Bhonsle (film)

• Manoj Bajpayee as Ganpath Bhonsle
• Santosh Juvekar as Vilas
• Ipshita Chakraborty Singh as Sita
• Virat Vaibhav as Lalu
• Abhishek Banerjee aa Rajendra
• Rajendra Sisadkar as Talpade
• Kailash Waghmare as Sawant
• Shrikant Yadav as Mhatre
• Neetu Pande as Mrs. Jha

Makhija started writing the script of Bhonsle in 2011 and completed it in 2015 but could not find the producers. In 2016, Makhija directed an 11-minute short film titled Taandav starring Manoj Bajpayee, about a head constable who breaks out into a dance to deal with the strains of his life.[3] Bajpayee had suggested him to make a short "to prove that they could carry off the idea."[3] Makhija said that he made the short because he was not able to make Bhonsle. He said that the purpose of the short was to "show the world that a film about a havaldar (constable) could be interesting."[3] Makhija took inspiration for Bhonsale's mannerisms from his father who had become "something else" after Makhija left for Mumbai from his hometown Kolkata.[3] The script was selected by the National Film Development Corporation of India for their event, Film Bazaar in 2016.[10]

The film's principal photography began on 21 October 2017. The Ganpati festival scene was shot for two days in Mumbai in August that forms a backdrop in the film.[11] For the pullout shot on the day of the Ganpati immersion, Bajpayee was placed in the crowd of 70,000 people. The scene took six retakes to complete and throughout the shoot no one recognised Bajpayee.[3] The filming was completed in late December, 2017.[12] Several scenes were shot in closed narrow spaces as Makhija wanted to "create a sense of suffocation."[3]

Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter praised Bajpayee's performance in the film and said that his "hermit retiree emerges as a quiet-spoken hero who opposes the racist hate-mongering around him with cool disdain." She felt that the film "builds tension well as it goes along", but called its first half "punishing".[13] Anupam Kant Verma of Firstpost wrote: "To Makhija’s peculiar blend of technical proficiency and poetic beats, Bajpayee brings the gravitas and masterful restraint that tugs at the kite of the director’s imagination the moment it threatens to pull away, in effect, harmonising the film experience."[14] J. Hurtado of Screen Anarchy wrote: "It's an exceptional film bolstered by a nearly silent performance from Manoj Bajpayee, one of India's finest actors, who also stepped in to produce the film when things were looking dire during production." He also included it in his list of 14 Favorite Indian Films of 2018.[15]

• Bhonsle on IMDb