‘Jai Mahendran’ series review: Saiju Kurup and Rahul Riji Nair shine in this light-hearted series

A still from ‘Jai Mahendran’ 

The taut six episodes of the SonyLIV Malayalam series Jai Mahendran will hit a spot with anybody who has even a passing acquaintance with the bureaucracy of a tahsil office (commonly known as taluk office) anywhere in the country. The universality of the experience of making repeated rounds around the office — which primarily handles land revenue administration — irrespective of the outcome, is relatable. Created and produced by National Award-winning writer-director Rahul Riji Nair and directed by Srikanth Mohan, the series pans in on a fictional taluk office and its motley group of employees. 

Saiju Kurup makes his streaming debut as the cunning Mahendran G, the go-to deputy tahsildar at a fictional tahsil office in Thiruvananthapuram. He is the man with the solution — by hook or by crook — for any problem the department may face, and alternates between being a crook and a good-hearted, helpful government servant.

Casting Rahul Riji as Mahendran’s right-hand man Balu, his ‘partner in crime’ and conscience keeper, is a clever choice; the others in the cast include Suhasini Maniratnam, Miya George, Suresh Krishna, Johny Antony, Siddhartha Siva, Vishnu Govindan, Zhinz Shah, Pauly Valsan and others.,

The casting is on point with Suhasini Maniratnam as the wrongly-accused and suspended tahsildar, Suresh Krishna as her replacement who ends up having to take responsibility for a mess not of his making, Miya George as Mahendran’s wife and voice of reason, Siddhartha Siva as the conniving file keeper and so on; even though most of the roles are not full length, the actors have all delivered.

While the first three episodes set the stage introducing us to Mahendran and how he operates, the following episodes chart his fall from grace and his comeback. Falsely implicated in a graft case, Mahendran and the tahsildar, essayed by Suhasini, are suspended; we then get to witness how he cleverly manipulates the system that he was part of, to get back their jobs. 

What is shown is the fate of many people who have to make often futile trips to such offices often for years together. For instance, there is Shaji (Vishnu Govindhan) who comes to the tahsil office seeking redress, but the land he had been allotted is non-existent for all practical purposes! We get a peek into how helpless the officials are, their hands often tied by an apathetic system, the office politics driven by divergent political leanings, and also their sense of power (which they unfortunately possess).

A still from ‘Jai Mahendran’ 

Jai Mahendran also pans in on the entire ecosystem of corruption which includes politicians, the media that is always on the lookout for ‘breaking news’, and agenda-driven, publicity craving ‘activists’ looking for primetime slots. And of course, there is corruption and enforcement directorate raids. Some of the material comes across a bit clichéd, but it is also the unfortunate reality.

The series has the feel of movies from the 1980s and the ‘90s with a bright and cheery vibe, and the episodes are kept at under 30 minutes, populated by rooted, regular, angst-free folks, unlike most streaming content nowadays. It is also very different from Rahul Riji’s First Print Studios-produced Kerala Crime Files, a crime thriller streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.

At times while watching Jai Mahendran, one gets the feeling that the writing could have had more depth. But this is, after all, a light-hearted take on the goings-on in a government office. There is scope for a deeper exploration, which, if there is a second season, we might get to see. However, there is no denying that parts of the showwill resonate with many viewers.