Kattalan, a ‘violent’ film set against poaching and the ivory trade, starring Antony Varghese aka Pepe in the lead, released in theatres on May 28, 2026. Produced by the makers of Unni Mukundan’s hit film Marco, Kattalan was expected to have similarly gruesome action blocks and follow in a similar template, but according to netizens who have seen the film written and directed by Paul George, it falls way below the 2024 movie.
Kattalan is a film that the producer made following a fallout with Unni, who had co-produced Marco. The duo had earlier announced a sequel to their most violent film, but that plan was then dropped and Kattalan came about. Antony’s film is set in the Marco universe, but failed to generate the same kind of excitement among audiences, even though there has been praise for the action and, to some extent, Ravi Basrur’s background score.
Twitter (X) responses to Kattalan
Here are some comments that have cropped up on social media: “Unni had more swag and aura in Marco than Pepe. Unni himself is weak when it comes to dialogue delivery, but Pepe somehow outdid him there too”, “A template ganster cartel war with unimpressive writing. The only positive elements of the flick are the action sequences and Ravi Basrur's music. One-time watchable”, “Seems like a Telugu malayalam dubbed action movie with 2 hours of slow motion shots and over the top background score by ravi basrur”,”Kattalan has no high moments, weak writing. Making quality is okay”.
Netizens seem to be most disappointed with the leading man, who, unlike Unni, was, apparently unable to channel swag or create an impact with his character. They also blamed the weak writing and the lack of depth in his characterisation for this. The much-publicised mid and post-credit scenes were also said to be not worth the while.
