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By Taran Adarsh, September 4, 2009 - 11:31 IST
Browse a newspaper or surf news channels and I am sure, you'd be enlightened with more than a hundred stories in the course of a day. But not all stories have the potential to be adapted for the big screen. MOHANDAS suffers due to this reason.
MOHANDAS is a poignant tale and is well shot too, no doubt, but the question is, does it hold your attention for the next 2 hours? In parts, yes, not in totality. At best, MOHANDAS might strike a chord in the film festival circuit, that's it! Catering to a really miniscule audience.
Meghna [Sonali Kulkarni], a correspondent working at a news channel in New Delhi, receives a videotape from a remote place in Madhya Pradesh. On the tape, a battered young man claims to be the real Mohandas [Nakul Vaid] and alleges that someone else has stolen his identity. Someone else is living as 'Mohandas'.
Intrigued by what looks like an unusual small-town scam, Meghna makes a trip to that place. There, she unearths the true story. Mohandas is a topper in studies and is overjoyed when he is selected for a job in Oriental Coal Mines. But he is kept waiting and waiting to actually get the job. Long afterwards, when he has given up and reconciled to it, he learns that someone else has assumed his name and has already taken his job. When he rushes to protest, he is beaten up and thrown out.
Meghna places this story in the media. Harshvardhan [Aditya Srivastava], a lawyer from the district, takes this case of stolen identity to court with the intention of hauling up the usurper. But will things change?
In most cases, the choice of the subject is right, but the director makes mincemeat of it. But in this case, debutante director Mazhar Kamran makes a sincere attempt to narrate this unconventional story well. A number of sequences are truly well executed, especially the end, which comes as a shocker.
But, at the same time, Mazhar should've restricted the narrative to 1.30 hours, instead of almost 2 hours. Also, after a point, it becomes one of those films that depict the good in good light and the corrupt in bad light. In short, it gets bland and monotonous!
Nakul Vaid plays his part very well. Sushant Singh doesn't get scope, but nonetheless leaves an impact. Sharbani Mukerji has transformed herself well for this part. Sonali Kulkarni gets her role right. Aditya Srivastava, as always, is competent. Govind Namdeo is first-rate. Sameer Dharmadhikari gets no scope. Uttam Haldar is proficient.
On the whole, MOHANDAS is a well-intentioned, well-made film, but it will have a tough time standing on its feet due to lack of face-value and also multiple releases.
Rating:[critique] 
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