Malikappuram: Unni Mukundan’s Sabarimala drama to release in Tamil and Telugu on this date

Debutant director Vishnu Sasi Shankar’s Malikappuram, which has Unni Mukundan, Saiju Kurup and Ramesh Pisharody, is all set to release in both Tamil and Telugu soon. The Malayalam film had hit theatres on December 30.

Scripted by Night Drive and Pathaam Valavu fame Abhilash Pillai, the film revolves around an eight-year-old girl named Kalyani, who finally decides to fulfill her promise of visiting Sabarimala, after a personal tragedy. She is joined by her neighbour and classmate Piyush on her pilgrimage. But after another nefarious figure follows the two children, a stranger steps in to help.

Also read: Malikappuram movie review: Unni Mukundan's 'divine act' is the saving grace in this timepass entertainer 

In an earlier interview with us, the film’s scriptwriter Abhilash said that the film is a proper ‘mass’ entertainer and will have one of the lengthiest fight sequences in Malayalam cinema. “It will have Unni in a ‘mass’ action role after quite some time,” he said.

Unni, who said that he will cherish his role in Malikappuram, took to his social media page on Monday to announce that the film will be releasing in Tamil and Telugu on January 6. This was expected considering that Ayyappa devotees from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana form a major chunk of pilgrims in Sabarimala. The movie also aims to take the audience through the pilgrimage, while touching upon the mythology.

Child artistes Devanandha and Sripad play the pivotal characters in the film, which also has Manoj K Jayan in a cameo role along with TG Ravi, Sreejith Ravi and Abhilash. The team had shot the movie at Sabarimala and adjoining locations, and had wrapped up the shoot earlier last year.

“We had to shoot for almost 50 days and the majority of those portions were in the forests. The locations were in places where there were elephants and tigers,” said Abhilash, who had co-written the script of Amala Paul’s investigative thriller Cadaver in 2022.