''Archana 31 Not Out'' is a 2022 Indian Malayalam-language comedy-drama film written and directed by Akhil Anilkumar, and produced by Martin Prakkat, Siby Chavara and Renjith Nair. The film stars

Aishwarya Lekshmi Aishwarya Lekshmi (born 6 September 1990) is an Indian actress and producer who predominantly works in Malayalam and Tamil films. She won several accolades including One Filmfare Award South and 3 SIIMA Awards. She made her acting debut with 2 ...

, alongside Hakkim Shajahan, Dileep Mohan,

Indrans Indrans is an Indian actor and former costume designer, who appears in Malayalam films.His mentor was Shiyas M S, a law college student. He started his film career as a costume designer and actor in 1981 and got a breakthrough in 1994 with the ...

and

Ramesh Pisharody T. V. Ramesh (born 1 October 1983), professionally credited as Ramesh Pisharody, is an Indian stand-up comedian, impressionist, television presenter, actor and film director. He works in Malayalam television shows, stage, and cinema. Early l ...

. The plot revolves around the wedding of a 28 year old school teacher named Archana, to an

NRI NRI or Nri may refer to : * Kingdom of Nri, an Igbo kingdom that flourished between the 10th century and early 20th century * National Radio Institute, a now defunct post-secondary vocational correspondence school * National Resources Inventory * N ...

groom takes unexpected twists. It was released on 11 February 2022 to mostly mixed reviews.

Premise

Archana is a private school teacher. She goes through a tough phase as she is 28 and not married yet, also she is losing her job because of a management decision. 30 suitors have rejected Archana and 31st suitor is a NRI guy Prasad working in Gulf. His family members meet Archana and her family. Everything seems to fall in place as the engagement and subsequent marriage is fixed. Things seem to go in the right track, when just before the day of the marriage, Archana receives a call from Prasad's brother in law informing her that Prasad has eloped with a girl. With the marriage not happening , a lot of emotions go through Archana's mind. She does not reveal on Prasad eloping and the marriage stands cancelled to anyone. On the day of marriage, the ceremony goes as per the plan, but Archana reveals to her guests about Prasad's betrayal and says boldly that its not a time to cry, but be happy that the marriage with a treacherous person did not happen. The guests understand her and everyone celebrates with Archana. In the end its shown that Archana has decided to take her life in her own hands rather than worry about the society.

Cast

as Archana *Hakkim Shajahan as Venu *Dileep Mohan as Shibu (Archana's relative) *James Varghese as Madhavan (Archana's father) *S.K. Mini as Archana's Mother *Aarcha as Anu (Venu's niece and Archana's student) *

as Lord *

as Satheeshan (Archana's cousin) *Rajesh Madhavan as Broker *

Anju Joseph Anju Joseph or Anju Brahmasmi ( ml, അഞ്ജു ജോസഫ്) is a playback singer in Malayalam Film Industry. She started her career as a playback singer in Malayalam movie '' Doctor Love'' in 2011 Early life and family Anju Joseph wa ...

as Saranya (Archana's colleague) *Renjith Shekar Nair Sumesh *Sruthy Suresh as Sumesh's wife *Sunil Sughatha as school principal *Lukman Avaran as Prasad *Azeez Nedumangad as Jignesh (Prasad's brother-in-law) *Anjana Appukuttan as Prassanna (Prasad's sister) *Remya Suresh *Vinod Vasudevan as Saranya's husband *Vinod Thomas *Archana Anilkumar *Sneha Reji *Thankam Mohan *Joy Payyappilly

Release

The film was released on 11 February 2022.

Reception

The film met with mostly mixed reviews. ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' gave 3/5 and wrote "A movie that would have worked best as a short-film". ''Ottplay'' gave 3/5 and wrote "Aishwarya Lekshmi, interesting climax elevate this simple but sluggish tale". ''

The News Minute ''The News Minute'' is an Indian digital news platform based in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded by Dhanya Rajendran, Chitra Subramaniam and Vignesh Vellore in 2014. Apart from Karnataka, it also has bureaus in the states of Telangana, And ...

'' gave 2.5/5 and wrote "This Aishwarya Lekshmi film starts smoothly, slips midway". ''Behindwoods'' gave 2.25/5 and wrote "Archana 31 Not Out is a good story bogged down by the less-engaging screenplay". ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' wrote "Aishwarya Lekshmi shines in tiring watch".

References

{{reflist 2020s Malayalam-language films 2022 comedy-drama films Films shot in Kerala