Mohandas – A Man Lost in his Own Nation

“Fake lives are real and the real does not even exist.”

I heard about the movie Mohandas a few months back. I searched on Youtube and after playing with the keywords for a while, finally found the trailer. I was interested as I loved Mazhar Kamran’s work in Satya. After finding the trailer interesting, I kept waiting to hear more about the movie from someone on PFC. Sadly, no one recommended. Nor did anyone talk about the movie. Last week I came to know the movie is releasing on 4^th September. I was worried whether the movie will release in Bangalore or not. Thankfully it did. It is running 2 shows in entire Bangalore. Talk about fate of Hindi indie films in India!

The film tells the story of Mohandas, a brilliant student despite economic backwardness and how his life turns topsy-turvy when he finds out someone impersonified him and is working in the coal mines instead of him. His story is then sent to a news channel based in Delhi and how a journalist tries to uncover the truth.

Mohandas revives the cinema of the late 70s and early 80s when movies talked about social inequities and had something to say. It looks really different than the rest of the Hindi movies just because of the landscape. The barren lands, the coal mines, the dust, the poverty all adds up to create an atmosphere of frustration just like the protagonist is experiencing.

There is a scene in the movie when Mohandas says, “Woh kagaz kahan se laoon, jo yeh baat bataae, ki main hi main hoon." And then you see the despair in his eyes and the camera shifts to the all the other characters present there and no one has an answer. That makes the movie scary and very topical. Identity theft is a very serious issue in the internet age and several instances have been found. The movie which talks about it is located in a village in Madhya Pradesh which probably does not have electricity.

The beauty of the film lies in its story. Here there is a movie which has a story to tell. You get deeply engrossed into the movie as it progresses. It is like slow burn. As the movie progresses, one feels the frustration, anger, despair of the protagonist. The rustic color palette that the movie uses due to the real locations is so different than the regular Hindi movies we see, that it becomes a character of its own.

The characterization in the movie is also very realistic. We see a lot of people with gray shades for a change. There is a local journalist who is interested in Mohandas’ case as it might help him get a break into national television. Although the local people talks about Mohandas’ case, no one is interested to really help him out.

Towards the end of the film, after the verdict is given, the cast breaks into song and dance mode. It kind of comes out of place in context of the movie and I was wondering why on earth the director added this. Thankfully the movie does not end there and the reality prevails. The movie ends brilliantly. It feels like a tight slap on the face. Although it might feel pessimistic, it is actually closer to reality.

Coming to technicalities, the cinematography is really good. But we expect that from Mazhar Kamran. There were two instances where it went out of focus, but I think it was the flaw of the projection. The background score (and sometimes the lack of it) adds to the mood of the movie. Since real locations have been used, it looks very believable. However, one scene at the beginning of the movie which shows Sonali Kulkarni’s apartment is very unrealistic. How come she, a journalist live in such a posh apartment? Even if she does, the color choices of the interior decor are cringe worthy. There are instances in the first half where the pace slackens and probably needs a little bit of editing. The flaskback of Mohandas’ childhood is very clichéd. Similar scenes of poor child shining in school have been shown umpteenth times.

Coming to performances, Mohandas has an ensemble cast. Nakul Vaid underplays the role beautifully. His eyes do show the pain. Sonali Kulkarni is good. Aditya Shrivastav as always is brilliant. Uttam Halder, someone I never saw before is really good as the local journalist. Govind Namdeo, Sushant Singh and Akhilendra Mishra are competent. Sharbani Mukherjee falters to some extent. I thought she didn’t look the part. Also the way she speaks is unconvincing.

Mohandas is a rare Hindi movie which dares to speak something different. It is an independent movie in the true sense. It makes a very strong socio-political statement of the current times.

It is flawed. But then flawed brilliance is still brilliant, right?

Post Script:

One noted film critic (or not) while reviewing Mohandas has said, “…not all stories have the potential to be adapted for the big screen. Mohandas suffers due to this reason.”

There were 7 people in the theater other than me. Except for one guy, I don’t think anyone was even remotely interested in watching the movie. I could overhear popcorn discussions frequently.

While coming out there was huge rush as Fox also finished next door. The discussions were detailed analysis of the northern and southern hemisphere of Udita Goswami and what cars Arjun Rampal drove. Within moments of coming out of the theater, it felt like another India.