‘Brij Mohan Amar Rahe’ (2018): Long Live Nikhil Nagesh Bhat!

Directed by: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat || Produced by: Siddharth Anand Kumar, Vikram Mehra

Screenplay by: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, Kuldeep Ruhil || Starring: Arjun Mathur, Nidhi Singh, Sheetal Thakur, Manav Vij, Sunny Hinduja, Vijayant Kohli, Yogendra Tikku

Music by: Andrew T. Mackay|| Cinematography: Pooja S. Gupta || Edited by: Debaloy Bhattacharya, Afzal Shaikh|| Country: India || Language: Hindi

Running Time: 105 minutes

I watched Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s sophomore feature, the Netflix Original Film Brij Mohan Amar Rahe (Long Live Brij Mohan!), several months ago, but never thought I would review it until I caught wind of Bhat’s latest film, the critically acclaimed Kill (2023), which may or may not be the greatest Indian action film ever made. Looking back on Brij Mohan Amar Rahe (henceforth, Mohan), it, like Kill, represents the simpler, shorter, more straightforward type of genre film I wish Indian filmmakers, North (Bollywood Hindi-language) or South (Dravidian-language), would attempt more often. Most popular Indian films harbor great musical numbers and great costume-design despite the de facto modern irrelevance of the film musical outside South Asia, yet often last way too long (≥ 2.5 hours) and like to combine disparate genres into bizarre tonal mixtures that undercut their stories’ impacts . The purebred genre movie (e.g. science-fiction, action, crime drama, thriller, or horror) remains a rarity within mainstream Indian cinema far more than even Hollywood, and I’ll keep complaining about that until movies like Mohan or Kill become less rare.

Though lead Arjun Mathur suffers many relatable misfortunes (bottom) in Mohan, audience sympathy is tempered by his gross immorality, of which marital infidelity with costar Sheetal Thakur (top) is the least of his sins. How much you consider that dynamic a positive or negative attribute will determine your mileage with the film.

To be sure, Mohan is nowhere as striking as Bhat’s latest feature or my favorite non-English language Netflix Original Films from the past several years, but its amoral yet memorable lead character (Arjun Mathur), nihilistic, almost Coen Bros-esque dark comedy-crime narrative, and dramatic wide-angle lens cinematography establish the movie as the clear, definitive artistic vision of an identifiable auteur. Combine all the above with a concise, sub-two hour runtime (105 minutes, to be exact), multiple gruesome deaths for multiple charismatic side characters, and an oddly satisfying narrative conclusion, and you have one of the more consistent independent Hindi-language productions I’ve seen in a while.

Is Mohan recommendable to most audiences, though? That question, along with the plethora of feature-films I view within any given timeframe, prevented me from sharing my thoughts about Bhat’s second feature at first. While I enjoy reviewing mediocre to bad movies as much as the next cinephile with a sense of humor, the dismissive, often savage reviews of Mohan along with the lukewarm reception to most of Bhat’s eclectic filmography are not entirely without merit. The story itself, about the eponymous business owner of a women’s undergarment shop who attempts multiple cons with various criminal enterprises and corrupt law enforcement personnel, may be be too cynical for many viewers. Aside from the dry, dark tone of the aforementioned character deaths, not a single character in the entire movie is likable, with everyone being some form of a conniving, scheming double-crosser out for themselves.

That sort of storytelling tends to turn me off as well, for the record (e.g. Burn After Reading, In Bruges [both 2008], Killing Them Softly [2012], The Lobster [2015]), but with Mohan, the dry, almost sardonic crime drama worked for me given its cinematographic style, tight pacing, and dour ending. The latter I thought gave most every amoral character their just desserts, including Mathur’s protagonist. Like your typical Coen Bros. screwball comedy built around semi-farcical, dangerous scenarios, the staging and execution of Mohan’s numerous violent gags are stylized without Bhat calling attention to his direction. The character motivations of Mohan may be universally sleazy, but the camera capturing their antics appears not to be.

While this essay is essentially a preamble to my upcoming review of Kill, which I liked far more than Brij Mohan Amar Rahe, the latter adheres to the majority of the recommendations I’ve made to numerous lackluster Indian crowdpleasers over the years, including and especially its reasonable length and consistent tone; so I can’t in good conscience dismiss those objective strengths.  The complete absence of likable, sympathetic figures will be a problem for many audiences, yet the thematic core of the film is admirable thanks to creative, unpredictable screenwriting and funny acting direction. Mohan won’t fill you with hope for humanity, but it will make you thankful you don’t know many, if any, people like its main characters.

Supporting actress Nidhi Singh (center midground) stars as Thakur’s ballbreaker wife and recurring foil, pictured here testifying against her husband in court.

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SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATION: Since the late 2000s, Nikhil Nagesh Bhat has quietly built a notable filmography of straightforward, aggressive genre films around or under two hours, and if that isn’t respectable for a South Asian auteur filmmaker, I don’t know what is. Brij Mohan Amar Rahe is one of the more meanspirited Hindi movies you’ll ever see but not the harshest Bhat has made. With characters as despicable as those from Kuttey (2023) yet guided with a more creative, original voice, Mohan pays homage to older absurdist crime-comedies while also taking advantage of its North Indian cultural backdrop.

— However… none of the characters are likable and Arjun Mathur’s lead is barely relatable at times. The story covers subject-matter that will make most cinephiles want to shower afterward given all the depravity on display, with no respite for less tolerant viewers.

—> As unlikable as much of the movie is, I remain ON THE FENCE with respect to Brij Mohan Amar Rahe while liking it more than most audiences.

? Readers should note that the Wikipedia plot summary of Mohan omits a rather crucial detail of the film’s conclusion at least as of July 2024.