The way Madhura Manohara Moham begins, seemingly as a satire on casteist families – those that rejoice merely on hearing the Menon at the end of a name – you might prepare yourself to forgive the flaws already unravelling before you. As it gets too much – unfunny jokes falling all over the place and an upsettingly loud music that stubbornly sticks – you tell yourself, patience. But for that, the movie rewards you by simply going off the track, leaving the poorly-made satire midway, and turning to the female protagonist even more poorly with a questionable lens. By then, you wholeheartedly accept that both you and the bevy of really good actors who took on the film, are done for.
Award-winning costume designer Stephy Zaviour has turned director for the film, which is written by Mahesh Gopal and Jai Vishnu. In the first few scenes you might not notice anything amiss, too busy watching some wonderful actors walking in from every corner. Sharaf Udheen and Althaf Salim ride into a house, which has Bindu Panicker at one side and Rajisha Vijayan on the other. Sharaf plays son to Bindu and brother to Rajisha. As Manu he is the oldest of three siblings, getting on with a government job he is hardly interested in, leaving all the responsibilities to his sister Meera (Rajisha). And Meera makes money with tuition classes even as she is still in college. Their younger sister, a teenager, speaks about patriarchy that the other three don’t seem to care about. All that matters to mother and son is caste.
Manu is even an active participant in the local branch of the Nair Service Society (Nair being one of the privileged Hindu castes). And calculatedly or not, the script doesn’t say, he is in love with the daughter of the NSS president (played by Vijayaraghavan). Aarsha Chandini Baiju, fresh after a wonderful little performance in Mukundan Unni Associates, is charming and witty as the lover getting scant attention from an increasingly worrying Manu.
Watch: Trailer of the film
Described in a few lines, the premise sounds interesting. Taken to script, it loses all its shine. Even in the early scenes, when the film still appeared to be taking digs at casteism, it does so problematically. When the mother (Bindu) uses a separate steel tumbler for the domestic worker, you hear a funny background score. Funny! While the intention might have been to expose the hypocrisy of Bindu’s character – laughing with the worker while changing the glass – it is in such bad taste you wince. Even Althaf and Sharaf U Dheen, two actors who are so good with humour, end up sprouting lousy lines with sad faces.
To be fair, Rajisha’s character is written with a lot of thought. She is the “role model” her sister is advised to follow, the conventional type of woman who conforms to norms and earns the praise of the entire small town. By the second half of the film, when the focus is turned to her character, we are shown another side of her, perhaps in an attempt to expose the hypocrisy of such goody-two-shoes. But if the idea was to break such myths, or portray unconventional women, it is poorly done. Huge holes are left in the script and you are left with no feeling for the character or the story.
While it is unfair to look at mistakes in a debut film the same way you do another, Madhura Manohara Moham fails to work on too many different levels.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film's producers or any other members of its cast and crew