Review- Mayamohini
Producer- Madhu Wariar, P.Sukumar
Director- Jos Thomas
Cast- Dileep, Biju Menon, Baburaj, Lakshmi Rai, Mythili etc
Music- Berny- Ignatious
Background music- Bijibal
Review By : Unni R Nair/ Kerala9.com
It was coincidence. My friend was to join me in the afternoon to watch ‘Mayamohini’ and so I had the forenoon entirely to myself. The decision to go watch ‘Housefull 2’ for the morning show was only too natural as two movies on a Saturday is not a new thing to me. ‘Housefull 2’ for me was nothing but watching Jos Thomas’ 1998 movie ‘Mattupetti Machchaan’ on a much bigger canvas (no, I won’t say Sajid Khan copied or was inspired by Jos Thomas’ film, that I will leave for erudite critics and analysts to state and decide). I was just thinking, as I was watching ‘Housefull 2’, that it was indeed a coincidence that I was going to watch Jos Thomas’ latest film ‘Mayamohini’ in the afternoon.
Well, my friend couldn’t make it, and there I was all alone, to watch ‘Mayamohini’. So what did I expect? I knew Dileep was appearing in a girl’s get-up. I knew the script was by Udayakrishna and Sibi.K.Thomas. I knew something about the plot; it was all there in the magazines. So, in fact, I sort of knew what to expect. And it was almost what I expected it to be. Moreover since a journalist friend had told me beforehand that he heard it was intolerable, I expected the worst. Well, to be frank, ‘Mayamohini’ seemed to me what I had expected it to be, nothing more nothing less. To those who say it’s intolerable, I’d ask, “Well, what else did you expect it to be?”. To those who’d say it’s great, I’d ask, “Well, what’s there in it?”. Well, that sums up my review… And I’d add that the main highlight of the film no doubt is Dileep, no one else would and could do that role this way. Kudos, Dileep!!
The plot, in a nutshell, is this. Balakrishnan (Biju Menon) is destined to face failure in whatever he does, one after the other, till the day a girl born under the Chothi (Swathi) nakshatra (Chothi is a star sign as per the Malayalam almanac), enters his life. This is what their family astrologer (Balachandran Chullikad) had predicted. Balakrishnan is guided and aided by friend and advocate Lakshmy Narayanan (Baburaj) and together they repeat failure after failure, in whatever they do. It’s then that Balakrishnan and Lakshmy Narayanan establish ties with a Mumbai based businessman and Balakrishnan gets drawn towards the businessman’s daughter Maya (Lakshmi Rai), who incidentally is born under the Chothi nakshatra. In the meantime Balakrishnan and Lakshmy also carry out, in lieu of Maya’s father, a land deal with the pious minded Shankaran Potty (Nedumudi Venu). Balakrishnan and Lakshmy find ways to keep with them the advance of Rs. 3 crore, which is paid to Shankaran Potty. They hand it over to Maya’s father, to invest it on shares and expecting huge returns. It’s then that things go wrong for the duo. The money vanishes, Maya too leaves Balakrishnan. Then, to convince his uncle and get ancestral property transferred to his name, Balakrishnan plans to get someone to act the part of his wife. In comes Mayamohini (Dileep), a beautiful girl, and the story takes a turn from here.
Well, there is nothing extraordinary about the plot, except that it’s a man in a woman’s disguise who agrees to act as the hero’s wife. Everything else moves on predictable lines and the climax is just the usual one. The film thus seemed just average stuff to me, with crass comedy and of course some good jokes too, some double meaning dialogues and a mix of songs, action, drama etc. It’s passable fare too…
Performances
Dileep no doubt is the only hero in present day Malayalam Cinema who can do the role of Mayamohini and he does it with ease too, as convincingly as he can. Fans of Robin Williams’ Mrs. Doubtfire and Kamal Hassan’s Avvai Shanmughi may frown at Dileep and his performance, but Dileep does what he can and looks good too as Mayamohini. Biju Menon begins in an impressive manner but half way through his character seems to lose out and he seems not to be doing anything special. Post the success of Salt n’ Pepper, Baburaj seems to be getting typecast; he no doubt gets greeted with loud applause. Lakshmi Rai has nothing much to do. Mythili is good, but doesn’t have much to do. The others are all OK.
Technical aspects
There is nothing much to say about the technical aspects. We don’t expect much of technical brilliance in such movies, all that we can say is that the technicians render ample support.
Music
Background music by Bijibal is in tune with the plot and the theme and songs composed by Berny Ignatious are just so so.
Script
Sibi.K.Thomas and Udayakrishna have done the script in their usual style. The flaws however are half-baked characters and unrealistic situations and typical slapstick comedy. Nothing special to jot about the script.
Direction
Jos Thomas has done better than his bad films, but there are some enjoyable films like ‘Mattupetti Machchaan’ that he had done and he has also done a rather sensitive film ‘Ente Sreekuttikku’. So it has to be said that he definitely could have done better with ‘Mayamohini’.
Verdict: Average stuff; could have been better.
Rating: 2.5/5