Mukundan Unni Associates Movie Review: Abhinav Sunder Nayak's Mukundan Unni Associates is Malayalam Cinema's answer to Jake Gyllenhaal's 2014 film Nightcrawler. Both films feature protagonists who not only want to survive in a dog-eat-dog world, but also wants to rule that world no matter how. Gyllenhaal's Bloom might have earned his name in the stringer business and Vineeth Sreenivasan's Mukundan Unni seeks his success through the injuries of others, but both are driven by their caustic need to be better than others, and they will achieve it by any devious means possible. Vineeth Sreenivasan Birthday Special: From Malarvadi Arts Club to Jacobinte Swargarajyam, All the Films Made by Hridayam Director, Ranked!

The stark difference between the two movies, apart from the professions, is in how Mukundan Unni Associates uses humour, dark and otherwise, to let us into the psyche of one of the vilest minds I have seen onscreen. This is, of course, helped by Vineeth's sardonic mental monologues, that may sound emotion-free, but loaded with plenty of emotions from jealousy to fear to victory.

Mukundan Unni is a lawyer looking for the right opportunity to get out of his senior's (Ranjith) shadow and make a name for himself. He is someone who lies on even his age, and I think he believes those lies himself. Like the evil snake from the Biblical Garden of Eden who tempts Adam and Eve into sin, it is a cobra that first paves the path for Mukundan Unni to his eventual journey towards moral degradation.

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The snake later plays its part to push him towards from corrupt to criminal, and the snake returns once more traps him in a situation with seemingly no return. Mukundan Unni realises that there is money to be made in accident insurance cases, thanks to being a first-eye witness to the workings of another lawyer Venu (Suraj Venjaramoodu) who had a monopoly in this field. Venu didn't realise he has just made his biggest enemy there, and once he does, it's way too late.

From thereon, Unni Mukundan goes hook or crook, okay... scratch that, always crook to get his hands on all the insurance claims to settle, and even manipulate some to look like accident cases. Every relationship he builds, every 'friendship' he makes is all for his professional benefit.

Mukundan Unni Associates is a film that may take a light-hearted approach in how it tells its narrative, but it is bleak as hell when it comes to morals. I have seen some reactions on social media how Mukundan Unni Associates is actually encouraging nihilism and morally reprehensive characters. Partly, I agree. Mukundan Unni Associates deals with real-life nihilism, putting spotlight of the vultures circling a tragedy and waiting for their chance to peck at the bones and get away doing so. Its protagonist is a morally reprehensible character who is never once swayed by the sufferings of the 'clients' - and he never allows us to feel that as well - even when an accident causes multiple injured people and one death - but he looks how to maximise his profits. Even if it means turning a custody torture into an accident case, or even going to some very extreme levels that I cannot say here for SPOILER-specific reasons.

But Mukundan Unni's story isn't something aspirational. Since it is told through a villain's POV, it does make us occasionally want to root for him just to see how he gets out of one sticky situation to another. Just like in Avengers: Infinity War, we may love the Avengers, but how many of us were little disappointed when Scarlet Witch destroyed the Mind Stone and seemingly thwarted Thanos' plans? Or internally wanted Thanos to snap his fingers to see what would really happen? We may love the heroes, but the greys in us are always attracted to the dynamic villains. Hridayam Movie Review: Pranav Mohanlal Is Charming, Kalyani Priyadarshan Is Bubbly but Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Sappy Film Needed More ‘Darshana’!

The thing with Mukundan Unni is that, unlike a purple-faced alien, he feels real and resembles someone like us, and that makes him a scarier proposition. Mukundan Unni Associates isn't championing for him, but is using him a metaphor to depict cynical times we live in where morally corrupt climb ahead stepping upon the lesser ones and feeding on our desperation, while the system and sometimes even Fate stand by them. Maybe Abhinav Sunder Nayak is asking us to recognise to 'Mukundan Unni' among us and keep our distance from them, or maybe telling us that only people like him can get ahead in this world, while morals and talks of 'karma' are better off said in books and lectures, like how Mukundan's current flame Meenakshi (Arsha Baiju) reminds his righteous ex (Tanvi Ram).

For his first mainstream film, Abhinav Sunder Nayak's work as a director is quite admirable, especially how he syncs the way the scenes are edited with the BG score. Particular standout is the scene where Mukundan is waiting for his first client in front of the hospital while Time lapses around him. The narrative structuring makes Mukundan Unni Associates very much engaging, though before the third act sets in, the screenplay becomes somewhat monotonous. However, the final act draws you back in, though a certain aspect of the plot veers very close to the aforementioned Nightcrawler.

As far as the acting goes, Vineeth Sreenivasan is an undeniable revelation as the twinkle-eyed rascal with his inscrutable expressions so spot on. Usually portraying boy-next-door roles, Vineeth has done a couple of interesting negative characters, like what he did in the delightful Thaneermathan Dinangal. But this is the kind of character you wouldn't expect him to take on, and that's exactly works in shocking the hell out of us, without making him look like an oddity.

Arsha Baiju, Mukundan's (one of) partner-in-crime turned love interest, is a standout delivering a very enjoyable performance. Sudhi Koppa plays a role similar to what Riz Ahmed did in Nightcrawler, and he does good justice to the role. The same goes for Suraj Venjaramoodu who leave an indelible impression. The rest of the cast, including Sudheesh, George Kora, Riya Saira, Manikandan Pattambi, Tanvi Ram, Biju Sopanam, et al, are all fine in their parts. Interestingly, Jagadish, who plays a honest judge in the film, had played a role similar to Mukundan Unni in the 1993 film Vakeel Vasudev, though there the lawyer has a change of heart in the end. Mukundan Unni Associates, however, shows Vakeel Vasudev is merely a work of fiction, the real 'Vasudev' might still be scamming people and living the life of luxury somewhere exotic.

Final Thoughts

Mukundan Unni Associates is an uncoventionally arresting tale of what we can see as an origin story of a realistic 'super-villain'. Through its morally fractured-beyond-redemption lead, played excellently by Vineeth, we get a character that stands as a metaphor of misanthropic times we are in. Mukundan Unni Associates is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.

 

Rating:3.5

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 14, 2023 07:04 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).