Mukundan Unni is an advocate who wants to make it big but has not had his lucky break yet. But knows he has what it takes to achieve his dreams and is ready to do anything to advance in this world. After years of altering the birthdate on his Aadhaar card to make sure that he achieves success at a young age, Mukundan Unni discovers the world of ambulance chasers, and Mukundan Unni Associates is born.
Now if that storyline sounds common and uninteresting, let me tell you three reasons why Mukundan Unni Associates is worth your time.
Vineeth Sreenivasan in an avatar that you’ve not seen before
The trailer hints at quirky humour and everything that we’ve come to expect from Vineeth Sreenivasan. We’ve seen his play shades of grey as Ravi Padmanabhan in Thanneer Mathan Dinangal but Mukundan Unni is as dark as it gets.
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Once you watch the movie, I assure you that you will not be able to imagine someone else playing Advocate Mukundan Unni. And would you be shocked to hear that he was not Abhinav’s first choice? Many actors passed the role or could not fit the movie into their schedule, and that’s how Vineeth ended up becoming Mukundan Unni.
Vineeth’s charm plays a major role in us being able to digest the antics of a sociopath who is ready to do anything to achieve his objectives. His ‘thangakudam polathe’ mugham and calm voice add to the character. Vineeth’s voice and dialogue delivery, especially during narration/monologues, makes the character even more intriguing and quirky and keeps us invested in Mukundan Unni’s story.
The anti-hero “success” story
Mukundan Unni is a person who comes from almost nothing and becomes successful; a story that we’ve seen so many times. But this movie, right from the very offset, makes you accustomed to the fact that the lead is an anti-hero. The story is augmented with monologues that give us a deep insight into Mukundan Unni’s thought process and helps us understand his state of mind. You realise that while we follow Mukundan Unni’s “hero’s arc”, his morality is questionable and you start wondering if you should root for him.
By the way, if you’ve watched Nightcrawler, you might notice similarities (Better Call Saul, not so much). But Mukundan Unni Associates is a movie that stands on its own and the makers have gone to a great extent to make it so. Btw, you might want to keep a keen eye for Chekov’s guns as they get fired one by one when things get warmed up.
Abhinav Sunder Nayak’s direction and script
Mukundan Unni Associates is Abhinav Sunder Nayak’s directorial debut. One has to give him credit for the courage he has shown to portray this dark story. But don’t get me wrong, this is not a dark story, poorly made. Mukundan Unni Associates is masterfully crafted to be an entertaining movie.
Written by Vimal Gopalakrishnan and Abhinav Sunder Nayak, the plot does not have a dull moment (not even when you think it is getting predictable!). Abhinav has also chosen the right cast to play the many supporting roles, and they help makes sure that Vineeth Sreenivasan gets the support he needs. Among the supporting cast, Aarsha Chandini Baiju plays a character that you wouldn’t stumble upon in many Malayalam movies – someone who openly wants to stray away from the successful woman archetype.
The many nitty-gritties about the character/story will make you admire both the writer’s and director’s attention to detail and appreciate the effort they’ve put in to entertain us. All in all, Mukundan Unni Associates is less of a moral lesson and more of pure entertainment, and maybe also a sad dose of reality as it is very hard to dismiss everything shown/said as fictional.
So those were three reasons why you should watch Mukundan Unni Associates. Have you watched the movie? Tell us what you thought about it in the comments.
