Rukshar Dhillon

<p>The film focuses on Mappila bullock cart driver Khader, a retired and veteran, and Unni Krishnan, a hardline nationalist revolutionary from a family of Hindu Nair landlords. Both men join the brigade of , one of the prominent leaders of the 1921 . The plot gradually introduces a variety of characters, representing the South society of the 1920s. The film also touches various social dilemmas which led to the 1921 Uprising, the atrocities committed by the and the during the events and the eventual collapse of the rebel unity and organization. The screenplay was written by physical education teacher-turned-scriptwriter . Damodaran had particular focus on writing political dramas, and had collaborated with Sasi in several successful films previously. The film was produced by Muhammed Mannil. Peter Narakkal was the Production Executive. The film’s budget was (US$140,000). T. Damodaran called the film his “dream project”. was approached by Sasi for a role, but due to date clashes she could not sign the film. T. Damodaran in an interview with in 1988 said that: “A few years back history could have been told as it was in Malayalam cinema but today I have to weave an actual incident in masala form with a larger than life character for the sake of Mammootty.” Anil worked as the associate director for the film. , M. A. Venugopal and were the assistant directors while M. Sankar oversaw “Action”, K. Narayanan was the editor, V. Jayaram was the cinematographer. Sasi “T. V.” Mohan was the Production Designer while I. V. Satheesh Babu was the Art director. The set was done by B. R. Rangan and Narayanan. M. O. Devasia did the Makeup, M. M. Kumar was the costumer. Recording and re-recording were carried out by Selvaraj. G. Rajan. The film was publicised by “Gayathri” and was distributed by Mannil Films. “The top dream merchants of the industry see to it that the characters are created according to the diktats of these superstars [ and ]…even history has been tinged with an overdose of fantasy to suit the image of Mammootty [in the film ],” film critic Sreedhar Pillai wrote in . ” was shot on a wide canvas with hundreds of actors and required to be dealt with sensitively considering the communal passions that the event evinces in Malabar”, wrote the in 2017. In a 2017 article, it was written that “perhaps, remain his [Sasi’s] best cinematic work”. “It [the film] deals with a contentious chapter of our [Indian] Independence struggle, but does it in grand style and high drama. It is also one film that does justice to history. Its representation of the region [South Malabar], the milieu and the historic incident [1921 Uprising] became all the more politically relevant and socially resonant in the next decades [1990s and 2000s] when the [Malayalam] movie images of minorities [Muslims] became biased and parochial.”, wrote C. S. Venkiteswaran in in 2017. The film was a commercial success and collected over ₹ 2 crore from the box office and emerged one of the top grossers of the year. However, the film was not very profitable for the producers of the film due to its high production costs. The film won: The soundtrack was composed by . The lyrics of the songs in the film were adapted from folklore Malayalam poems by poets such as (19th century). Independent India’s “national song” , written by poet (1838–1894), is also featured in the film with vocals by . Other “playback singers” are Naushad and .</p>