Review of Manvat Murders: The series is much better because it portrays a place, a time, a society, and human deviance in equal measure.
The true crime drama series Manvat Murders features an unlikely but generally successful collaboration between director Ashish Bende, whose debut feature Aatmapamphlet made the 2023 Berlinale cut, and popular filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker, who returned to acting last year in the web series Kaala Paani. In order to create a slow-burning thriller that revolves around a string of murders that rocked a small Maharashtra village in 1972–1973, Bende and Gowariker use modulated techniques both in front of and behind the camera.
The horrific crimes and the ragged police effort to apprehend the offenders are both revealed in the SonyLIV series. Manvat Murders is based mostly on documented facts, but to heighten the drama, it incorporates fictional elements into the story. There is enough smoothness in the flow between the two.
Created and written by Girish Joshi, the eight-episode Marathi series is based on police officer Ramakant S. Kulkarni’s memoir, Footprints on the Sands of Crime. It immerses the viewer in a poverty-stricken village that is struggling with violence, superstitions, poverty, and illiteracy.
Three women and four prepubescent girls are discovered dead in the village over the course of a year and a half. The story’s most crucial elements are the police action and the serial killings, but the socioeconomic dynamics at work in Manvat are almost as significant to the series.
As danger looms and the murderers remain at large, Bombay crime branch detective Ramakant Kulkarni (Gowariker) travels to Manvat to take over the failing investigation after receiving a clear directive from Maharashtra’s home affairs minister.
Before he enters the village’s squalor, the officer’s reputation as a brilliant detective is established, but his previous performance is entirely forgotten. His goal is to find “the truth behind the truth,” and he would rather not use force.
Everyone can see the truth. Manvat Murders is particularly curious about what lies beneath the surface. Therefore, it is not a visceral series that is full of action and exciting battles between good and evil. It takes its time untying the knots.
The seventh victim is brutally murdered in the first scene of Manvat Murders. Next, each of the earlier killings—from the first to the sixth—is disclosed one at a time. Women and girls who are caught off guard while working in the fields, gathering firewood, collecting cow dung, or going home after selling haystacks are the victims. Before they can call for assistance, they are killed and beaten.
Kulkarni knows he has his work cut out for him when he gets to Manvat. He is looking directly into a vast, intimidating abyss. The investigating police officers’ task is to collect the evidence required to identify the criminals. The laborious process of piecing together the puzzle and figuring out the clues is the main focus of Manvat Murders.
Kulkarni focuses on a few potential suspects. He personally questions some and has his coworkers follow and question the others. Instead of urging, he persuades. Instead of forcing the suspects to submit, he employs persuasion. Rather than forcing his way through, he aims to enter the suspect’s mind.
He isn’t a supercop in the Bollywood mould. Nor is Manvat Murders a conventional high-octane police drama. Although the muted tone and tenor may not make for an exciting, tense procedural, it allows for a more in-depth investigation of a conservative community that hides sinister secrets in its many hidden corners.
The protagonist’s modest manner contributes to the restrained reenactment of events that took place over 50 years ago. He does not rant, rave, or make funny jokes. Kulkarni chooses steadfast diligence over bold bravado as he tackles the complex web of murders one obstacle at a time.
Vinayak Vakatkar (Mayur Khandge), a colleague of Kulkarni’s from the Bombay Police, is his main investigative assistant. He also employs a few local police officers, one of whom is Damodar Shukla (Shardul Saraf), a motivated beaver who works hard to gain the respect of the seasoned officer and idolises Kulkarni.
CID officer Ponkshe (Ketan Karande) and Inspector Paranje (Umesh Jagtap), a police officer suspected of working with the village underworld, are also part of Kulkarni’s team. The lead investigator persistently follows each lead to its logical conclusion, which is typically not what he is searching for, despite a number of setbacks.
The police are keeping an eye on Uttamrao Barhate (Makarand Anaspure) and his childless wife Rukminibai (Sonali Kulkarni). The unctuous couple runs the illegal spirits business. Most of their wealth was obtained illegally.
Uttamrao and Rukmini leave their liquor-brewing operation in the care of the latter’s younger sister Samindri (Sai Tamhankar) when they are banished from the village for flouting the law once too often. However, they are powerful enough to return to their Manvat mansion as soon as possible.
Manvat is a corrupt village where lawlessness and blind faith coexist in a poisonous way. Because of the dangerous jiggery-pokery that goes unpunished, the weak and dispossessed, who make up nearly the entire population of Manvat, are left vulnerable to dishonest people.
As their investigation goes on, Kulkarni and his team must overcome numerous dead ends and cold trails. Occult rites, black magic, a system of old temples, a secret treasure, and—wait for it—human sacrifice are all around them.
The police encounter hitmen, charlatans, petty criminals (who will stop at nothing for a bottle of spirits and fifteen rupees), and dubious psychics (Kishor Kadam plays one of them in a role that gives him little screen time but plenty of opportunity to make an impact).
Despite its eerie core, Manvat Murders is not likely to shock us, but the atmospherics is enhanced by cinematographer Satyajeet Shobha Shreeram’s expert lighting and lensing.
Sonali Kulkarni, Sai Tamhankar, and Makarand Anaspure all make strong turns to support Ashutosh Gowariker’s measured performance. Even the actors who play the smallest roles in the supporting and tertiary cast are perfectly in tune with the world that Manvat Murders crafts.
Simple and direct, Manvat Murders is more than just a story about the killings and their aftermath. Because it portrays a place, a time, a society, and human deviance equally, the series is far superior.
- Cast:
- Sonali Kulkarni, Sai Tamhankar, Makarand Anaspure, and Ashutosh Gowariker
- Director:
- Ashish Bende