Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea
2021 film directed by Priyadarshan
Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea (titled Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham in Malayalam) is a 2021 Indian Malayalam-language epic historical action drama film directed by Priyadarshan. Set in the 16th century Kozhikode, the film is based on the fourth Kunjali Marakkar named Muhammad Ali, the admiral of the fleet of the Zamorin. Priyadarshan scripted the film with Ani I. V. Sasi. The film is produced by Antony Perumbavoor's Aashirvad Cinemas. Marakkar features Mohanlal as Marakkar and Pranav Mohanlal as young Marakkar in the titlular roles, with an ensemble cast consisting of Arjun Sarja, Suniel Shetty, Prabhu, Ashok Selvan, Nedumudi Venu (his posthumous film), Mukesh, Siddique, Manju Warrier, Keerthy Suresh, Kalyani Priyadarshan, Suhasini Maniratnam, Innocent, Mamukkoya, Hareesh Peradi, Santhosh Keezhattoor and K. B. Ganesh Kumar. In the film, upon being terrorised by an oppressive Portuguese regime, legendary naval chieftain Kunjali Marakkar IV wages an epic war against the Europeans and their allies. This film was Keerthy Suresh's comeback to Malayalam cinema after a gap of seven years and the Malayalam debut of Ashok Selvan.
The initial plan for a film based on the admirals Kunjali Marakkar started between Priyadarshan, Mohanlal, and screenwriter T. Damodaran in 1996. Damodaran pitched a plot idea in 1999. However, the film did not materialise in Damodaran's lifetime because of the high budget requirements, which was unaffordable for a Malayalam film at that time.
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This entry incorporates text from “Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.