Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil

Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil is an Indian Malayalam-language comedy film directed by Vipin Das and written by Deepu Pradeep. It was jointly produced by Prithviraj Productions and E4 Entertainment. The film stars Prithviraj Sukumaran, Basil Joseph, Nikhila Vimal, Anaswara Rajan and Yogi Babu (in his Malayalam debut).

The film was released on 16 May 2024, and received positive reviews from the critics and became 8th highest grossing Malayalam film and 5th highest grossing Malayalam film of 2024.

Plot
Vinu Ramachandran is a young executive working in Dubai. He is engaged to Anjali and forms a close acquaintance with her brother, Anandan, who works as a plant manager at a factory in Jamshedpur. It has been five years since Vinu's breakup with his ex-girlfriend, Parvathy but he still isn't able to move-on. Anandan coaches Vinu in overcoming his feelings of betrayal. However, Anandan is also not leading a perfectly happy life, as he is temporarily separated from his wife Parvathy, after an anonymous letter slandering her had arrived to Anandan. Vinu, who now considers Anandan as the brother he never had, he takes it upon himself to ensure happiness in Anandan's life as well and helps him to reunite with Parvathy.

However, things go haywire when Vinu and Anandan meet in-person for the first time as it turns out that the Parvathy in both of their lives happens to be the same person. This causes a rift in their cordial relationship. Anandan, who's a short tempered man immediately sets out to stop the wedding. Vinu also initially tries to stop the wedding due to the awkward situation with the help of his friends. He enlists his colleague Kunjunni's help as well to stop the wedding, but Kunjunni backs out since Anandan is his friend from school as well, and he doesn't want to get involved. Later Vinu, after talking with Anjali, realizes their happiness is what matters, and decides to proceed with the wedding.

Kunjunni meanwhile decides to help Vinu and tries to ruin the wedding, but an angry Vinu slaps him, leading to Kunjunni joining Anandan's side to try to stop the wedding at all cost. Vinu attempts to stop Anandan along with the help of his friends and younger brother, whereas Anandan tries to stop the wedding at any cost, with the help of his uncles. His uncles have their own agenda to create problems for Anandan's family, since they are in a fight with Anandan's father. Meanwhile, Vinu's old friend turned enemy, Saravanan, whose marriage he had ruined unintentionally, as well as a stalker, George, who used to follow Anjali, try to stop the wedding by themselves.

Finally, on the day of the wedding, Anandan gets closure after talking with Parvathy and her father as well as his own parents and realises that they had known about the situation long ago. He realises that the love letter sent to Parvathy was sent by his uncles with Kunjunni's help to create a rift in the family. After learning the truth and realising his mistake, Anandan trashes up Saravanan, George and Kunjunni as well as his uncles and proceeds to prevent any disruption of the wedding. Finally, Vinu marries Anjali amidst all the chaos and makes peace with Parvathy. The story ends happily with Vinu and Anjali, as well as Anandan and Parvathy, happy together.

Development
The story was told to Prithviraj Sukumaran by screenwriter Deepu Pradeep some years back. At that time, Prithviraj was supposed to do the role of Vinu. Initially, another director was supposed to take over the project before Vipin Das came on board.

Filming
Principal photography began on 12 May 2023. A set replicating the Guruvayur Temple was constructed at Karattupallikkara in Perumbavoor municipality. The second schedule of filming underwent in Dubai and concluded in early July. Prithviraj was supposed to join the filming during the third schedule, but it was delayed due to an injury sustained on the sets of Vilayath Buddha. He eventually joined the film in the last week of November in Guruvayur. The fourth schedule was concluded in Kochi by early January 2024. The entire filming was wrapped up on 4 April 2024.

Music
The music and background score was composed by Ankit Menon and Dabzee. The audio rights were acquired by Saregama. The first single "K For Krishna" was released on 5 May 2024. The second single "K For Kalyanam" was released on 14 May 2024. The third single "K for Krishna 1.5x Retreat" was released on 21 May 2024 after the film's release. The fourth single "K For Kabaradakkam" was released on 25 May 2024 after the film's release. The last single "K For Kurukku" was released on 28 May 2024. The entire soundtrack album was released on 8 June 2024.

Theatrical
The film was released in theatres on 16 May 2024.

Home media
The post-theatrical streaming rights of the film were bought by Disney+ Hotstar and started streaming from 27 June 2024, and the satellite rights by Asianet.

Critical reception
Arjun Menon of Rediff.com rated 3.5/5 stars and observed, "Guruvayoorambala Nadayil is a no-holds-barred, silly comedy that will keep you glued to the screen even when the going gets tough towards the end but the smile on your face will not leave."

Box office
The film became a super hit, surpassing the 50 crore benchmark at the box office within a week of its release.