‘Mollywood Times’ movie review: A flawed, bloated exposé of the industry’s dark underbelly

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A still from ‘Mollywood Times’ | Photo Credit: Sony Music Malayalam/YouTube

A minor act of revolt can be your undoing in the film industry, where power centres are not very tolerant of those who do not fall in line. Vineeth Madhavan (Naslen), the filmmaker protagonist of Mollywood Times, goes the whole hog in his attempt to make his first film without any compromises, a film he wants to be remembered forever. In the process, we see his worldview transform from optimistic to cynical.

Scene after scene seethes with the anger and frustration of someone who experiences his dream slipping away from grasp for no fault of his, so much so that one begins to wonder how much of the events in the film have been drawn from the life of its filmmaker, Abhinav Sunder Nayak. At least, much of the cynicism of his superb debut film, Mukundan Unni Associates, is very much visible here too.

In this world filled with fake smiles, selfish interests and ulterior motives, Vineeth is almost a lonely warrior for his vision, with his passion for the art almost consuming him. Conveniently, the characters are written in a way that there is not a single trustworthy soul around him. Sometimes, Vineeth radiates a mild superiority complex, especially in how the other successful filmmakers are even made to gloat to him of their success despite their mediocrity.

Although the struggles of an aspiring filmmaker in a cutthroat industry make one want to root for Vineeth, he also carries the vibes of Howard Roark, the problematic protagonist of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, in his uncompromising and obsessive nature. If the architect Roark blows up a building because it was against his vision, Vineeth here deletes a film he created. Filmmaking, in his worldview, is an individualistic pursuit, with Vineeth having lines that downplay the efforts of every other crew member other than the writer-director.

Some of the other ideas also do not sit well with the film’s theme, especially the protagonist’s claim that some fi