He last appeared in an abomination called Rakshak: The Saviour, released in Assam just a few weeks back. It was horrible.

Overall, “Casetu Nagen” can be called a technically sound film that delivers a fun setup and characters with quirky personalities, but it fails to go beyond that. Maybe, a strong sub-plot would have functioned in regard to that of a required contribution. In this regard, the writing demanded a little more depth to achieve its funniest or most dramatic potential. Special mention of the peppy title track sung by Kumar Bhabesh and Kool-D.

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Casetu Nagen (2025) Movie Links: IMDb