Jailer (2023 Malayalam film)

Not to be confused with Jailer (2023 Tamil film).

Jailer is a 2023 Indian Malayalam-language historical thriller film written and directed by Sakkir Madathil.^[3] It is a tribute to the 1957 Hindi-language film Do Aankhen Barah Haath, directed by V. Shantaram. The film stars Dhyan Sreenivasan in lead role, alongside Manoj K. Jayan, Divya Pillai and Sreejith Ravi in the supporting cast.^[4] Set in the 1950s, it tells the story of a prison officer who stays in a bungalow with five prisoners who were charged with different crimes and his experiments to reform them.^[5][6]

Jailer
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sakkir Madathil
Written by	Sakkir Madathil
Produced by	N. K. Mohammed
Starring	Dhyan Sreenivasan Manoj K. Jayan Divya Pillai Sreejith Ravi
Cinematography	Mahadevan Thampi
Edited by	Deepu Joseph
Music by	Riyas Payyoli
Production company	Golden Village Production
Distributed by	Indian Movie Makers 72 Film Company
Release date	18 August 2023 (2023-08-18)[1]
Running time	122 minutes[2]
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Jailer was released in theatres on 18 August 2023.^[7] This movie was a box office bomb.^[3]

Cast

• Dhyan Sreenivasan as Jailer Shantaram
• Manoj K. Jayan as Superintendent of Police
• Divya Pillai as Chembaka
• Sreejith Ravi as Keshavan
• Binu Adimali as Shankaran
• Navas Vallikkunnu as Kammaran
• Tiju Mathew as Madhavan
• Unni Raja as Dhamu
• Jayaprakash as Velu Thampi
• V. K. Baiju
• Shashankan
• Shanthakumari
• Ansi Vineesha
• Vasudev Sajeesh Marar
• Suryadev Sajeesh Marar

Production

The title launch of the film was held in 2022 in Sharjah at the Come On Kerala event.^[8] On 4 November 2022, Prithviraj Sukumaran unveiled the film's motion poster through Facebook.^[9]

Soundtrack

Jailer
Soundtrack album by Riyas Payyoli
Released	2023 (2023)
Venue	Kochi
Studio	K7 Studios NHQ Studios
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Language	Malayalam
Label	Millennium Audios
Producer	Riyas Payyoli

The film's music is composed by Riyas Payyoli,^[3] with lyrics written by Nidheesh Nadery.

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Vadum Mullapoovalla"	Nidheesh Nadery	Sithara	3:48
2.	"Ravinnin Lavala"	Nidheesh Nadery	Rijiya Riyas	3:54

Release

Theatrical

Initially, the makers of the film had announced that Jailer would be released on 10 August 2023,^[10] but with the release of Tamil-language Jailer on the same date being announced, the release date was later postponed by a week.^[11][12] The film was released on 18 August 2023 across 85 theatres in Kerala and 40 theatres in GCC countries.^[13][14]

Title dispute

The film's makers had disputes over the title with Rajinikanth's Jailer. According to director Sakkir Madathil, the title Jailer was registered with the Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) in August 2021.^[15] He had requested Sun Pictures consider changing the Tamil-language film's title when releases in Kerala. Later, both Sun Pictures and the makers of the Malayalam-language film took the title dispute to court.^[16]

Reception

Critical reception

Princy Alexander of Onmanorama wrote "Overall, the dark and gloomy treatment of the film takes the sheen away from a movie made with good intentions."^[17] S.R. Praveen of The Hindu wrote "Jailer seems to have been made with the intention of never giving the audience anything to cheer for... it does succeed in that endeavour."^[18] Arjun Ramachandran of The South First gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5 and wrote "Jailer is a film with a novel theme but works only in parts."^[19]