Hridayapoorvam

I watched Hridayapoorvam, the latest Malayalam film starring Mohanlal and directed by Sathyan Anthikad. Sathyan is one of those rare filmmakers who know how to turn everyday life into cinema that feels honest, entertaining, and deeply relatable. At a time when the industry is obsessed with big blockbusters, massive sets, and larger-than-life heroics, here comes a film that quietly wins you over with storytelling, humour, and heart. The film is, in a way, a Malayalam version of The 40-Year-Old Virgin. But don’t mistake that for awkward gags or over-the-top comedy. This is The 40-Year-Old Virgin reimagined with our sensibility — sensitive, clean, and packaged with humour that a family audience can comfortably enjoy. Mohanlal plays a middle-aged, unmarried man, Sandeep, who undergoes a heart transplant. His life takes an unexpected turn when he meets the family of his donor — a widow Devika (Sangita Madhavan Nair), and her daughter, Haritha (Malavika Mohanan). Sathyan sets up a delicate, almost taboo situation: a man who has never really known female attention suddenly finds himself at the receiving end of affection from two women — one closer to his age, and the other much younger.

Sandeep Balakrishnan (Mohanlal), a successful cloud kitchen owner from Kochi, possesses a generous heart. His tenants are three aspiring filmmakers who eat in his kitchen for free, and he treats them like his own children. They narrate their script to him, an ultra-violent revenge story that disgusts him to the point of disowning them. Even their insistence that “violence is trending” doesn’t change his mind. This scene, from Sathyan Anthikad’s new film Hridayapoorvam, is a comedic aside, but it also conveys the self-awareness of this film. It’s quintessential Anthikad — light on its feet, airy and like a warm beverage on a rainy afternoon, but now such a film wants to reinforce its merits. The saturation of high-octane mass entertainers has pervaded Indian popular culture so forcefully and brazenly that even a Malayalam film feels the need to acknowledge, course correct and advertise. But, no complaints, it is indeed nice to stay in a different zip code than whatever is trending.

Mohanlal and Sathyan Anthikad have been defining the emotional core of the average Malayali for over four decades now. Despite technological advancements, the propensity for action extravaganzas in today’s times, and the seeming erosion of the audience’s attention span, Mohanlal and Sathyan reunite for a film that reminds us why these two were allowed to define emotions closest to our hearts. Anger, love, fear, guilt, regret, happiness, devastating sadness, and a smile that finds its way through it all…

It’s always heartwarming to see your yesteryear stars, who once made you fall in love with cinema, still continue to give you movies that not only achieve commercial success but are also backed by powerful content. 2025 has been phenomenal for Malayalam superstar Mohanlal, who gifted ‘L2: Empuraan’ - a film that took on right-wing politics - and followed it up with ‘Thudarum’, a delicious thriller based on a father-son duo. ‘Hridayapoorvam’ is his third release of the year and a potential hat-trick. But has it struck gold? Let’s find out! Sandeep Balakrishnan (Mohanlal) is a heart transplant survivor living in Kerala, where he runs a cloud kitchen. Months after his recovery, Haritha (Malavika Mohanan), daughter of his heart donor (Colonel Ravi), arrives in Kerala to invite him for her engagement in Pune. Chaos strikes, the engagement gets called off and Sandeep along with his attender Jerry (Sangeeth Prathap) are forced to stay at Haritha’s home.

The need to move out of their comfort zone ceases to be a necessity for filmmakers when they find success with their favourite tropes. That has been the case with Sathyan Anthikad for over four decades. Even as the film industry changed around him in unrecognisable ways, and despite a few slumps, he continued to have some level of success with his signature style. Anthikad’s previous film, Makal (2022)— which also dealt with the tried-and-tested — had a conservative protagonist who struggled to understand the mindset of his teenage daughter. But, in Hridayapoorvam, one finds a filmmaker who has a clear intent to connect better with a younger generation, without, of course, letting go of his family audience. The casting of a few popular online content creators, an odd fit in the Anthikad world, although an industry trend, is not a coincidence. One can also notice the influence of his sons, Anoop Sathyan, the associate director, and Akhil Sathyan, who penned the story, in how he has approached the scenes.