Minnal Murali (Lightning Murali) is a 2021 Indian Malayalam-language superhero film directed by Basil Joseph and produced by Sophia Paul, under the banner of Weekend Blockbusters. The script is written by Arun Anirudhan and Justin Mathew. The film stars Tovino Thomas and Guru Somasundaram. It follows the life of Jaison, a young tailor who gains superpowers after being struck by lightning, and transforms into a superhero.
The film was formally announced in January 2019, but due to the extensive pre-production works, the film's principal photography took place during December 2019. Though shooting got disrupted twice following the two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and the vandalism of a church set by right-wing groups, the makers managed to complete the shoot within July 2021. The film was predominantly shot in Kerala, with few sequences being shot at Hassan in Karnataka. The music of the film was composed by Shaan Rahman and Sushin Shyam, with Shyam also composing the background score, whereas cinematography of the film was handled by Sameer Thahir and editing done by Livingston Mathew. The film was set for a theatrical release in late 2020, but was postponed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In September 2021, the makers announced that the film will be released directly through the streaming platform Netflix on 24 December 2021, as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. The film premiered at the Mumbai Film Festival on 16 December, before its release on Netflix. The film has been released in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and English languages.
'Minnal Murali' is the best example of how a Malayalam film can 'become global' through OTT. The Christmas release of Netflix, the leading OT platform, reached the top 10 list in 11 countries in its first week. Two weeks later, the film's global rankings have skyrocketed. The film was in the top 10 in 11 countries in the first week and is now in 30 countries.
The 11 countries that made it into the top 10 in the first week were Asian countries, while African and Latin American countries are now among the top 30 trending countries. 'Murali' has made a comeback in the period of December 27 to January 2 for non-English films. The film ranks third on the list. Lully, Wiki and Her Mystery are in the top two. Lightning Murali has given 1.14 crore hours of views to Netflix.
For the second week in a row, Lightning Murali has been featured in Netflix's Global Top 10. In Latin America, Argentina, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay are in the top 10. The film is in the top ten in Africa, Mauritius and Nigeria. This is the second consecutive week that India has been ranked in the top 10 in Asia. Bahrain, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Malaysia, Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and UAE are also in the top 10 list.
Superhero films are the most popular film genre in the world. The huge pre-release publicity given to the film by Netflix was in anticipation of the global acceptance of a superhero origin movie beyond language. An Asian hit that Netflix received last year was the squid game, a South Korean survival drama series. The Indian film industry is waiting to see if 'Minnal Murali' will rise to that level.
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