The Great Father

The Great Father is a 2017 Indian Malayalam-language crime thriller film directed by Haneef Adeni and jointly produced by Prithviraj Sukumaran, Arya, Santhosh Sivan, and Shaji Nadesan under the banner of August Cinema. It stars Mammootty, Arya, Sneha, Anikha, Malavika Mohanan, Santhosh Keezhattoor, Balaji Sharma and Kalabhavan Shajon, with Shaam in a guest appearance.

The Great Father was released on 30 March 2017 to positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success at the box office.

Plot
David Nainan is a busy businessman, who returns home from his office to find his 10-year old daughter Sarah lying unconscious after being brutally abused. David gets distraught and takes her to the hospital where his wife Dr. Michelle David works. Sarah recovers and reveals that it was a serial killer named Joker who attacked her. An enraged David and Michelle decide to find and kill him to protect other girls.

David begins his own investigation, which causes CB-CID Andrews Eapen to become suspicious of him. Eapen discovers that Sarah was one of the Joker's victims and aggressively questions her at home, where David warns Eapan for distraughting his daughter. David and Eapan starts receiving calls from the Joker, who is rumoured to be hiding in his safehouse at Gavi.

After getting into Joker's safehouse, Joker attacks Eapan and David, where Eapen is badly thrashed and falls unconscious. However, David brutally kills Joker by stabbing his eyes using a dagger and pushes him into a cliff. In the aftermath, Eapan asks David about Joker's identity, where David reveals that Joker was actually his office worker James. Eapan also admits to having wanted to kill Joker. David returns to his home after being satisfied in killing the person who had abused Sarah.

Production
On 19 August 2016, actor Mammootty shared the first-look poster of the film on his Facebook profile. The film was produced by Prithviraj Sukumaran, Arya, Santosh Sivan, and Shaji Nadesan under the banner of August Cinema. South Indian actress Sneha plays the female lead. Although it was originally thought Sara Arjun would be acting as Sara, the daughter, Anikha was eventually cast in that role. Prithviraj Sukumaran was originally thought to do the role of a police officer but was later replaced by Arya due to physique issues. Later Malavika Mohanan replaced Mamta Mohandas for the role of woman inspector. Eventually Santhosh Keezhattoor opted to play the antagonist, the Joker.

On 4 September 2016, principal photography began in Wagamon, Kochi, with other shooting locations including Thrissur. Producer-actor Arya also plays a leading police role in the film. The actor himself released a teaser on 10 February.

Music
The songs were composed by Gopi Sunder.

Original soundtrack
The original soundtrack of the movie was composed, programmed, and arranged by Sushin Shyam.

Critical response
Deepa Soman of The Times of India gave 3 out of stars and wrote, "The Great Father is worth your money for its daddy-daughter moments and a timely plot. The film is quite predictable and one can see parallels in the factors that unveil the antagonist even in a few other Malayalam films."

Behindwoods gave 2.75 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Haneef Adeni has selected the perfect combination of emotion, mass and social relevance for his debut venture. The strong plot makes The Great Father watchable, but screenplay could have been dealt better." IBTimes gave 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, "The Great Father is a one-time watch and a tailor-made movie to boost Mammootty's heroism, where the real social issue gets lost in the antics at times."

Box office
The film was a commercial success. The film grossed $960,748 from UAE box office in two weeks. The Film collected ₹4.31crore on the first day of its release and ₹20.54 crore within 4 days which was an all-time record. It is the First 50 crore Movie by Mammootty.The Final gross collection of the movie is about ₹59 crore and had a 125 days run at the theatre.

Release
The film was released in 202 screens in Kerala.

Home video
The film was released on Blu-ray on 7 July 2017.