An adaptation of the 2015 Malayalam blockbuster movie Charlie by Martin Prakkat, the film stars R. Madhavan, Shraddha Srinath, Abhirami, and Sshivada.

[1] Parvathy (Shraddha Srinath) a.k.a Paaru, is a restoration architect who comes to a small coastal village in Kerala for a project, while avoiding a marriage set-up back home.

Backtracking his steps, she meets an antique dealer, Usman bhai, a "pirate", Chokku and learns about Selvi (Abhirami), a prostitute that Maara had known.

Vellaiya constantly tells the story of acting out a play to convey his love to Meenakshi, and eventually losing her when a storm flooded his home village.

The producers were initially keen to retain Parvathy Thiruvothu from the original version, and considered either Vijay Sethupathi, Sivakarthikeyan or Siddharth to play the titular role.

[8][9] In January 2017, actress Sai Pallavi signed on to play the leading female role, with the makers announcing that production would soon begin in Ooty and Pondicherry.

Dhilip confirmed that the makers were keen to retain Madhavan for the film despite the change of crew, believing that only the actor had the "innate charm" meant for the character of the lead protagonist.

Dhilip stated that the makers were initially apprehensive about casting Shraddha Srinath as the lead actress, as she had already been paired with Madhavan in Vikram Vedha (2017), but finalised her because Maara was in a different genre.

Ghibran was signed as the film's music composer, and cinematographers Dinesh Krishnan and Karthik Muthukumar, editor Bhuvan Srinivasan, Malayali art director Ajayan Challisery was also picked to join the crew.

[16][17] The film was subsequently put on hold and Madhavan later became busy with the production of his first directorial venture, Rocketry: The Nambi Effect (2020), meaning that there was a schedule break of over a year.

[21] The makers subsequently planned to wrap the pending portions in a single stretch,[22] adhering to the safety guidelines imposed by the government, to curb the COVID-19 spread.

[27] Vipin Nair of Music Aloud reviewed "Maara isn’t an exact remake of Charlie, rather an adaptation with a few changes made to the original story.

Gopi Sundar's music was one of the key factors behind the immense success of Charlie; Ghibran therefore had big shoes to fill here, however, he shows a level of consistency that he has not done in quite a long time.

"[42] Film critic Haricharan Pudipeddi, writing for Hindustan Times stated "Maara isn’t a frame-by-frame copy, but it retains the magic of Charlie.

"[43] Shubhra Gupta, editor-in-chief for The Indian Express, gave 3 out of 5 stating, "Madhavan is appropriately loose-limbed and dishy as he ambles through the film, spreading grizzled, warm charm.

"[45] Ranjani Krishnakumar, writing for Firstpost, gave 2.5 out of 5 stars stating "If you aren’t instinctively drawn to the mystical world that Maara and Paru occupy, or even find it desirable, the film is a drag.

"[48] Sowmya Rajendran of The News Minute, gave 3.5 out of 5 stating "Madhavan as Maara, however, looks jaded, but Shraddha Srinath carries the film through with her charm.