A good Malayalam movie is still nothing if it cannot be an anthropological study. Unda is one of those movies that are proud of the background work that went into its making. A team of kerala police is sent on election duty during the 2014 elections in Chathisgarh. They get split into smaller groups and a group of nine, headed by SI Mani (Mammooty), gets to the polling booth in a nearly-wiped-out village four days ahead of the election date. Having never been in a conflict area, they fail to realise the gravity of the issue and anyway are not equipped to handle it. Through rash behaviour, they end up with only 8 bullets remaining in the face of an impending Maoist attack. How they go through these four days is what makes the movie.

The team of cops - Shine Tom Chacko (jojo), Arjun Ashokan, Jacob Gregory, Rony David, are all exceptionally good and have well-detailed characters. Each of them have believable behavioural traits that helps move the story along without sweating it. Dileesh Pothen has an entire 5 minutes in the movie, but we'll never look at parade leaders the same way. Everything that the man does, he does well. All interactions with people of other languages are designed with a self deprecating humour complete with the malayali head shake and accented English. The malayali irreverence to issues like water scarcity and class differences are portrayed well, with no apologies.

The movie also scores a lot of brownie points for accuracy. Portrayal of what happens to the tribal native of Bastar is the story of every affected person. When there is a fight, they do try to take down the ITBP men in the response team first. The heirarchial nuances in Kerala police, how caste plays out, are all shown perfectly. The background score has independent life, but also is a perfect cue to onscreen action. Tribal tones are pretty, and the music represents the forest setting well. There are no songs in the movie. But you wont miss them.

Mammooty's decision to stick to the new filmmakers seem to be paying off. Unda also ranks among recent movies like Peranbu, that gained both critical acclaim and box office success. His sublime acting skills are well complimented by the cast and the script utilises him optimally. Not all scenes are for him - the most explosive scene in the movie - which is literally followed by an explosion - has no involvement on his part. However he is undoubtedly the glue that holds together everything.

There are moments of testosterone unity that brings cheers in the theatre. There is a sequence of lathi charge that demonstrates standard moves but this is punctuated with moves from the  movie-fight template. There are no significant female characters in this movie. There are minimal references to women. Therefore all women - conservative, the Sabarimala-visiting-kind and everyone in between may go watch the movie without the fear of being offended.

In all, Unda is a well researched Movie that one could enjoy as a family, but also gives food for thought. It has an honest attempt to look at tribe idnetity and has the Kerala perspective at the ready. Maybe it is worth giving a shot, But the average Malayalee theater goer may not be highly impressed, but will surely get all the laughs and enjoy the faster scenes.

Rating: 3.5/5