To understand the effectiveness of Bharathanatyam 2 Mohiniyattam’s writing, all one has to do is calculate the screen time allocated to its villain, Govindaraj (Suraj Venjaramoodu). In all, he doesn’t get more than four or five scenes, including one monologue that sets up the film’s conflict. Within these, we learn everything we need to know about this crooked man and his wicked plans. Right from the way he treats his wife to the machinations he devises to amass wealth, he devolves into a super villain, even without the crutch of an ominous score, a slow-mo shot or a predictable expression.
All of this might sound excessive in a comedy that is not meant to be taken too seriously, but the quality of this character goes a long way in keeping the film gripping. Like most of the characters in the film that wants Govindaraj dead, we too join the family as an accomplice in their schemes, not just because family matters most (or any such cliché), but because we’ve all seen a man as sly and devious as he is. In a sense, the film isn’t just a clever retelling of a family unifying to unalive an uninvited guest, but it’s also a lesson in how a sequel can borrow the absolute minimum from its first film to still deliver a new experience with all the original essence and still go further.
The plot, for instance, is both shockingly similar and yet distinctly different from that of the first film. When seen from a distance, both films are about the comedy that develops organically when disparate people are forced to act like a “real” family. Both films are also about this family coming together to avoid humiliation for a misdeed that was caused by its patriarch, Bharathan Nair (Sai Kumar). And yet when one observes closely, no two scenes feel similar, and the characters in the new film only add to the comedic chaos of the original.
Take the way in which the sequel repurposes the character of Subash, played by Abhiram Radhakrishnan. Not only does a new character get the same name and the same duties as Subash from the first film, but in this, Abhiram’s character gets a rewrite that makes his wickedness perfectly convenient for the family. Almost all characters get a similar upgrade that not only makes them more likeable but also just as flawed. Come to think of it, Saiju Kurup’s character Sasi too can be seen as a comic twist on the iconic Raghavan Nair character from Mammootty’s Vaatsalyam (1993).
But the good writing doesn’t just end with the inventiveness of these old characters. The film’s thrilling portions, too, are written just as effectively to the point where you realise that it would have worked just as well as a serious murder cover-up. Right from the pitch about a bunch of corrupt government officers getting together to create their own temple to the idea of creating a fake god for it, the film takes bold steps that could so easily have been interpreted as too contrived.
Which means that even when the film brings in a police officer to investigate the missing person complaint, the film has a way of balancing all of its wild laughs with genuinely tense moments. Every single actor in the film comes together elegantly to deliver this result. With the kind of actors and scenes that remind one of the classic Priyadarshan films of the 80s, Bharathanatyam 2 Mohiniyattam is the darkest of dark comedies told with the lightest of touches.
