Malayalam film 'Malikappuram' overcomes leftists' attacks, earns over Rs 100 cr at box office

Unni Mukundan's Malayalam film 'Malikappuram' has come out with flying colors at the box office.

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 26: Unni Mukundan's Malayalam film 'Malikappuram' has emerged victorious at the box office despite coming under attack from a section of the Communist Party of India (CPI).

The Malayalam movie has not crossed Rs 100-crore mark at the box office. Like 'Kantara', this movie, made with just Rs 3.5 crore budget, has hit a century at the box office.

Talking about the success of 'Malikappuram', in an interview, said, "I was very confident about the script. It revolves around Sabarimala and Lord Ayyappa. I knew that it would do well in Kerala because of the Sabarimala issue, but Malikappuram is not about the controversy and it is non-controversial,"

Earlier this month, a shop of a party worker of CPI vandalised after he openly praised 'Malikappuram', the story of which deals around an eight-year-old girl who desires to go on the Sabarimala pilgrimage. The incident is reported from Malappuram district. Unidentified men attacked his local shop of a CPI functionary.

They were reportedly angry over social media posts he had posted on his social media account praising the newly-released movie revolving around Lord Ayyappa, police told PTI. The light and sound service shop, owned by C Pragilesh, in Kerala's Malappuram district was found destroyed on the night of January 1, police added.

The movie was targeted by a section of netizens over the special mention to RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat in the title credits. The leftists and liberals have called out the movie as an RSS agenda movie, according to a report. In fact, many leftists and liberals slammed the film on social media sites.

However, Unni Mukundan has downplayed the controversy."Even with this film on Lord Ayyappa, some people tried to do that but this movie is not about Hinduism. Some people hesitated to watch the film because they thought it had religious undertones, but when they saw it, they realised it is a beautiful story of a young girl who wants to meet Lord Ayyappa," he added.

He then claimed that the concept of the film is "tatvamasi - the idea that God is within you."

The movie has been released in Tamil and it has raked in over Rs 4 crore. It will be out in Telugu and Kannada languages today.