Life comes to a standstill in Kerala during World Cup football. Like football-crazy Bengal, Kerala gets vertically divided between Brazil and Argentina and turns canary yellow and white and blue when the best battle it out for the Cup.

But it’s a different level of energy in Malappuram, about 350km north of Thiruvananthapuram, where not a day passes without some game at some level, which is why a World Cup tribute music video by Malayalam superstar Mohanlal is themed on the north Kerala district where football is religion.

The World Cup being hosted by Qatar has catapulted the Malayali imagination into the stratosphere, what with lakhs of their brethren living in the Gulf, and a good chunk in the emirate of Qatar, for well over half a century.

Tribute to World Cup Football, Qatar 2022 produced by Anthony Perumbavoor of Aashirvad Cinemas and directed by noted filmmaker T.K Rajeev Kumar is both a tribute to the world’s most popular sporting event and an acknowledgement of Malappuram’s football craze.

The video posted on YouTube crossed a million views within a day of its launch on October 30.

“The music video is generally about the football craze in Kerala, but specifically about Malappuram that made sevens football famous,” Kumar told The Telegraph over phone from Doha where the music video was launched on October 30 amid much fanfare at an event attended by the Qatar royal family members, officials from their government and Fifa, the sport’s world governing body.

What came in more than handy was Mohanlal’s background as a football player during his days at Mahatma Gandhi College in Thiruvananthapuram. True to the theme of the music video, most of it was filmed in Malappuram while Mohanlal’s sequences were shot at the practice ground of Indian Super League side Kerala Blasters FC in Kochi.

Kumar has little doubt that it is the first such tribute to any Fifa World Cup by a film personality from Kerala and possibly the Indian film industry. “I don’t think there has been any such effort from the Indian film industry.”

The slick music video aptly begins with a brief narration by Mohanlal, who then goes on to sing. “Far, far away in the state of Kerala on the southwestern coast of India, lies the district of Malappuram. Do you hear that? That is the cheering of people whose very life is football. Every day in Malappuram is World Cup day. Have you ever heard of the legend of 7s?” goes Mohanlal’s voiceover, before the story, rather the song, begins.

In the words of Kumar, “every day is a World Cup for the people of Malappuram since at least 10,000 people in different age groups play football on any given day”.

The “provocation” for pegging it on Malappuram came from Maitanam — The Story of Football in Kerala, a Fifa documentary re-released in April, which dwelt into the phenomenon called Malappuram in terms of fandom for the sport.

“The provocation was Maitanam (Maidan, or ground) and how even Fifa took note of the football craze in Malappuram,” said Kumar.

The idea to produce such a tribute to the World Cup cropped up about four months ago. “Lal sir wanted to come out with a tribute since the World Cup is in Qatar and a large number of Malayalis live there, and many of them are directly or indirectly connected to the organisation of the World Cup,” recalled Kumar.

The music video is the result of that wish of Mohanlal, and Kumar’s own research to understand the football DNA of Malappuram. The lineup of creative artists involved in the production of the video runs quite deep and includes some of the best-known names from the film industry.

The peppy song was composed by Hesham Abdul Wahab, who shot into fame with his work in Hridayam starring Mohanlal’s son Pranav, to the lines of noted film lyricist Mohandas Pankiand choreographed by Brinda, whose most recent film is Ponniyin Selvan.

The Fifa World Cup kicks-off on November 20 when hosts Qatar take on Ecuador.The final is scheduled for December 18.