12th Man is a 2022 Indian Malayalam-language Mystery thriller film directed by Jeethu Joseph and produced by Antony Perumbavoor through Aashirvad Cinemas, with a screenplay by K. R. Krishna Kumar and based on a story by Sunir Khetarpal. The film stars Mohanlal, with Saiju Kurup, Leona Lishoy, Chandhunath, Unni Mukundan, Anu Sithara, Anusree, Anu Mohan, Rahul Madhav, Aditi Ravi, Priyanka Nair and Sshivada. 12th Man was released directly on Disney+ Hotstar on 20 May 2022.The film is inspired from 2016 Italian film Perfect Strangers.
The original background score and a song was composed by Anil Johnson.Principal photography took place from August to October 2021 lasting 48 days and post-production went up to March 2022. The film was shot extensively at a custom-built mansion in a hillside resort in Kulamavu, Idukki district, and the remaining in Ernakulam.
The plot begins with 11 people gathering in an isolated resort for bachelor party of Siddharth, who is one of them. It includes Fida, Siddharth’s fiancée Aarathy, Mathew and his wife Shiny, Jithesh and his wife Dr. Nayana, Sam and his wife Merin, Zachariah and his wife Annie. Out of these, Annie, Fida, Jithesh, Mathew, Merin, Siddharth and Zachariah, were college mates. They are interrupted by a seemingly annoying person called Chandrashekhar who demands alcohol from them due to the events of earlier scenes in the movie. They pacify him and send him away.
During the dinner, there arises an argument between friends when Fida claims that even though they are friends, there are always certain secrets kept within individuals that they won’t even share with their own spouse. To settle the argument they decide to play a game wherein each one of them are to keep their phones on the table and publicly announce the text messages they receive as well as keep their phones on speaker if they receive a call. This leads to many embarrassing secrets to be revealed. The main conflict happens when Siddharth gets a call from one of his friends asking him about the name of abortion pills used by him when he made one of his group members pregnant. This leads to a brawl amongst them as he is unmarried, leading everyone to believe that he must have had an affair with one of their wives.