Editor Abhinav Sunder Nayak makes his directorial debut who also triples up as co-writer with Vimal Gopalakrishnan and co- editor with Nidhin Raj Arol; with the Vineeth Sreenivasan starrer "Mukundan Unni Associates" (MUA) in the dark comedy genre. This again has review from Sreeram Sundaram.
Mukundan Unni is turning 36 but is unhappy and frustrated with his position as a junior lawyer in a law firm run by Adv Gangadharan (Ranjith). He is also miffed with the fact that his ladylove, Adv Jyothi (Tanvi Ram) is more popular in the law firm than himself. He tries to cross the line with a client - a politician couple - that irritates his boss, who in turn, shows him the door. To be rich, he tries to live a structured life of hardwork, dedication, perseverance and discipline for years, but success eludes him. Meanwhile, a freak fall in the house lands Mukundan's mother in a multispecialty hospital where he learns how to make some quick bucks by using accident insurance claims - thanks to Adv Venu (Suraj Venjaarammoodu). Taking a cue from Adv Venu, Mukundan along with his lawyer friend, Robin (Sudhi Koppa), a failure himself, start working on accident cases with some help from the hospital receptionist Meenakshi (Aarsha Baiju).
As he starts getting more cases and earning more money, his extremely selfish, vengeful and non - remorseful original self is exposed gradually and what he does to people who he feels will threaten his position, leaves you stunned, in more instance than one.
Right from the opening credits announcing the ill effects of smoking to the statement related to non harming of animals (all in Vineeth's voice), the director prepares you for the kind of movie that is going to unfold before you and almost throughout the length of the narrative, you have the protagonist speaking to himself - one of the reasons why Vineeth Sreenivasan maintains stoic expressions and stiff body language on camera since his mind is revealed through these monologues.
If the protagonist is painted in the darkest of shades, the rest of the characters are not pristine white either - be it Adv Venu and his team, the insurance company manager who incidentally is Adv Venu's wife, the lady whom Mukundan approaches first for a case and who bargains with him for commission, Robin who turns around to reveal his improved self towards the climax or even Meenakshi who gets to mouth the one line that sums up the entire concept of the script - about successful people using all sorts of tricks to get to the top and how hard work, perseverance etc. are just fodder to sell motivational books.
The only 2 characters who represent goodness in the entire narrative are the young doctor who owns the hospital and Adv Jyothi - both of whom fail in their respective missions in their end but still hold on to their ideals.
It is this interesting spin (of good people losing and wicked people winning) that Abhinav and team give to the narrative that keeps it different and palatable in spite of not worth idolizing any of the characters.
Technically, all departments contribute well with none of them towering over the narrative. All actors perform well and Aarsha Baiju is a good find. A special shoutout for creating strong, opinionated women who are bold and do not care a damn about speaking their minds - there is not even a single woman character that is shown as submissive - all of them are assertive to the extent of turning aggressive any moment - kudos to the writing team to create and present today's women throughout.
Vineeth Sreenivasan who is generally liked for his genial ways, shakes off his "gentleman" tag and embraces Mukundanunni wholeheartedly and gives us a performance worth remembering - he sends chills down your spine by portraying Mukundanunni with all his callousness.
To sum up, "MUA" is a delicious dark comedy that may not appeal to everyone.
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