Like many other novels written by MT, Naalukettu is also set against the backdrop of the declining traditional joint family structure of Kerala in a newly independent India.

[6] A screenplay based on the novel was released on 8 December 2012 as part of the DC International Book Festival, Thiruvananthapuram.

[6][7] 'The story takes place in a traditional tharavadu of Kerala's Nair community in its final gasp for life.

The novel captures the traumas and psychological graph of Appunni, an introvert and angry youth, aspiring to avenge the insult meted out to him in a matrilineal family by building a new edifice on the ruins of his ancestral home.

The Hindu's critic K. Kunhikrishnan comments: "Naalukettu was significant in that it fascinatingly portrayed the degeneration of the matrilineal system of joint families (tharawad), where large numbers of relatives lived together.