Meghna Sengupta, a correspondent working at a news channel in New Delhi, played by Sonali Kulkarni one day receives a videotape from a remote place in Madhya Pradesh, Anuppur. On the tape, a battered young man claims to be the real Mohandas and alleges that someone else has stolen his identity. Someone else is living as ‘Mohandas’. The person who is struggling for his identity is played by Nakul Vaid and Sharbani Mukerjee plays the role of his wife.
Intrigued by what looks like an unusual small-town scam, Meghna makes a trip to Anuppur. There, she unearths a more harrowing and surreal story. Mohandas is a topper in studies from the poor community of basket-weavers and is overjoyed at long last when he is selected for a good white-collar post 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 played by Sushant Singh, a lawyer from the district, takes this case of stolen identity to court with the intention of hauling up the usurper. With more bizarre results. Irony and satire run as undercurrents as the film plumbs the absurd levels to which democratic institutions can be manipulated today. It is also an allegory of how a fake identity displaces the real one in contemporary times.
The film also stars Sameer Dharmadikhari, Uttam Haldar, Govind Namdeo. The film is Directed by Mazhar Kamran, he started-off his film career with cinematography as his specialization in Ramgopal Verma’s landmark film “Satya”. The film is produced by Abha Sonakia. Film “Mohandas” got officially selected for film festivals like 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival-U.S.A, 23rd Fribourg International Film Festival in Switzerland, 5th South Asian International Film Festival in New York, 18th Inusbruck International Film Festival in Austria and 14th Kolkata Film Festival in Kolkata.
Will he get his identity back? For this one needs to watch this movie.
