Reviews

When I saw its trailer it did not catch my attention. But once I started watching, I quickly understood what nice movie it is. As a very bored of "apartment dramas" of Iranian cinema, I found this movie very different, not boring and and very good one. I really enjoyed it. A good masterpiece from Tanabandeh.

Kaveh a charming young man is in love with Hamta, however, he has to cut this relationship off because he has decided to marry Katayoon who is a rich entrepreneur, much older than Kaveh and the cuisine of Kaveh's father, Salman. Both Kaveh and Katayoon know that there is no love behind this union. Kaveh gives the marriage for plenty of money which he needs to release his father from jail. Kaveh still loves Hamta and Katyoon is happy for "buying" Kaveh. In fact, her goal for buying Kaveh is to revenge and humiliate Salman and his family, the reason that Kaveh did not know. Free Salam banishes Kaveh because he thinks that his son sold himself to Katayoon for her wealth. Deeply disappointed Hamta who wants to start a new life, meets Akhgar, a powerful man and head of a mafia gang. Katayoon and Akhtar have some mutual business connections that leads to facing Kaveh and Hamta again. During in business party, Hamta realizes that Akhgar wants to abuse her, thus decides to scape. Kaveh saw Hapta at the same party and save scaping Hamta from Akhgar's gangs. Now both are in run and want to get back their freedom, Kave from Katayoon, Hmata from Akhgar. My wife and I started watching Mankan just after we finished Asheghaneh. While we are looking forward to watching season 2 of Asheghaneh, we wish Manken finish ASAP. The main weakness of Mankan is the low quality of the casting. Mohammad-Reza Foroutan was ever never a good choice for Akhgar's character. I think Mankan is the worst work of Mohammad-Reza Foroutan ever. Amir Hossein Arman, are you kidding me!!!! Very awkward and low rated acting. Bahram's character is a low-quality copy of Recep Ivedik. His acting in Asheghane was much much better. Nazanin Bayati is still the same character in her best movie "Darband". Same action, same reactions, same gesture, same voice. Merila Zarei (Katayoon) and Kinda Kiyani (Zhila) are good as always. Overall, Mankan is sometimes boring.

I pretty know that in general Iranian TV industry is not much experienced in producing this genre of TV series. Historical and religious genre? different issues. Indeed, Asheghaneh is the best and first successful TV series in this genre. No doubt. I believe Manoochehr Hadi (the director) learned a lot from Turkish TV series. Despite, there is many limitations for making romance and family scenes in Iran, the director was successful to be watcher advised. The scenario is really attractive and the scenes are believable. Emotions are able to inspire the watcher. The events flow in a just right speed. not too fast, not too slow. Mahnaz Afshar, Hossein Yari and Pantea Bahram are really good, but Hooman Seyyedi is the best. Sareh Bayat and Reza Golzar are not good choices. Bayat and Golzar are usual Bayat and Golar. Overall, Asheghaneh is a good Iraninan series and is not boring at all. I strongly recommend it.