Bhonsle
140
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bhonsle

Producer : Golden Ratio Films, Manoj Bajpayee Productions, Promodome Pictures
Co-Writer | Director | Associate Producer : Devashish Makhija
Cast : Manoj Bajpayee, Santosh Juvekar, Ipshita Chakraborty Singh, Abhishek Banerjee, Virat Vaibhav, Chittaranjan Giri, Shrikant Yadav, Shardul Bharadwaj

synopsis

In tumultuous Mumbai, at a time when scheming Maharashtrian politicians use violence to rid the state of North-Indian migrants, a terminally-ill lone wolf Maharashtrian cop Bhonsle retired against his will, finds himself forging an unlikely companionship with a 23-year-old North-Indian girl and her little brother, while the raging conflict destroying the world around them reaches his doorstep, giving him one last battle worth fighting for, but it might just be too late.

awards & recognition

  • Best Actor, Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2019.
  • Nominee, UNESCO best film on cultural diversity, Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2019.
  • Best Director & Best Screenplay, Asian Film Festival, Barcelona 2019.
  • Nominee, Kim Je Seuk Award, Busan International Film Festival 2018.
  • Voices, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019.
  • Forum, PUFF Black Nights Tallinn Film Festival 2018.
  • Window on the world, Glasgow Film Festival 2019.
  • Opening film, International Film Festival of South Asia, Toronto 2019.
  • Closing film, Habitat Film Festival, Delhi 2019.
  • Opening film, Independent Film Festival of Chennai 2019.
  • International Competition, Bengaluru International Film Festival 2019.
  • Opening Film, Jagran Film Festival 2019.
  • One of Indian Film Institute’s 10 best films of 2020.

reviews

  • “A beautifully detailed portrait of a quiet hero… shot through with outrage.”
    ~ The Hollywood Reporter
  • “A study in restraint and putting faith in one’s audience… an exceptional film bolstered by a nearly silent performance.”
    ~ Screen Anarchy
  • “Deeply affecting… The last shot is a poem by itself.”
    ~ The New Indian Express
  • “’Bhonsle’ cuts through you as if with a sharp knife. It is hard-hitting and incisive. But… it is also gentle and fragile.”
    ~ The Citizen
  • “A provocative piece of cinema that lunges fearlessly at the politics of hate-mongering… the third narrative feature of an agent provocateur!”
    ~ NDTV
  • “The film’s dark ending is actually its article of faith in humanity and all that a human soul can feel and act upon, even in the bleakest circumstances and frailest forms.”
    ~ The Punch Magazine
  • “Astounding… Ferocious… Measured… Vulnerable.”
    ~ The Hindu
  • “Sad and delicate and existential…”
    ~ Film Companion
  • “In a film that bleeds brilliance in nearly every frame the actors shine in the light of a desolate lustre… a masterpiece… a  persuasive and powerful film.”
    ~ Subhash K. Jha (Film Critic)
  • “A cinema of no escape… determined and relentless.”
    ~ Siraj Syed (Film Critic)
  • “A chronicle of longing, otherness, loneliness and alienation… a love song.”
    ~ Rukmini Sen (Film Critic)
  • “Visceral and hard-hitting… A small-scale film with mammoth ambition… An artistic victory.”
    ~ VoxSpace
  • “Will remain with you, long after the credits roll.”
    ~ ScoopWhoop
  • “Absolutely awesome.”
    ~ The Pioneer
  • “Unflinching.”
    ~ The Millennium Post
  • “One of the most important films made in the past few years.”
    ~ FilmSpell
  • “The invisible… the untold… the unspeakable… (the film) carries the story solely on the basis of the audio-visual. Unheralded.”
    ~ News18
  • “A film gloriously, defiantly committed to truth… pulls poetry out of the mundane bric-a-brac of life… a sombre, little film with tempered ambition and a strong backbone… a promise of great things to come.”
    ~ First Post