6 months ago, I'd have said there are certain roles that Megastars of (South) Indian cinema would never consider. That still holds true, minus Mammooty. Leave it to Mollywood, as always, to do something that's never been done before.
Mammooty plays Mathew, a retired bank secretary who reluctantly agrees to run for a local elected position. Right before the election, everything begins to fall apart, and he must now deal with issues in his marriage in a tight-knit village community in the middle of his election campaign.
Without spoiling the film, I can't talk about the plot and why Mammooty, in particular, deserves props for this role and producing the film too. Speaking of props, interesting casting choice to have Jo be in this film, she and the supporting cast do a great job! The film presents a story and related drama that would solicit outrage in any other film, but not this one. And therefore, you may feel that the plot lacks complexity, but the cast and the writing are so convincing that it feels like it's okay to not have any over-the-top finger-pointing drama.
With these megastar projects, I often ask myself if the film without have worked for me if I were to replace the stars with lesser-known actors. More often than not, the answer is no but this film though, remove Mammooty (and Jo) from the film - it may not have garnered so much attention, but it would have still worked the same amount. The big names only help spread the message to a bigger audience, and without them, 5-10 years down the line, one would have said that it was ahead of its times. We still might.
Two scenes in this film had no dialogue but spoke volumes. Funny how good writing can do to a film. Watch this film. It's a bit of a slow burn, but if that's something you can put up with if you like a good drama film, it's totally worth it.