[4] Kaimal (Karamana Janardanan Nair) and Susheela (Seema) leads a routine married life with two school going children.

One evening Kaimal is shocked to find that Susheela has eloped with another man who turns out to be the local car mechanic, Giri.

Balan tries to convince Susheela to come back, but she moves in with Giri in a dingy room in a shady street.

A scene wherein Mammootty's character hums a song was changed to him singing, after a suggestion by director John Abraham, who while his visit to the film's set sang "Alappuzhakkaran Kesavanaasante", a Kuttanad folk song from there, which was included in the scene as Mammootty singing.

"[5] In a 2018 critical study article of K. G. George's films, Hindu's Joseph Anthony observed, "If George's women battle jealous, self-indulgent and exploitative men in his other films, in Mattoral they battle a more formidable enemy, the ideal husband — the decent man or the bore.