RATSASAN

Ratsasan  is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language psychological thriller film directed by Ram Kumar. The film features Vishnu Vishal and Amala Paul in the lead roles, while Saravanan, Kaali Venkat, and Ramdoss play supporting roles. The film tells the story of an aspiring film director who becomes a police officer after his father's death and tracks down a serial killer murdering school girls.

PLOT

The film opens with two old men discovering a corpse which happened to be a teenage school girl named Samyuktha, a 15-year-old school student who was found brutally murdered and wrapped in a polythene bag.

Arun Kumar (Vishnu Vishal) is an aspiring filmmaker who wants to make a movie on psychopaths. After being rejected many times despite having a good script and due to pressure from his family, he decides to give up his dreams and become an Assistant Sub-Inspector with the help of his brother-in-law, Doss (Ramdoss), a police officer himself. He moves and stays with his sister Kokila (Vinodhini Vaidyanathan), Prasad, and their daughter Ammu (Abhirami). Ammu gets into trouble when she makes Arun forge her father's signature in her report card as she failed in two subjects. Her class teacher Viji (Amala Paul) figures this out and thinks that she signed it herself. Ammu brings Arun to her school to act as her father. Later, which Ammu is caught by her parents, this leads them to transfer their daughter to another school. Later, Arun meets and befriends Viji and her niece Kayal (Baby Monica), who is speech deprived.

A teenage school girl named Amudha is abducted on her way back home. Her parents then find a mutilated doll's head in a gift box attached to their dog's collar. Arun finds a similarity between Samyuktha, who was murdered a few days ago, and Amudha, both of them being 15-year-old school students who were kidnapped while returning home from school. Just like Samyuktha, the hair on the doll's forehead is uprooted, the eyes are drilled, and her mouth is damaged. Apart from that, in particular, there is a knife mark on Samyuktha's forehead, ears, and nasion. The same marks were found in the doll's face. He tries to convince ACP Lakshmi (Suzane George), his superior egotistical officer, that this was a psycho at work, but his theories are brushed off as fake stories.

Later, Amudha's corpse was found brutally mutilated. The killer drilled out Amudha's eyes, broke her teeth, and uprooted her hair in patches. On top of that, Amudha's body was scarred all over with a knife while she was alive. Arun suggests the corpses be hidden from the public to prevent the killer from gaining public attention. Initially, the officials opposed this idea owing to breaking protocols, but they eventually give in, moving the bodies to a secret facility under Dr. Nandan (Nizhalgal Ravi). Soon after, another school girl named Meera (Priya) is abducted. She happened to be from Ammu's ex-school. The search leads to a teacher named Inbaraj (Vinod Sagar), who works at Ammu's current school and is revealed to be a paedophile who forces schoolgirls into irrumatio. Arun encounters Inbaraj trying to molest Ammu and beats him up before detaining him. Inbaraj admits to being a sexual predator but denies having anything to do with the murders. In a bid to escape, he holds Venkat (Kaali Venkat), a policeman, at gunpoint. Arun manages to gun Inbaraj down inside the lift thereby saving Venkat.

Meanwhile, Ammu is abducted during her birthday party at home. Arun and Doss try to find her but they were too late. Arun discovers her mutilated body in their own car trunk, implying that she is also killed. To make things worse, Arun is suspended for his negligence on shooting Inbaraj. Dejected and angry, Arun investigates the case by himself, with the help from a few policemen. Finding an audio clip from the hearing aid of Meera, he traces it back to an old lady magician named Annabella George's (Saravanan) performance at the victim's school function. The lady used her magic show as a tool to kidnap the girls since she impressed all the students with her magic tricks. She invites one student to perform an act and then interacted with the selected student to get closer to them. Then, she started to stalk the selected student leading to their kidnap exactly on the second day after meeting them, without any hassle. This leads him to the next potential victim, a schoolgirl named Sanjana (Trishala). Arun realised that he was following the wrong girl due to Sanjana having a twin sister. Sanjana was abducted, even though she was under surveillance. Arun tracks her location to a house in the city, where he narrowly saves Sanjana from being murdered. The perpetrator escapes, but her identity is revealed to be Mary Fernandez (her real name), who was involved in a killing a long time ago. Arun finds more about the case from the investigating officer, Rajamanickkam, (Radha Ravi), a retired cop.

Mary's son Christopher (Yasar) had been afflicted with Werner Syndrome i.e.(progeria), a hormonal disorder that caused him to look aged. He was an outcast at school, but a girl named Sophie (Ragavi Renu) took pity on him and befriended him. Christopher soon began to develop feelings for Sophie, but unfortunately, he is heartbroken when she turns down his love and is soon ridiculed at school. The next day, Mary asked Sophie to become friends again and handed her a gift. When Sophie opens the gift box, she found a mutilated doll's head, which was what Sophie gave Christopher as his birthday gift. Sophie was brutally murdered by Mary, and both Mary and her son were arrested.

It was then told that both Mary and Christopher died in an accident, but she is still alive and murdering with the same vengeance. Rajamanickkam finds a clue in the files but is killed by Mary before meeting Arun. On finding him at the scene of the crime, Arun is detained and kept handcuffed at the station. He discovers that Rajamanickkam was trying to reveal that the person who had been performing the magic show in the school had six fingers on left hand and by a photo evidence, it is known that it was Christopher who has six fingers. Since only Mary died in the accident, the psycho is not the lady; it is her own son Christopher, who has taken advantage of his aged appearance. Before Arun can act on this, Christopher attacks Viji and abducts Kayal. While trying to apprehend Christopher, Venkat is killed. Kayal escapes and is found by Nandan, who tries to hide her in the facility, but Nandan dies trying to protect her. Arun tracks down Christopher to the facility, and after a prolonged fight, manages to kill him and save Kayal.

The movie ends with the media reporting the chain of events and an end to the murders done by the psychopath. It is then revealed that Arun gets a chance to make a movie about a psychopath fulfilling his dream.

CONCLUSION

This is one of the best movies that I loved until now. From the start of the movie to the last, the movie holds to the last. While watching the movie, I was like what happens next.  The writer Ram Kumar has a brilliant job for the writing script.

Not only that, but the acting of Vishnu Vishal as Assistant Sub-Inspector is also brilliant. Whereas, Amala Paul is also up to the mark. Saravanan as Christopher & Mary Fernandez/Annabella George (dual role) has done the excellent. Saravanan has done the brilliant whole over the film. He is the central character of the movie.

Overall, Ratsasan is a competent thriller, for the most part. There is a tautness to the storytelling, especially until the interval block, that keeps us hooked. Even the obligatory romance – Amala Paul plays a teacher whom Arun is smitten by – is quickly wrapped up with a couple of scenes. So much so that even the short romantic song has Arun’s investigation happening in the background. The backstory is both familiar and unique, but the character of an egoistic superior officer is grating.