Mohankumar Fans movie review: This Jis Joy film has Kunchacko Boban as true fan of Siddique

If you have watched Jis Joy movies, you will find a certain flavour with which he treats his narrative and characters. 

His storytelling style will be natural and realistic, but he makes sure to offer ample sentiments and enough drama too.

 

And Mohankumar Fans is no different. Following Bicycle thieves, Sunday Holiday and Vijay Superum Pournamiyum, Jis Joy in his fourth outing, with a story from Sanjay-Bobby duo, has kept the same upbeat scores, a few funny lines and an ensemble cast, maintaining a similar directorial tone.

The movie opens with two people climbing a snow-clad mountain. “It's going to be the start of a new beginning,” we get to hear the lines with a voice over by Kunchacko Boban. 

Soon, we are introduced to a soothing devotional song sung by Krishnanunni played by Kunchacko Boban, a wannabe singer who is struggling to get into movies for singing. 

 

'A future Yesudas' is how his mother puts it. His cousin Sajimon (Ramesh Pisharody) had been working as a driver to a film producer Prakashan (Mukesh). In the course of time, Sajimon manages to get a few contacts from the industry and  becomes a  production controller. 

 

After Sajimon leaves his driver job, Krishnanunni replaces him as a driver for producer Prakashan, thinking that one day he too can get some contacts from the industry and become a movie singer. Meanwhile, we get to see a veteran actor Mohankumar played by Siddique, who has stepped back into acting, after a gap of 30 years. Mohankumar's latest film has just hit the screens and he and his daughter Sreeranjini (Anarkali Nazar) can't be more happy. As Mohankumar says in the movie, the world is a small place and all of them get to know each other. 

 

To an extent, Krishnanunni tries to bring in a comfort and happiness in Mohankumar's life, like a true fan.The cast is packed with talented character artistes. Agreed that this is Kunchacko's film, but it has Siddique stamped all over it. 

Similar to Rajappan Thengummoodu from 'Udayananu Tharam', here it is Vinay Forrt who plays the young superstar Kripesh aka Aghosh Menon with his over-the-top acts.

 

And when the leads are aided by strong performances by almost the entire supporting cast, Mohankumar fans makes somewhat a safe journey.

 

Jis Joy brings in the element of a scathing commentary on the 'viral life' and 'public relations' factor in the Malayalam film industry. A true artiste would love cinema, rather than an award, the movie seems  to suggest. 

 

The film-within-a-film concept is also handled deftly but the partly satisfying emotional drama could've been way more better had the melodrama been cut. Certain scenes speciallly in the second half come across as forced and staged. The echoes of emotions are not really touching and misses to exude any kind of empathy for Mohankumar's character in winning a National award.

Like all his movies, the seven songs in the film have been written by Jis with Prince George's music fitting the subject well enough. 

With situational comedies and enough dramas, Mohankumar fans is yet another-slice-of-life film from Jis Joy.

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