Aaraattu

<p>In Muthalakotta, a village in , people are financially recovering from the through gaining self-sufficiency via numerous farming ventures. Four youngsters and an elderly person arrive at the village during the flood and help them. Following the flood, the group decides to stay back in the village. They take over majority of the farming from the villagers and start an for and . With the new mandate of turning any empty and unused land into farming land, the villagers, along with the officer Anjali, beseech the wealthiest man in the village, Edathala Mathai, to give his 18-acre land to the government. To avoid losing the plot and to start a township by changing the land category, he decides to lease his property to the slick Neyyattinkara Gopan, who plans to level the land under the guise of . However, Gopan is revealed to be actually siding with the villagers. He helps the villagers in farming which angers Mathai, and is involved in helping villagers solving their problems. Mathai sends goons to thrash Gopan, but he thrashes them. Gopan exposes Mathai’s involvement in , . Mathai’s sons questions Sathyasheelan, who introduced them to Gopan and reveals that Gopan’s real name is Suryachandra Lal who is an officer from the Military Intelligence, who had lost his parents when they were killed in a train journey by Muthalakotta Battalion (4 youngsters and Guruji), who are involved in many crimes. The Muthalakotta Battalion arrived at Muthalakotta with a fake identity in order to save themselves. After the revelation, The youngsters kill Sathyasheelan. Gopan conducts a show with as the chief guest, where he defeats the group and gets them arrested by the . The youngsters and Guruji are killed in a shootout conducted by the NIA. Soon, a cop reveals that Gopan is not Suryachandra Lal and that the actual Suryachandra Lal is in army hospital undergoing treatment for depression. Gopan is then revealed to be a high-profile codenamed who works for the and participates in many secret missions with many different identities. In May 2020, director shared a picture of him having a meeting with screenwriter , cinematographer Vijay Ulaganath, editor and some technical crew for revealing that they are in the pre-production work of a film amid the . In October, it was revealed that would play the leading role in the film which has a rustic story where he plays the role of a villager. Filming was said to begin in mid-November after Mohanlal completes filming of . The film marks the first collaboration between Unnikrishnan and Udaykrishna. Unnikrishnan said that he, Mohanlal, and Udaykrishnan were originally working on another project with a dark subject. Its final discussion were going on before the shoot of , but with surging COVID-19 cases it became near impossible to shoot the film at that time which required to be shot at multiple locations. It was then Mohanlal suggested that they work on a “festive kind of film” as a change against the increasing number of darker films produced during that time and Udaykrishna developed a story that shaped into . Unnikrishnan said that ₹30 lakh will be allotted for precautions, and the film would have a larger than usual crew by standards, which would take 60 days to shoot. Cast and crew agreed to work with a reduced remuneration considering the COVID-19 crisis. Unnikrishnan said that, in a normal scenario the film would have cost ₹30 crore. Title of the film was announced in November 2020. Vijay Ulaganath was reported as the cinematographer. The film was produced by the production houses , Hippo Prime Motion Pictures, and Movie Pay Media’s. was Unnikrishnan’s first film to feature as many as 45 characters. Mohanlal plays Neyyattinkara Gopan, whom Unnikrishnan describes as a “loud character from the get-go”. Mohanlal was confirmed in the film in October 2020. In the same month, was confirmed in the female lead role, who plays an officer serving as . Shraddha was acting in a Malayalam film after a break of five years. was confirmed in January 2021. The crew planned to shoot the film in and . Vijay Ulaganath was the cinematographer. The filming was done following the COVID-19 protocols and safety measures. The film began on 23 November 2020 in Palakkad district. Shraddha Srinath joined the set on the following day. served as a location for the film. Some significant portions were shot at and . The two day shoot at the costs 23.46 lakhs for renting six from . Mohanlal’s character drives a vintage black with 2255 on the number plate, a reference to Mohanlal’s iconic line from his 1986 film . Mohanlal completed his portion by 11 February 2021, with one day shoot left to be shot in March second week. Composer appeared in a song sequence along with Mohanlal in March. It was filmed at . Filming was completed in late March 2021. The original songs and background score of the film were composed by . Lyrics were written by B. K. Harinarayanan, Rajeev Govindan, , and Nikesh Chembilode. has done a cameo and performed a song in the film. Unnikrishnan said that it was difficult to hire Rahman for the film since he rarely appears in films. He appears in a pivotal portion in the film. The of the film was going on in November 2021. was released worldwide theatrically on 18 February 2022. Originally scheduled for 20 August 2021, the premiere was postponed due to closure of theatres in because of . Then, the film’s release date was pushed to 13 October 2021, but it was again postponed due to the same reason. It was then moved to 10 February 2022, but delayed again. Sanjith Sidhardhan of gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote “All-out Mohanlal show works only when it doesn’t take itself too seriously” rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote ” is not a clever film, but if you are looking for a ‘return to the theatre’ family entertainer, this might serve your purpose.” gave 3 out of 5 stars and called the film test.” called the movie “a charade of old master pieces” referring to the references to old Malayalam movies of Mohanlal. gave 2.5 out of 5 stars and called it “unoriginal mish-mash of classic ‘Mohanlal moments’ and tropes. Sowmya Rajendran of gave 1.5 out of 5 stars and called it “loud, bombastic and boring.”</p>