Drop D Films and Ten Years Younger Productions’ Pune Highway (A) is a murder mystery. It is the story of five childhood friends and the adventures in their lives.
Khandu (Amit Sadh), Vishnu (Jim Sarbh), Nicky (Anuvab Pal), Natasha (Manjari Fadnis) and Babu (Himanshu Balpandey) are friends. They’ve grown up together and hence their bonding is great. Natasha is Khandu’s sister. She was married to Vishnu, who is a lawyer, but the marriage did not work. However, Khandu and Vishnu continue to be good friends. Babu is in hospital in a vegetative state. Somewhere, Khandu, Vishnu and Nicky hold themselves responsible for Babu’s pitiable condition because they neither came to his rescue when he was being beaten up by politician Mansekar’s (Shishir Sharma) henchmen nor did they report the truth to the police. In fact, Khandu continues to work for Mansekar. Nicky has had a terrible past because of which he hates women (unless they are his friends). Mansekar’s daughter, Mona (Ketaki Narayan), is due to get married to Saple (Abhishek Krishnan), but just a few days before her wedding, her dead body is found by the police. Who killed Mona? There are a number of suspects but who is the killer?
The film is based on Rahul DaCunha’s play of the same name. Bugs Bhargava Krishna and Rahul DaCunha’s story is average. There is nothing in it to involve or engage the audience in the proceedings. The duo’s screenplay is weak. For one, it is unnecessarily convoluted. Secondly, there are several characters who seem to have been added just for the sake of increasing the head count for whatever reason; they don’t have even a worthwhile shot, leave alone scenes or sequences. The police investigation into the murder is so half-baked that the seriousness of the drama gets diluted. Although Mansekar’s daughter is murdered, his concern to find the killer is so minimal that it just doesn’t seem believable. Again, Nicky is otherwise shown to be normal but why he behaves abnormally when he becomes a suspect in the murder case is not quite clear. Also, many twists in the drama are not clearly explained; they just happen. The humour is irritating instead of being funny. All in all, the screenplay is so badly written that it actually makes the viewers wonder how a film based on such a terribly written screenplay could even have been attempted. Sudeep Naik’s dialogues are just about ordinary.
Amit Sadh is fair as Khandu (Pramod Khandelwal). Jim Sarbh is earnest in the role of Vishnu Sehgal. Anuvab Pal does an ordinary job in the role of Nicky. Manjari Fadnis is okay as Natasha Khandelwal. Himanshu Balpandey gets limited scope as Babu Bhonsle; he is reasonably nice. Sudeep Modak is unimpressive as police inspector Prabhakar Pethe. The scene of his daughters applying nail paint on his nails seems senseless. Swapnil Ajagaonkar is okay as sub-inspector Godbole. Ketaki Narayan is quite alright as Mona Mansekar. Shishir Sharma delivers a routine performance as Mansekar. Abhishek Krishnan is average in the role of Mona’s fiancé, Saple. Aniket Kelkar lends routine support as Saple’s father. Smita Dongre is natural as Saple’s mother. Rajit Kapur performs ordinarily as Dr. Mahesh. Pranay Singh (as little Khandu), Arisht Jain (as little Vishnu), Aarush Ganesh Bankhele (as little Nicky), Trisha Bisht (as little Natasha), Pratik P. Shah (as little Babu), Kalpana Ajaney (as Vishnu’s grandmother), Dilshad Bhargava (as Sister Mary Ann), Lavishka Gupta and Delisha Chutani (both as Pethe’s daughters), Pooja Pant (as Pethe’s wife), Pratima Maurya (as Nicky’s mother), Krishna Sajnani (as the insurance man), Vinit Mainkar (as the jeweller), Priya Waghmare (as Mrs. Mansekar), Amber Wasi (as Natasha’s boyfriend) and the others lend dull support.
Bugs Bhargava Krishna and Rahul DaCunha’s direction is immature. Their poor script only worsens matters for the audience. Music (by Clinton Cerejo and Bianca Gomes; additional music by Ronit Chatterji) and lyrics (Sudeep Naik) are functional. Clinton Cerejo and Bainca Gomes’ background music is ordinary. A whodunit ought to have had a mind-blowing background score. Deepak Metkar’s cinematography is so-so. Rinku Bachcan Singh’s action and stunt scenes are average. Abhishek Gupta’s editing leaves a lot to be desired.
On the whole, Pune Highway is a flop show and will go largely unnoticed.
Released on 23-5-’25 at Metro Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Cinepolis India. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was very dull everywhere.