Stories set in film industries have attracted cinephiles across the world for decades. Clearly audiences cannot get enough of the personal battles of larger-than-life stars and behind-the-scenes drama in gossamer land.
Any script situated in tinseltown has formidable shoes to fill since so much has been said already and so well. Can you match up to the creativity or grand pathos of The Artist (French/2011), an account of an arrogant superstar’s failed transition from the silent era to talkies and its aftermath? Can you achieve the tricky blend of lightness and poignance struck by Hollywood in 2016’s global blockbuster La La Land about a young woman’s struggles to get a foot in the door? Do you have the courage of Mahanati (Telugu/2018) that placed the spotlight on flawed real-life legends who betrayed a colleague? Do you have something to say that has not already been said?
At first, the answer appears to be yes for Mohan Kumar Fans. The eponymous protagonist (Siddique) was once a star before he “got washed away in the flood caused by the advent of Mohanlal and Mammootty”, as an elderly gentleman explains to a youngster early on. This description is an instant hook.
The narrative kicks off with Mohan Kumar’s comeback after three decades away from the arclights. His new release is doing well at the box-office when commercial considerations intervene in its fate.
Siddique plays Mohan Kumar. YouTube
On another track, Krishnanunni (Kunchacko Boban) works as a driver for a producer called Prakash (Mukesh), with the goal of building connections in the film industry while on the job. He is an aspiring singer.
On a third track is the unscrupulous rising star Krupesh (Vinay Forrt).
Debutant Anarkali Nazar’s name is announced with fanfare in the credits, but she is a faint presence in Mohan Kumar Fans’ male universe. Sreekutty, the character she plays, is defined by her ties to the men: she is Mohan’s daughter, Krishnanunni’s singing partner and (Spoiler alert) an object of Krupesh’s interest. (Spoiler alert ends)
Any promise held out by the film’s premise is soon swept away by a high tide of ordinariness. The story is drab and lacks ideas, which is confounding since it is by Bobby and Sanjay who are among the names credited for kickstarting the New New Wave of Malayalam cinema. Jis Joy, who has written the screenplay and dialogues in addition to directing Mohan Kumar Fans, has a reasonably good track record too. His last film for one, Vijay Superum Pournamiyum was unusual and fun.
In its scrutiny of how the glamour world discards artists as soon as their hits dry up, Mohan Kumar Fans does not have a sliver of a fresh thought. The hero’s thread in the story is maudlin and dull. The reason why his comeback film is prematurely pulled out of theatres tells us something about the functioning of his industry, but twists of fate that follow have nothing to do with his profession – they include Mohan not checking the Internet in time to find out about a crucial event, a courier package being delayed and stuff being misplaced due to someone’s carelessness. Bleh.
The project Krishnanunni undertakes to lift Mohan’s spirits is silly and unoriginal. And the emotionally over-wrought finale is as manipulative as a formulaic soap.
Kunchacko Boban plays Krishnanunni. YouTube
Even a run-of-the-mill venture has to be challenged when it makes light of violence, as Mohan Kumar Fans does albeit in passing. When a man in the film says he brutally beat his wife, the scene is given a comedic tone via the expressions on his listeners’ faces and the intonation of the background music.
Malayalam cinema often normalises domestic violence, including marital rape, but a later scene of physical abuse in Mohan Kumar Fans is not the routine in Mollywood. Prakash slaps a junior in the presence of several people – as disturbing as the fact that the abuser is supposedly a nice guy, is that not an eyebrow is raised at his conduct and the victim himself is not shown to be angry. The portrayal of violence here is so casual that there’s no question of expecting an acknowledgement of the caste and class differentials that would be at play in a similar scenario in real life.
Hope for the film rears its head in the form of the deliciously cold Krupesh, and for a while he is entertaining. The initial gains with him are quickly lost though to hyperbolic, caricaturish, one-dimensional characterisation. And the Vinay Forrt who was so hilarious in Premam and brilliant in both Kismath and Thamaasha, ends up seeming over-the-top here, a victim of immature writing.
Siddique is just okay as the titular lead while Kunchacko, whose pleasant personality usually lifts even bad films, is bland. Krishnanunni’s introductory scene has him, a Hindu, training a church choir, which the script uses as an opportunity to slip in a message on humanity being above religion through the medium of a Christian priest.
The next time Mohan Kumar Fans tries to offer a lesson is when a voiceover says that awards matter little. Jis Joy shows a lack of commitment to this stand though when visuals of actual Malayalam actors accepting awards follow the VO. Ummm. Okay.
For the record, this film is not the worst in recent years to be set in Mollywood. That distinction goes to Balachandra Menon’s cringe-worthily awful Njan Samvidhanam Cheyyum. Mohan Kumar Fans is not cringe-worthy. The word for it is ordinary.
Rating: 1 (out of 5 stars)
After a brief theatrical run during the pandemic, Mohan Kumar Fans is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.