It's a tribute to legendary film maker V shantaram's 1957 Hindi film Do Aankhen 12 haath. Story is the same and Hera the hero also has Shantaram in his name. The film also specially mentions the year as 1957.
Do Aankhen............ ...... had won a silver at Caan film festival. It remains a classic even today. However, despite good performance by the lead actor and others, the film isn't impactful. This can be blamed on the director and script writer. While Do Aankhen ....... ....inspired Dirty Dozen of Hollywood, this movie simply ends up as a bleak one. I being a huge fan of Malayalam movies was thoroughly disappointed by the treatment given to this movie.