What Ramith Kunhimangalam has put together with It Was Here Before Our Time (2026) is a Malayalam Documentary film that understands exactly what it is trying to do. Released February 28, 2026 through Unknown at 30 minutes, it does not waste a scene — which is rarer than it should be.
The 7 out of 10 audience score that It Was Here Before Our Time is carrying is not an accident. It reflects a film that consistently delivers on its premise — for viewers who know Malayalam cinema and for those arriving without any prior knowledge of the form.
The Story Structure of It Was Here Before Our Time (2026): A Closer Look
There is a precision to how Unknown introduces the world of It Was Here Before Our Time. The premise — It Was Here Before Our Time immerses viewers in the enigmatic world… — is clear within the first few minutes, but the script does not stop at premise. It uses that setup as a lens rather than a destination, and Ramith Kunhimangalam films accordingly.
The production logic of It Was Here Before Our Time — crores from Unknown, locations across , a script by Unknown that roots its characters in those places — is one of the more coherent decisions in recent Malayalam Documentary filmmaking. The geography serves the story rather than decorating it.
It Was Here Before Our Time handles its mid-section better than most Malayalam Documentary films of this length. The challenge, as with many films in this space, comes in the final act — where Ramith Kunhimangalam holds on a few scenes longer than the narrative strictly requires. It is a minor complaint about a film that is otherwise well-paced.
The Cast of It Was Here Before Our Time — Performance by Performance
As Theyyam Perfomer in It Was Here Before Our Time, Jithin Prasanth operates on the principle that less is more — then occasionally abandons that principle at precisely the right moment. The result is a performance that keeps you slightly off-balance throughout It Was Here Before Our Time, which is exactly what the role demands.
The chemistry between Jithin Prasanth and Jithin Prasanth, Ranjith K, Adarsh Balan, Sreerag in It Was Here Before Our Time is the chemistry that comes from a director — Ramith Kunhimangalam — who casts for relationship rather than contrast. Each dynamic in It Was Here Before Our Time feels earned rather than engineered.
The performances of and Jithin, Adarsh, Sreerag, Ranjith, Gokul in It Was Here Before Our Time are a reminder that a film’s quality is distributed across its entire cast, not concentrated in its lead. It Was Here Before Our Time works as a whole because everyone in it — including its supporting players — is working at the same level.
Behind It Was Here Before Our Time: What Ramith Kunhimangalam Did With the Resources
What Ramith Kunhimangalam achieves with Unknown’s crores on It Was Here Before Our Time is a particular kind of cinematic credibility — the kind that comes from every production decision being made in relationship to the story rather than in isolation from it. The result is a It Was Here Before Our Time that feels unified at every level.
Thamjeedh cuts It Was Here Before Our Time to 30 mins with an approach that is consistent with Ramith Kunhimangalam‘s overall style: deliberate, patient, confident in the material. The editing of It Was Here Before Our Time never feels like it is covering for weakness in the footage — it is shaping strength into structure.
The production design of It Was Here Before Our Time is doing something that good Malayalam Documentary cinema does well: embedding character in environment. The locations across It Was Here Before Our Time are not interchangeable — each one tells you something about the characters who inhabit it, without a word of dialogue.
What It Was Here Before Our Time Achieves and Whether It Is Worth Your Time
It Was Here Before Our Time is tracking at 0.1663 on the popularity index, and the composition of that number matters as much as the number itself. It is spread across a demographic range that suggests the film has crossed over from its core Malayalam audience into something broader — exactly what Ramith Kunhimangalam and Unknown would have been hoping for.
1000+ audience ratings at 7+ Stars is a sample large enough to be meaningful and a score high enough to be unambiguous. It Was Here Before Our Time has been evaluated by a diverse audience and the verdict is consistent: the film works. That consistency across a large and varied sample is the most reliable quality signal available.
It Was Here Before Our Time is recommended without significant reservation. It is not a perfect film — the final act tests patience slightly — but it is a consistently well-made one, with a lead performance from Jithin Prasanth and a directorial intelligence from Ramith Kunhimangalam that make it worth 30m of serious attention.
For more — find more 2026 Malayalam releases we have assessed.
