Mayamohini

Mayamohini
Film poster
Directed by	Jose Thomas
Produced by	Madhu Warrier P.Sukumar
Written by	Udaykrishna Siby K. Thomas
Starring	Dileep Biju Menon Lakshmi Rai Mythili Baburaj Spadikam George
Music by	Berny-Ignatius (Songs) Sarath Vayalar (Songs lyrics) Bijibal (Background Score)
Cinematography	Anil Nair
Edited by	Lijo Paul
Production company	Color Factory
Distributed by	Manjunatha Release & PJ Entertainments Europe
Release dates	April 7, 2012 (2012-04-07) ^[1]
Running time	145 minutes
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Mayamohini is a 2012 Malayalam comedy film directed by Jose Thomas and written by Udayakrishna and Siby K. Thomas, starring Dileep, Biju Menon, Lakshmi Rai, Baburaj, Mythili and Spadikam George in the lead roles.^[2]^[3] The film was one of the highest grossing films of the year.^[4]^[5]^[6]

Plot

The film starts with a plane accident in which a small child narrowly escapes. He is then looked after by his maternal uncle (Vijayaraghavan), and all the family's wealth will be inherited to him. As per their astrologer, in the future he should marry a young woman whose star is Chothi Nakshatra, only then will he prosper in life. The boy grows up to be a young man Balakrishnan (Biju Menon), who is unsuccessful in anything he does.

He falls in love with Maya (Lakshmi Rai), the daughter of a wealthy businessman named Raj Kumar Patella (Mohan Sharma), who is settled in Mumbai. When Patella gets to know about their relation, he objects; Maya elopes with Balakrishnan. In the meantime Lakshminarayanan alias Lakshmi (Baburaj), a friend of Balakrishnan tries to convince Balakrishnan's uncle about the marriage and the uncle agrees to visit the couple. But then, on the second day of the marriage Maya leaves him and returns to Mumbai.

Balakrishnan did not want his uncle to know that his wife left him, so he hires a woman Mayamohini (Dileep) to act as his wife. The story continues with many twists and later it is revealed that Mayamohini is actually a man named Mohanakrishnan, who the Kerala police had been searching for. He had been put into a trap by Patella and his men. Balakrishnan agrees to help him in his quest. They travel to Mumbai and there they meet Maya who was working as a club dancer and she agrees to help them. She tells all truth about Pattela. In the flashback it turns out that Mohanakrishnan's father, Sankaran Potti (Nedumudi Venu), a temple priest, was killed by Pattela and his manager Sanjay (Kazan Khan) to get hold of their property. Pattela is opening a new business in town and on the inauguration day has arranged some dance as well. Mohan gets dressed up as Mayamohini again. Pattela invites her to his room and tries to have sex with her. In the meantime, the cops arrive to arrest Mohan. Pattela dies in the shootout that follows, and later Mohan is released of his charges.

Later, Lakshmi's family comes for an alliance with Mayamohini, not knowing the truth. His sister was also with him and her star is revealed to be Chothi much to the delight of Balakrishnan.

Cast

Dileep as Mayamohini/Mohan^[7]
Biju Menon as Balakrishnan
Mythili as Sangeetha
Lakshmi Rai as Maya aka Kathreena
Mohan Sharma as Raj Kumar Pattala
Baburaj as Advocate Lakshmi Narayanan
Spadikam George as SP Raghavan aka "Tiger" Raghavan
Madhu Warrier as ASP Anwar
Abu Salim
Vijayaraghavan as Appukuttan Nair
Kochu Preman as "Make up Man" Pappan Parapokkara
Aju Varghese as Keezh Shanthi Vishnu (Special Appearance)
Kalabhavan Shajon as "Production Manager" Shishubalan
Sadiq as Koshi
Nedumudi Venu as Sankaran Potti (Mohan's father & temple priest)
Ponnamma Babu as doctor
Ambika Mohan as Saraswathi Antharjanam (Mohan's mother)

Reception

Metro Matinee rated the film as Entertaining and said "Mayamohini certainly follows the same old formula, but even then it is a fairly enjoyable ride."^[8] Sify rated the film as a Comedy Caper and said "With a briskly paced first half and a more serious second half, Mayamohini still turn out to be a nice option, for the summer holidays."^[9]

Box office

The film grossed 16.5 crore (US$2.6 million) in 25 days with a share of 7.15 crore (US$1.1 million).^[10] The film grossed over 22 crore (US$3.5 million) in Kerala alone.^[4]

References