Forensic (film)
Forensic is a 2020 Indian Malayalam-language mystery-thriller film co-written and co-directed by Akhil Paul and Anas Khan in their directorial debut[1], starring Tovino Thomas, Mamta Mohandas, Reba Monica John, Renji Panicker, Dhanesh Anand and Saiju Kurup. The film premiered in Kerala, all over India and the rest of the world on 28 February 2020 and in GCC on 4 March 2020. [2]
| Forensic | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Akhil Paul & Anas Khan |
| Produced by | Navis Xaviour Siju Mathew |
| Written by | Akhil Paul-Anas Khan |
| Screenplay by | Akhil Paul-Anas Khan |
| Story by | Akhil Paul-Anas Khan |
| Starring | Tovino Thomas Mamta Mohandas |
| Music by | Jakes Bejoy |
| Cinematography | Akhil George |
| Edited by | Shameer Muhammed |
Production company | Juvis Productions |
| Distributed by | Century Release |
Release date | 28 February 2020 |
Running time | 134 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Malayalam |
Plot
The movie opens to scenes of a little boy and his father at a meat shop. The boy is shown smuggling heads and bodies of various animals home and preserving them in jars under his bed. Upon discovering this, his father beats him. When he grows up, he kills his father. The scene then shifts to the present.
In the present, the abduction and murder of two little girls of Trivandrum in succession, with no apparent motive makes investigation officer ACP Rithika Xavier suspect a serial killer. She requests a forensic team, but finds it awkward that the personnel assigned is the young Samuel John Kattookkaaran, who happens to be the younger brother of her estranged husband Xavier John Kattookkaaran. We are shown that the couple broke away after the loss of one of their children apparently due to carelessness and also that the surviving child Nayana consults a psychologist Dr. Alphonse Kurian.
Samuel concludes the killer seems able to move comfortably through a four-foot tunnel, but unable to dispose the body over a five feet wall, and able to blend inconspicuously in a compound of children, hence it must be a child. Though dismissive at first, Rithika Xavier is forced to accept Samuel's theory as an eyewitness shortly confirms a little boy dumping the dead body, though she does so in grace. Further victims are added to the list even as the police publish a sketch of the killer-child as described by the witness.
Dr. Alphonse Kurien states the boy in the sketch seems to be juvenile home inmate Rueben Elias whom he counselled a few years back. Clinical therapist Dr. Jayakumar Menon, who handled Rueben's case, confirms that Rueben indeed demonstrated murderous psychopathic behaviour and escaped from him recently.
Meanwhile, retired SP Abdul Wahab volunteers a test DNA for matching, which brings up a forgotten serial murder case from ten years back, which also happens to be the first case in the career of Rithika Xavier IPS. When three little girls of Burma Colony in the outskirts of Trivandrum were murdered in succession, and the body of another discovered from a school bus, the police arrest the bus driver Ubaid Ahmed. But he is proven innocent as another victim is kidnapped and murdered in the same manner while he is in custody. Ubaid is freed; the police have no more leads, and the case dies down, as the killings cease altogether. Abdul Wahab concludes that the Burma Colony killer must still be around. He also reveals that, on retirement, he took the ostracised Ubaid as his driver.
Yet another victim is snatched from the hospital under the very nose of the team, mounting pressure on them. Samuel correctly double-guesses a clever ruse in the form of a candy bar dropped in a dustbin in front of the hospital, but is puzzled that the DNA prints in the inside wrapper match neither those of the victim nor those of the child-killer collected from the previous incidents. He concludes that there is a second personality behind the child-killer, probably a mastermind. Due the intern Shikha's insight, it is discovered that this DNA matches perfectly with that of the Burma Colony murderer ten years earlier, proving not only a 10-12 year old child is involved.
Reuben is shown to deliver the victims to an abandoned truck deep inside a forest. Their corpses are removed from the truck by none other than Nayana, Rithika's daughter.
But Rithika is in no mood to listen as pressure mounts from the public as well as the department, and makes it clear that the only target of the team is to capture Rueben. Left on his own to pursue his lead, Samuel teams up with Shikha and Abdul Wahab to research the area where the three buried Burma Colony victims were found. Searching the place with ground-penetrating radars, they find five skeletons - one adult and four children - buried.
Samuel decides to search every one of the hundreds of medical and police personnel present at the hospital during the last abduction, for which the samples are procured with the help of Abdul Wahab and Dr. Alphonse Kurien.
While Rithika zeroes in on Rueben and captures him from a church, Samuel is baffled to find that not a single DNA from the collection matches the one on the candy wrapper.
Rueben delivers apocalyptic delusions on inquest, which is conveniently taken as a confession by Rithika and team. Samuel, however, observes from the footage of the inquest that Rueben was in fact responding to instructions from his hearing aid, probably from the mastermind. By the time he arrives at the station, Rueben has killed himself per transmitted instructions.
When a broken Rithika is unable to handle Nayana, Samuel convinces her to let Nayana stay with the Xavier family for the weekend. At their residence, Samuel is informed by Shikha that a blue Honda City car could be seen near the station premises in the footage around Rueben's suicide. Noticing the exact model right outside his gate, Samuel proceeds to peek, only to be surprised by Ubaid Ahmed, who knocks him out and abducts him.
The foolhardy team is knocked to action by yet another kidnapping, this time of none other than the daughter of a member of the team. Confronted with the undeniable evidence that they were in the wrong, the team proceeds to track the GPS of the victim's mobile phone.
Meanwhile, inside the abandoned truck deep inside the forest, a psychotic Ubaid taunts a bound Samuel with shocking details. He starts with video footage of none other than Nayana delivering the murdered victims out of the truck. Ubaid reveals that the whole saga was planned to frame Rithika's daughter as a serial killer as revenge for ruining his life in the Burma Colony case. This is followed by the revelation that the other child of the Xavier couple, Navya, is alive, supported by a video showing a dishevelled Navya confined in a basement. Though Samuel wriggles himself out and subdues Ubaid, he is able to extract no further information about the mastermind before Ubaid is unexpectedly shot dead by somebody in the blue Honda Civic. Samuel doggedly pursues the car, and is cleverly led to take up a yellow omnivan, only to end up in front of the police and discover the omnivan contains the body of the latest victim. Framed as the murderer, Samuel flees, but is supported by his brother Xavier, Shikha and Abdul Wahab. They arrange for a meeting with Rithika, who is forced to accept the facts, confronted with the evidence on Ubaid's mobile phone.
Navya's location can be traced to a 500m radius of Ubaid's location, but with the impending doom that she shall be in danger once the murderer realises that Ubaid's phone is lost.
Rithika and Xavier go to the location to search for Navya, while Samuel asks Dr. Alphonse Kurien to join him for a ride discuss the case, during which Samuel reveals to him that he knows Dr. Alphonse Kurien is the mastermind behind the killing. A flashback shows that Dr. Alphonse Kurien was the kid in the scene at the beginning of the movie he then reveals that he was leading a normal life thanks to his wife and even after her death he lived for his son but his life came crashing down after he was diagnosed with blood cancer. He then loses control of himself when he drops off his son's friend in the Burma Colony and then proceeds to take out his frustration of he medical condition by killing the kids in that colony. When Rithika arrives to search the colony he transfers his next victim from his car to a school bus, he sees parked near the road, which was accidentally witnessed by his son who was in the car with him. Later that evening on the news the revealed that Ubaid Ahmed was arrested because of the child found in the school bus. Dr. Alphonse Kurien's son sees the news and realizes that his father is the killer and goes to the terrace to check a room that his father keeps locked, realizes that it was the room in which he killed his victims. Dr. Alphonse Kurien tries to explain everything to his son who tries to get away from him and accidentally falls off the terrace and dies.
Dr. Alphonse Kurien buries his son's body and kills one more child just to prove to the police the Ubaid isn't the real killer.
He later on decides to take revenge on Rithika by kidnapping her daughter and raises her in captivity. He then meets Rueben Elias and plans to use him and Navya in his master plan. He tells Samuel that has no proof connecting the killings to him and that he had tested his blood and it wasn't a match. A flashback shows Samuel telling Shikha that Dr. Alphonse Kurien has two sets of DNA because of his bone marrow transplant but his skin and hair cells will have his old DNA which is enough proof to tie his to the case.
Rithika and Xavier find Navya. Shocked, Kurien wrestles and tries to attack Samuel which leads to an accident and Kurien is thrown out and dies while Samuel protected by the airbags.
A few days later Rithika applies for a 2 month leave to spend with her family before which she is handed a new case file form for which she requests the same forensic team. She calls Shikha who informs her that Samuel is in an enquiry bout the accident.
In the enquiry, Samuel tells the police exactly what happens as seen earlier. Later on it is revealed that during the fight in the car, Samuel managed to unbuckle Dr. Alphonse Kurien's seat-belt which caused him to be thrown out of the car.
Cast
- Tovino Thomas as Samuel John Kattookkaran, Medico-Legal Advisor
- Mamta Mohandas as Rithika Xavier IPS
- Saiju Kurup as Xavier John Kattookkaran
- Giju John as Dr Alphonse Kurian
- Prathap Pothan as Dr. Jayakumar Menon
- Reba Monica John as Shikha Damodar, Forensic Intern
- Renji Panicker as Retd. SP Abdul Wahab
- Rony David as ACP Dano Mammen
- Dhanesh Anand as Ubaid Ahmed
- Navis Xaviour as Rahul Nath, Sub-Collector of Allepey
- Lukman as Vinod
- Arunamshu Dev as Ruban Alias
- Thamanna Pramod as Nayana and Navya
- Aditya R Menon as childhood of Alphonse Kurian
- Srikanth Murali as S.P Issac
- Ramu as Rajeev Madhavan, Commissioner of Police
- Mohan Sharma as Abraham John Kattokkaran, Samuel's grandfather
- Anil Murali as Kurian, Alphonse's father
- Anwar Shereef as S.I Murali Mohankumar
- Rajesh Hebbar as Burma Colony victim's father
- Giridhar as Malavika's uncle
- Balaji Sharma as Dr. Jayan Krishna
- Sameksha Nair as Divya Divakar
- Devi Ajith as Divya's mother
- Thennal Abhilash as Malavika Das
- Anjali Nair as Malavika's mother
- Sadhika Venugopal as Burma Colony victim's mother
- Sini Varghese as Devika's mother
Marketing and release
The official trailer of the film was launched by Muzik247 on 13 February 2020.[3]
The film was theatrically released on 28 February 2020.[1]
The film was also released worldwide via Netflix on 07 June 2020.
Soundtrack
Jakes Bejoy handled the music and background score of the film.
References
- Matthew, Anna (28 February 2020). "Forensic Movie Review: A sinister thriller". The Times of India. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
- "Tovino's 'Forensic' to hit theatres on Feb 28".
- FORENSIC – Malayalam Movie -Official Trailer – Tovjyghkkk Paul,Anas Khan. SVF. 13 February 2020 – via YouTube.