Recent Reviews by Mihir Bhanage
The Times of India
Mihir Bhanage is a film critic and has been reviewing films, majorly Marathi, for Times of India since 2014. Besides reviews, he is also an entertainment correspondent for Pune Times. As a viewer, he loves to watch films across genres and languages.
Films reviewed on this Page
Manvat Murders
Promises a lot, delivers less
Manvat Murders is gripping in parts as it retells the story of a horrific saga.
In the early 1970s, a series of murders left the residents of Manvat terrorized, and people of Maharashtra in shock. A small town in Parbhani district, Manvat saw people, mostly women, being killed over a span of about two years with a black magic ritualistic motive, as the cops would later find out. Ashish Bende’s series attempts to take a deep dive into the case through the eyes of late cop Ramakant Kulkarni’s lens. Manvat Murders is based on Kulkarni’s book Footprints on the Sand of Time, which documented his high-profile cases, including the Manvat case which he was assigned.
All 3 reviews of Manvat Murders here
Amaltash
A breeze of freshness that makes you pause and reflect
Rahul, a calm and composed musician, happens to meet the spunky and spontaneous Keerti by chance when the latter is visiting her grandmother in Pune. Their respective lives take a different path soon.
Often, it is the films made with passion that leave a lasting impression on the minds of the viewers. Nothing larger-than-life, no grand sets, nothing unbelievable – just a simple story told with sincerity and made relatable by its characters. If Amaltash was to be explained in brief, this would suffice. Amaltash is a simple, straightforward story of a gifted musician named Rahul (Rahul Deshpande) whose life has changed after an incident in his past. Rahul has learned the importance of soaking in the small pleasures of life and being composed in the most strenuous of situations. Enter Keerti (Pallavi Paranjape), the NRI from Canada who lands in Pune to meet her grandmother (Pratibha Padhye) and has a chance encounter with Rahul who is at her granny’s house to tune their piano. Taken by Rahul’s musical prowess, Keerti meets him again at Rahul’s friend’s music store. They talk and bond over music and soon strike a friendship. Love blossoms organically. But are they meant to spend their life together?