Jailer is a 2023 Indian Malayalam-language period drama film written and directed by Sakkir Madathil. The film stars Dhyan Sreenivasan in the titular role, alongside Manoj K. Jayan, Divya Pillai and Sreejith Ravi in the supporting cast. Set in the 1950s, it tells the story of a prison officer who stays in a bungalow with five prisoners who were charged with different crimes and his experiments to reform them.
Jailer was released in theatres on .
Cast
Dhyan Sreenivasan as Jailer Shantaram
Manoj K. Jayan as Superintendent of Police
Divya Pillai as Chembaka
Sreejith Ravi as Keshavan
Binu Adimali as Shankaran
Navas Vallikkunnu as Kammaran
Tiju Mathew as Madhavan
Unni Raja as Dhamu
Jayaprakash as Velu Thampi
V. K. Baiju
Shashankan
Shanthakumari
Ansi Vineesha
Vasudev Sajeesh Marar
Suryadev Sajeesh Marar
Production
The title launch of the film was held in 2022 in Sharjah at the Come On Kerala event. On , Prithviraj Sukumaran unveiled the film's motion poster through Facebook.
Soundtrack
The film's music is composed by Riyas Payyoli, with lyrics written by Nidheesh Nadery.
Release
Theatrical
Initially, the makers of the film had announced that Jailer would be released on , but with the release of Tamil-language Jailer on the same date being announced, the release date was later postponed by a week. The film was released on across 85 theatres in Kerala and 40 theatres in GCC countries.
Controversies
Title dispute
The film's makers had disputes over the title with Rajinikanth's Jailer. According to director Sakkir Madathil, the title Jailer was registered with the Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) in August 2021. He had requested Sun Pictures consider changing the Tamil-language film's title when releases in Kerala. Later, both Sun Pictures and the makers of the Malayalam-language film took the title dispute to court.
Reception
Critical reception
Princy Alexander of Onmanorama wrote "Overall, the dark and gloomy treatment of the film takes the sheen away from a movie made with good intentions." S.R. Praveen of The Hindu wrote "Jailer seems to have been made with the intention of never giving the audience anything to cheer for... it does succeed in that endeavour." Arjun Ramachandran of The South First gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5 and wrote "Jailer is a film with a novel theme but works only in parts."