Aanathadam is a small Kerala village where liquor shapes daily life, and a large pool of locals find it hard to go a day without a drink. At the center of the story is a young man named Vinu, an unemployed figure living with his mother and elder sister as his family scrambles to arrange a marriage for their daughter, accepting a proposal from an NRI. As wedding preparations begin, Vinu’s friends press him to secure a big liquor celebration, insisting he must arrange at least 45 bottles of their favorite Dhavan for the wedding party. But life takes a sharp, chaotic turn when, on the eve of the ceremony, Vinu’s sister elopes with his friend Suni, taking away all the gold meant for the marriage.
Right after this upheaval, a nationwide lockdown is announced in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. With the wedding in ruins and 30-odd bottles still in his possession, Vinu becomes the center of attention in the village as everyone starts clamoring for a drink. He feels deeply humiliated and increasingly stubborn, choosing not to hand over the bottles to anyone. Instead, he begins to drink a portion himself and stash the rest, recognizing how desperation for alcohol is driving people to pay any price.
Meanwhile, trouble brews around the liquor trade. Godson, a local don, is desperate to obtain alcohol because his brother Gladson—a notorious drinker—has become unhinged by the shortage. Godson’s attempts to source bottles from a bar are foiled by the excise officer, [Satyajit], who closes the bar and vows to confiscate all illicit hooch in the area. Satyajit also arrests Godson’s henchman Durbhalan, thwarting their operations for the moment. Gladson’s desperation grows; he even considers drinking sanitizer and raids nearby homes to raid liquor stock, showing how far the shortage has driven him.
A corrupt excise officer named [Sabu]—who has taken around 30 bottles from the main stock for his own use—also figures into the tension. He fears exposure as Satyajit presses for a stock list, hoping to prove his own innocence while protecting his stash. Godson and Sabu cross paths with Vinu after they discover his social media post showing his bottle stash. They hatch a plan to seize the liquor, but Vinu responds in his own way by convincing his friend [Sabumon] to sabotage Sabu’s jeep brakes, landing Sabu in hospital and buying Vinu a little breathing room.
In a parallel thread, SI Rocket Shibu is busy monitoring lockdown guidelines using a drone. He tracks a neighborhood flare‑up where Sumesh and his friends have managed to get hold of liquor in public. In a moment of panic, Sumesh slams the drone with an empty bottle and escapes with the drone itself. The drone’s operator, Manu, pleads with Shibu to recover his livelihood device, while Shibu hunts the neighborhood to retrieve it. Sumesh, fearing police trouble and exposure, disposes of the drone by sinking it into a well and even spreads a rumor that Vinu is Covid-positive to scare people away from his home.
As Swapna—Vinu’s love interest—begins to receive a marriage proposal from her own family, preparations for an elopement intensify. Vinu and Swapna agree to a risky plan: Swapna’s family’s consent to the alliance is arranged, and Vinu agrees to meet with Godson’s gang at a hilltop to exchange the bottles for cash and depart. Vinu retrieves the bottles from a pond where he had hidden them, stuffs them into bags, and covers the bundles with spinach to avoid suspicion. But a local grudge‑bearer, who was not invited to the sister’s wedding, tips off Satyajit and reveals the rendezvous point.
Godson, meanwhile, has struck a separate deal with Rocket Shibu to ensure his capture if the authorities foil the liquor deal. He promises to pay Shibu for the drone footage he loses in the exchange, in case the operation goes south. The moment of truth arrives when Satyajit and Shibu converge on the hilltop just as Vinu is about to seal the deal. To complicate matters further, health department officials barge in, sweeping up Vinu as a potential Covid‑positive case and burning the entire liquor stock to mitigate infection risk. The rumor proves true when Vinu learns in the hospital that he has indeed contracted Covid-19, a consequence of contact with his ally Sabumon who came from Fort Kochi to help sabotage the jeep.
Sumesh, who was Vinu’s neighbor and close contact, also tests positive. The two spend their quarantine days in the hospital and eventually come out. Swapna, swayed by the social‑media chatter about Covid‑positive patients and the risk of impotence, goes ahead with the arranged marriage to her original fiancé. Gladson’s mental state deteriorates with the extended dry spell, while Durbhalan is released from jail and keeps the pressure on. Satyajit uncovers Sabu’s malpractices and suspends him, and Manu, who was distraught over the loss of his drone, leaks the footage to a local channel, triggering embarrassment for Rocket Shibu and forcing him to transfer to Attapadi. In the end, the liquor shops reopen and the village finds relief in their return to normalcy, with Vinu and Sumesh toasting a cautious new beginning and vowing to start again with a cleaner slate.
The film blends dark humor, social commentary, and a pointed look at a community under quarantine and siege by shortages, showing how people navigate desire, loyalty, and survival in a compressed, chaotic moment.
