1921 (1988 film)

The screenplay was written by physical education teacher-turned-scriptwriter T. Damodaran. Damodaran had particular focus on writing political dramas, and had collaborated with Sasi in several successful films previously.[10] The film was produced by Muhammed Mannil. Peter Narakkal was the Production Executive. The film's budget was ₹12 million (US$150,000).[11][1] T. Damodaran called the film his "dream project".[6] Ranjini was approached by Sasi for a role, but due to date clashes she could not sign the film.[12] T. Damodaran in an interview with India Today in 1988 said that: "A few years back history could have been told as it was in Malayalam cinema but today I have to weave an actual incident in masala form with a larger than life character for the sake of Mammootty."[1]

Anil worked as the associate director for the film. Jomon, M. A. Venugopal and Shajoon Kariyal were the assistant directors while M. Sankar oversaw "Action", K. Narayanan was the editor, V. Jayaram was the cinematographer. Sasi "T. V." Mohan was the Production Designer while I. V. Satheesh Babu was the Art director. The set was done by B. R. Rangan and Narayanan. M. O. Devasia did the Makeup, M. M. Kumar was the costumer. Recording and re-recording were carried out by Selvaraj. G. Rajan.[11]

"The top dream merchants of the industry see to it that the characters are created according to the diktats of these superstars [Mammootty and Mohanlal]...even history has been tinged with an overdose of fantasy to suit the image of Mammootty [in the film 1921]," film critic Sreedhar Pillai wrote in India Today.[1]

"1921 was shot on a wide canvas with hundreds of actors and required to be dealt with sensitively considering the communal passions that the event evinces in Malabar", wrote the Times of India in 2017.[13] In a 2017 The Times of India article, it was written that 1921 "perhaps, remain his [Sasi's] best cinematic work".[13]

"It [the film] deals with a contentious chapter of our [Indian] Independence struggle, but does it in grand style and high drama. It is also one film that does justice to history. Its representation of the region [South Malabar], the milieu and the historic incident [1921 Uprising] became all the more politically relevant and socially resonant in the next decades [1990s and 2000s] when the [Malayalam] movie images of minorities [Muslims] became biased and parochial.", wrote C. S. Venkiteswaran in The Hindu in 2017.[14]

The film was a commercial success[15][16][17] and collected over ₹ 2 crore from the box office and emerged one of the top grossers of the year.[18][19] However, the film was not very profitable for the producers of the film due to its high production costs.[1][20]