Unda (film)

Unda (transl. Bullet) is a 2019 Indian Malayalam-language black comedy film directed by Khalid Rahman with a screenplay by Harshad based on a story by Rahman. Krishnan Sethukumar produced the film for Moviee Mill and Gemini Studios. The film stars Mammootty, Shine Tom Chacko, Jacob Gregory and Arjun Ashokan. Sajith Purushan was the film's cinematographer, and Prashant Pillai composed the music.

The story is based on an incident that occurred during the 2014 Lok Sabha election, when a nine-man police unit from Kerala was sent to a Naxalite-affected area of Chhattisgarh as part of election duty with insufficient ammunition. Deceived by the calm and quiet on their first day, the police let their guard down when a shootout the next day made them aware of the dangers they were about to face. In their initial rush of excitement, they fired almost all of the very limited number of bullets they had brought with them. To conduct the elections peacefully with only eight bullets left becomes a humongous task ahead of them.

Unda’s development began in 2014, when Rahman spotted an article featured in the Malayala Manorama daily. The article was about a police unit from Kerala posted as part of election duty in a Maoist affected area in Chhattisgarh without sufficient ammunition. After research, Harshad wrote the screenplay with Rahman in 2016. Eventually, Sethukumar replaced Anwar Rasheed, who was its initial financier, as the producer of the film. The title was announced on 21 September 2018 and production commenced from October. Principal photography began by the second week of October in Kasaragod and shooting was completed on 23 March 2019 in Chhattisgarh.

The film was released in India on 14 June 2019 and globally on 19 June. Upon release, the film met with widespread critical acclaim. The performances of its cast, direction and screenplay were praised by critics. It grossed over ₹20 crore worldwide in 10 days at the box office and ₹30 crore in its final run and became a commercial success. The film was screened at the 24th International Film Festival of Kerala 2019 under the section 'Malayalam Cinema Today'. It was included in The Hindu's top 25 Malayalam films of the decade.