Mukundan Unni Associates

I never imagined Vineeth Sreenivasan surprising me the way he did with his sublime portrayal of an anti-hero in this film. The role of Adv. Mukundan Unni is undoubtedly his career-best thus far. Writer-director Abhinav Sunder Nayak carefully builds up the sadistic, cynical character of Mukundan Unni who goes to any extent to achieve his idea of success. It's the kind of role Jake Gyllenhaal did in Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler - just a different breed of "bad guy". The screenplay (by Vimal Gopalakrishnan and the director himself) is razor-sharp in its details, and there isn't a single scene that doesn't add to the plot or character development. The darkly humorous approach works wonders here, making us absolutely invested in the sociopathic side of Mukundan Unni and his dramatic rise to prosperity.

Not only does the film prove to be a scathing look at cynicism, but it also gives you an insider look into the bizarre handling of accident cases. Every character taking up screenspace (incl. A snake) is relevant to the plot, and ones that leave a mark include an excellent-as-usual Suraj Venjaramoodu, a confident Arsha Baiju, a beautifully vulnerable Tanvi Ram, and the ever-dependable Sudhi Koppa. One can't help but laud the effective use of background score (by Sibi Mathew Alex, especially that foot-tapping beat), the articulate voice-overs, the insertion of animated sequences to help elaborate certain points, the changing aspect ratio, and the way the makers subtly mock the "thank you" card at the very beginning. This is one of the finest black comedies I've seen in recent times, and you'll connect to its proceedings better if you're an unprejudiced viewer that doesn't seek message-driven, always-positive cinema.

Mukundan unni associates, now this is a movie that will standout.. it's so dark or one can say dark comedy, haven't seen any movie like this in malayalam.. a movie that comes to my mind is the movie parasite, that one was on another level of dark theme... Both are not comparable ! But that's the only movie that came to my mind after watching mukundan unni associates. Some aspects of the movie felt creepy real and others felt like too fictional. Apart from the theme excellent performance from vineeth sreenivasan, movie has perfect casting, script, etc.. It's was worth the watch, you can decide for yourself go ahead and watch it !

Mukundan unni associates gives a very nightcrawler vibes, but pitches the characters brutality to next level.

A character with no emotional change or arc is something i really enjoy. The movie tries to establish this character who tries to go to any extent for success and Vineeth Sreenivasan plays the character amazingly. The basic theme of the movie is that there are only two types of people in the world, "one who exploits and the one who is exploited". The movie establishes this theme nicely. The extensive use of voiceovers is something new and not used much in Malayalam cinema, but they uses it consistently to work amazing black humor and it also connects the audience much more to the characters psyche.

After a point i never felt rooting for Vineeth Sreenivasan's character as they stretched his brutality a bit too much but did not create enough empathy towards the character to support that.

A nice and different movie.

Insight into the actions and inner monologues of a cold-blooded psychopath. (This is a genre which is not really explored in Indian Cinema, at least not as an attribute of the lead).

The strong point of the movie is the editing, direction and acting (especially Vineeth).

Mukundan Unni as the opening says is not Grey, but Black ! He is a true pyschopath - unapologetic, unremorseful, coldblooded killer. He is true wolf, not a Hyena in sheeps cloth !

The movie proceeds in an almost thriller manner and really just shines light on the characters without really taking any real moral stands.

Deserves a watch.

Going into the film, after hearing about the movie a lot and from the trailers, it seemed Vineeth was playing a hilarious sociopath and that was the part I was most apprehensive about. Even though I liked his role in Thanneermathan, I wasn't ready to watch a full-blown version of that throughout a movie, which would be unbearable and what I feared. But that wasn't the case here. Vineeth was brilliant and played the character to perfection, very different from anything we've seen him before.

Mukundan Unni is wickedly brilliant in his own way but the major problem along with his lack of empathy is the narcissism that always makes him overestimate himself. As a character, Mukundan Unni is pure evil, but his overestimation of himself makes him appealing. He is ready to put in the hard work but he doesn't see his flaws due to his narcissism and lack of empathy. So, even when his plans are logically right, it doesn't always work but he can form a new one right then and one or the other works out and if there is no luck there, there's actual luck that itself is a domino effect of his own past actions. All these aspects are seen through his own eyes and tight editing and a few cinematic techniques in the narrative keep you engaged throughout the affair. But giving such an evil character such heroic moments may get out of hand or even if it isn't, it's still an outlook from his point of view and that's why I loved how the movie ends. It clearly shows what is right and wrong to the audience and how we should be looking at evil even when it is pleasing to us and yet the voice-over narration by the protagonist tells the exact opposite of it.

Besides clearly positioning itself as a dark comedy through a sociopath, the film actually showcases a lot of legal and ethical issues in our society in detail.

One particular scene that is not directly related to any event in the movie but contains the whole theme of the movie, hell the whole concept of success in the world is when the character Meenakshi talks to Jyothi. To some, it would be just greed talking and they would have to face karma, to some, it would be a moment of motivation even if it is in a wrong sense but that dialogue is the truth about the world. I won't say what that dialogue is but another dialogue by Mukundan Unni, which is part of the trailers and promotions makes the perfect companion dialogue to it, "There are only two kinds of people in the world, those who get exploited and those who are exploiters."

Not including any songs, starting off with 4:3 aspect ratio, later changing to 16:9 and then finally filling the theater screen and then adding a post-credit scene that's perfectly in sync with the character, the director really knows what he's doing and the changing sensibilities among Malayali audience.