Malayalam Director Lijo Jose Pellissery is considered as one of the masterclass directors in today's cinema. All of his films are critically acclaimed well praised for their making and narrative style. Any new film from him makes news and excites movie lovers accross all languages. His Jallikattu was even sent to Oscars. His latest film titled Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam starring Mammootty was released more than a month ago. It won numerous praises and is considered as one of the finest performance and film in Mammootty's career.
Now, the film landed in controversy. Tamil Director Halitha Shameem, who directed films like Sillu Karupatti and Poovarasam Peepee, took to her Facebook and accused director Lijo Jose Pellissery for plagiarising the aesthetics of her film, Aelay. In her post, she wrote, " Stealing all the aesthetics from a film isn’t acceptable. For Aelay, we prepared a village and its people and shot the film there for the first time. I am happy that Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam was shot there with the same people. However, it is disappointing that all the aesthetics that I added with deliberate care have been copied throughout Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam ”
No response from Mammootty's film team yet about these claims. The film features Ashokan, Ramya Pandian, late Kainakari Thankaraj, T Suresh Babu, Chethan Jayalal, Rajesh Sharma, Thennavan, Pramod Shetty, and others in the supporting roles. The project is jointly produced by Mammootty and director Lijo under their home banners Mammootty Kampany and Amen Movie Monastery. Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam has been released on the OTT platform, and is streaming on Netflix in Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu.