Will Khalifa 2: The Legacy Be Made? Because…

If Khalifa: The Ruler continues to bleed at the box office, the odds of a big-budget sequel materialising drop to practically zero.
The harsh reality of franchise filmmaking is incredibly simple: If the ‘ruler’ fails to conquer, absolutely no one is going to care about the ‘legacy’, no matter how many superstars you cram onto a poster.

IMAGE: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Mohanlal, Soubin Shahir and Tovino Thomas in Khalifa: The Ruler.

The makers of Khalifa didn’t even wait for the movie to release before announcing a sequel.

They had enthusiastically confirmed that Part Two would star Mohanlal in the lead, following his highly anticipated cameo in the first film, weeks before the release.

On August 20, the exact day of Khalifa‘s Onam release, they dropped an official sequel poster and revealed two other major cameos: Tovino Thomas and Soubin Shahir. Tovino even got his own dedicated character poster.

Cinematic universes are a dime a dozen these days. Following the massive success of Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra (currently the highest-grossing Malayalam movie of all time), building a franchise is undeniably an enticing opportunity for Malayalam filmmakers to cash in on.

So how exactly does Khalifa, officially titled Khalifa: The Ruler, set up its next instalment, which promises to act as both a sequel and a prequel?

Sreeju Sudhakaran dissects the epilogue of Khalifa: The Ruler, unpacks everything that came before, and explores how it sets the stage for Khalifa 2: The Legacy (and whether it would even get made).

There will be SPOILERS ahead, so read with caution if you haven’t watched the Malayalam movie yet.

 

Unpacking The Plot of Khalifa: The Ruler

IMAGE: Prithviraj Sukumaran in Khalifa: The Ruler.

Directed by Vysakh with a screenplay by Jinu V Abraham, Khalifa: The Ruler stars Prithviraj Sukumaran as Aamir Ali. He is a young man, a textile shop owner, pushed into the criminal underworld when his father is framed in a false case.

Aamir, however, carries a heavy legacy. While his father Younus (Renji Panicker) stayed clean, his grandfather, Mambarakkal Ahmed Ali, was a notorious smuggler back in the 1970s.

This is a man who famously harassed then prime minister Indira Gandhi and single-handedly forced the government to enact the COFEPOSA (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities) Act in 1974.

Following in his grandfather’s footsteps, Aamir builds his own gold smuggling empire. This inevitably puts him at war with the existing rulers of the domain: A shady businessman named Harris Basheer (Neil Nitin Mukesh) and his political ally, Punnavel Raghavan (Shammi Thilakan), along with Raghavan’s two sons, Vinayakan (Shivajith) and Vivek (Don Michael).

They throw everything they have at Aamir to bring him down. They attack his family, manipulate his best friend (Sanju Sivaram) to turn approver, and eventually frame him for murder.

During the climax, Aamir defeats his enemies in a carefully planned ambush inside his own prison. He kills Harris but surprisingly spares Raghavan and his sons.

Meanwhile, his business partner Saittu (Suresh Oberoi) ensures their men kidnap a badly burnt Vinayakan and dump him on the court premises. This proves Vinayakan is alive, clearing Aamir of his supposed murder.

With the prison warden reluctantly covering up Harris’ death to hide his own complicity, Aamir walks free.

Mohanlal’s Cameo in Khalifa: The Ruler

IMAGE: Mohanlal in Khalifa: The Ruler.

The epilogue reveals why Mambarakkal Ahmed Ali has been missing in action. He is not dead; he has simply been locked inside a Nepal prison since 2002.

Hearing of his imminent release, Aamir travels to Nepal to welcome him. He arrives to find Ahmed Ali’s gang already waiting at the gates, including Viktor Kennedy, a character played by Soubin Shahir (sporting a wig that is guaranteed to trigger a meme fest once the film drops on OTT).

Going by how remarkably young this gang looks, it is obvious Ahmed Ali has been actively running his operations from behind bars for over two decades. What remains unclear, however, is why this powerful don never bothered to help his old friend Saittu or his own flesh-and-blood grandson when they were in trouble, financial and mortal.

Recognising his grandson, Ahmed Ali embraces him warmly and drops a crucial piece of gangster wisdom: Never leave any chapters open for your enemies to hit back. The scene instantly cuts to a brutal massacre at Punnavel Raghavan’s house.

Raghavan and his younger son are slaughtered by a lone assassin, revealed to be Tovino Thomas. His character poster later confirmed his name as Iver Alexander.

The film then wraps up with Aamir Ali, Ahmed Ali, his welcoming committee, and a separate shot of Iver Alexander, all striding towards the camera in highly stylised slow-mo.

How The Ruler Sets Up The Legacy

IMAGE: Prithviraj Sukumaran in Khalifa: The Ruler.

So, what does this epilogue mean for Khalifa 2: The Legacy?

At the glitzy sequel announcement event on August 20, Mohanlal was asked if he had any idea what the second film would be about. He amusingly replied, ‘Honestly, I have no idea.’

You could write this off as a bit of superstar jest, or perhaps there is something deeper to read between the lines.

Ideally, Khalifa 2: The Legacy is sitting on a potential goldmine of brilliant ideas for scenarist Jinu V Abraham to explore. While Khalifa: The Ruler relied on a painfully familiar, ordinary screenplay, the genuinely fascinating lore was hidden off-screen, buried in the enthusely told exploits of Mambarakkal Ahmed Ali.

The Legacy needs to operate like The Godfather Part II, functioning as both a prequel and a sequel. The prequel track could chart Ahmed Ali’s rise as a notorious smuggler who refused to bow to Indira Gandhi’s tactics, standing tall while heavyweights like Vardarajan Mudaliar and Haji Mastan folded. It could explore how even the Emergency failed to deter him.

Since he was locked up only in 2002, he clearly operated out in the open for decades. The film needs to show the inciting incident that pushed him to single-handedly massacre an entire gang and earn that long prison sentence.

Then there is the deeply fractured family dynamic. We need to know why his son Yunus felt so betrayed by his father’s prolonged absences that he severed all ties.

The next chapter must flesh out these crucial details of Ahmed Ali’s life, also explaining exactly how he evolved into ‘Baba’ for a ruthless new breed of gangsters, including Iver Alexander and Viktor Kennedy, all while running the show from a prison cell.

As for the sequel timeline, Aamir’s old enemies are wiped out. With no old scores left to settle, we can expect a fresh set of villains for him to tackle, this time with his grandfather and an elite gang backing him up. That said, there is absolutely no denying how heavily ‘Empuraan-coded’ this entire epilogue feels, right down to the tone, character styling, and moody lighting.

When Will Khalifa 2: The Legacy Arrive?

IMAGE: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Mohanlal and Soubin Shahir in Khalifa: The Ruler.

The next logical questions are when, and if, this will actually happen.

When exactly will Khalifa 2: The Legacy hit screens? The realistic answer is a long, long time from now. Mohanlal recently announced upcoming projects with seven directors, and Vysakh is nowhere on that list.

So, even if the film moves ahead as planned, it will have to wait at the back of a very long queue. Throw in the packed schedules of Prithviraj and Tovino, who are just as busy as the veteran superstar, plus the sheer logistical nightmare of mounting a much larger sequel (that also has to make Mohanlal look like he used to be Rajavinte Makan days), and this project is guaranteed to face delays.

The bigger question is: Will they actually make Khalifa 2: The Legacy? Sure, the team was enthusiastic enough to officially greenlight Part Two on the exact same day the first film dropped. But is this genuine franchise building, or just a desperate marketing gimmick to hype up a new release by blowing its hidden surprises to sell a few more tickets?

It is certainly a bold release tactic, but one with massive potential to backfire. Not every franchise announced before its first instalment hits screens actually comes to fruition. Often, a lack of clear narrative vision combined with a mixed critical or commercial reception kills the universe before it even breathes.

You only need to look at dead-on-arrival franchise starters like Bhoot Part 1, Sambhavam Adhyayam Onnu, and Attack Part 1 for proof.

Khalifa: The Ruler secured a decent opening when it arrived on August 20, but showed decline into highly mixed reviews from both critics and audiences.

Meanwhile, its Onam box office rival, the Nivin Pauly-starrer Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, has taken off to a flying start despite releasing a day later, riding a huge wave of glowing reviews and stellar audience word-of-mouth. It is rapidly cementing itself as the undisputed Onam favourite this year.

According to box office tracking site Sacnilk, Khalifa witnessed a sharp drop in weekend collections as theatres hurriedly reallocated shows to BKU. Sacnilk reports that Khalifa scraped together Rs 30 crore (Rs 300 million) over four days, while BKU effortlessly hauled in Rs 61.05 crore (Rs 610.5 million) in just three.

If Khalifa: The Ruler continues to bleed at the box office, the odds of a big-budget sequel materialising drop to practically zero. The harsh reality of franchise filmmaking is incredibly simple: If the ‘ruler’ fails to conquer, absolutely no one is going to care about the ‘legacy’, no matter how many superstars you cram onto a poster.

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff