Madhura Manohara Moham movie review: If you think this film is progressive, we recommend you watch it again

Madhura Manohara Moham, which marks the directorial debut of costume designer Stephy Zaviour, tells the story of a family comprising a woman and her three children. 

The family shares a close association with the Nair Service Society (NSS), with Usha’s (Bindu Panicker) eldest child, Manu (Sharaf U Dheen), a Public Works Department (PWD) employee, actively involved in it. Usha’s other two children, Meera (Rajisha Vijayan) and Malavika (Malavika VN) are college students. While Meera takes on the responsibility of supporting the family by giving tuition to schoolchildren, Malavika represents the carefree youngest child archetype who is less concerned about family matters.

As the story unfolds, it becomes evident that Usha takes great pride in her upper-caste identity. This is properly highlighted in a scene where she transfers tea from a glass tumbler to a steel one before serving it to a fish seller, symbolising her caste pride. Through dialogues and moments, the film emphasises Usha and her son’s religiousness and casteism. Both of them are against inter-caste marriages too. Manu, now the secretary of the local NSS unit, is in love with Salabha (Aarsha Chandini Baiju), the daughter of NSS president Indrasena Kurup (Vijayaraghavan), thereby maintaining the caste dynamics.

Hence, when Usha and Manu discover that Meera is involved in a romantic relationship with a Christian guy, they are devastated. Despite the fear of facing embarrassment, they reluctantly decide to accept it, as they “care” for her. Their shock intensifies when they learn that Meera, whom they perceived as the ideal child, is involved with multiple men. Deeply disturbed by this revelation, Manu and Usha decide to arrange Meera’s marriage with a Nair man. Unaware of her family’s knowledge about her relationships, Meera happily embraces the news of her marriage and starts dumping her boyfriends one by one. The remainder of the film focuses on Manu and Usha’s challenges in organising the wedding without any disruptions.

Madhura Manohara Moham can be described as a film that, under the guise of mocking casteism and patriarchy, actually reinforces these practices shamelessly. 

Initially, the movie employs humour to portray the upper-caste pride held by certain characters, seemingly mocking it. However, these attempts quickly fade away, while the underlying casteism remains prominently displayed throughout the narrative. As the story progresses, the characters’ casteism and bigotry become increasingly evident, yet the film makes no effort to condemn or satirise these harmful beliefs. The reactions of Usha, upon discovering her “well-disciplined” daughter’s relationship with a Christian and later with a Muslim man, go unaddressed without any attempt to challenge or criticise them even subtly. Consequently, Madhura Manohara Moham joins the ranks of movies that glorify upper-caste pride and unabashed casteism. 

At the same time, the film also exhibits strong misogynistic undertones on various levels. Firstly, the portrayal of the (casteist) male characters as innocent or naïve, set in their ways, establishes a foundation for this. Meanwhile, female characters like Usha and the fish seller are consistently depicted as unabashed gossipers, reinforcing the notion of their non-naïve and casteist attitudes.

Regarding Meera’s character, although the film briefly acknowledges the double standards that permit men to have multiple romantic partners while scrutinising women who do the same, it strays from this stance as the narrative progresses. Instead, Meera is subjected to a judgmental lens, solidifying the age-old stereotype that labels women as “theppukari“. On the other hand, the male characters, who make no effort to talk to or understand Meera, are portrayed as the supposed “victims”. Typical!

Although the film attempts to generate a few laughs, the “jokes” fall flat due to their contrived nature. The script, written by Mahesh Gopal and Jai Vishnu, proves to be weak throughout, failing to offer any respite to the viewers. 

Madhura Manohara Moham proves to be a disappointing directorial debut for Stephy Zaviour, who has previously showcased her talent as a remarkable costume designer in films like Guppy, Angamaly Diaries, Swathanthryam Ardharathriyil, and Joseph. The movie suffers from a lack of natural flow and incompleteness in its scenes, which can be attributed to only the director.

Despite featuring a talented cast including Bindu Panicker, Sharaf U Dheen, Rajisha Vijayan, Aarsha Chandini Baiju, Vijayaraghavan, Biju Sopanam and Saiju Kurup, none of their performances stand out due to the shallow writing.

The technical aspects of the film, such as its cinematography, editing, and music, too are lacklustre and fail to garner any noteworthy recognition.

In short, Madhura Manohara Moham is a movie that negates all the societal progress we have painstakingly achieved over the years, aiming to take us back to square one.

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Madhura Manohara Moham movie cast: Bindu Panicker, Sharaf U Dheen, Rajisha Vijayan, Aarsha Chandini Baiju, Vijayaraghavan, Biju Sopanam, Saiju Kurup
Madhura Manohara Moham movie director: Stephy Zaviour
Madhura Manohara Moham movie rating: 0.5 star