Mammootty, Adoor Gopalakrishnan reunite for Padayaatra; film goes on floors

Malayalam superstar Mammootty has reunited with auteur filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan for a new film titled Padayaatra. On Friday (January 23), the makers kickstarted the film with a pooja ceremony. A title poster of the film was also unveiled.

Adoor had earlier revealed the news in an interview with Manorama News. The filmmaker said that he could only visualise Mammootty’s face while writing the script. “The casting for the remaining characters is currently underway. I’ve never worked with any other lead actor as many times as I have with Mammootty,” he had said.

Padayaatra has a story, screenplay and dialogues written by Adoor and KV Mohan Kumar. Details regarding the film’s theme, plot and the rest of the cast remain unknown.

As far as the technical crew is concerned, Mujeeb Majeed composes the music, Shehnad Jalal cranks the camera, and Praveen Prabhakar is in charge of editing. Mammootty’s home banner Mammootty Kampany is producing the film.

The announcement has certainly excited fans and audiences, especially since the previous three collaborations between Adoor and Mammootty — 1987’s Anantaram, 1990’s Mathilukal, and 1993’s Vidheyan — are widely regarded as some of the best Malayalam films of all time. The upcoming film also marks Adoor’s return to feature film direction after 10 years.

Mammootty, who was last seen in the serial killer film Kalamkaval, took Malayalam audiences by surprise this week with a cameo appearance in Chatha Pacha: The Ring of Rowdies, starring Arjun Ashokan and Roshan Mathew.