Abraham Ozler

Abraham Ozler is a 2024 Indian Malayalam-language crime thriller film co-produced and directed by Midhun Manuel Thomas and written by Randheer Krishnan. The film stars Jayaram in the titular role alongside Mammootty in extended cameo appearance, Anaswara Rajan, Anoop Menon, Arjun Ashokan, Saiju Kurup, Arya Salim, Senthil Krishna, Jagadish and Dileesh Pothan in supporting roles.

The film revolves around ACP Abraham Ozler's efforts to investigate the death of an IT employee and capture a serial killer, only known as "Birthday Killer". The music was composed by Midhun Mukundan while cinematography and editing was handled by Theni Eswar and Shameer Muhammed respectively.

Abraham Ozler was initially set to be released on 25 December 2023, but the release date was postponed to 11 January 2024. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its acting, cinematography, direction, and musical score, but criticism for its script. The film earned around ₹40.53 crore worldwide, becoming the highest grossing film of Jayaram's career.

Plot
ACP Abraham Ozler finds his life shattered when a fake police call lures him away, leading to the brutal death of his wife Maneesha and daughter Jenny. The main culprit is Vineeth, who wanted to avenge Ozler for arresting him in a narcotics case. Vineeth confesses to killing Aneesha and Jenny, cutting them into pieces and burying their body parts somewhere in a forest but claims he doesn't remember exactly where because he was on a high dosage of drugs. Ozler gets distraught about his family's death and struggles to find closure because their bodies are never found.

Three years later, Ozler, who is haunted by hallucinations and insomnia, investigates a series of murders with his subordinates SI Divya Sreedharan and Sijo T Venu. The two killers, one driving a pickup truck and the other posing as a surgeon, leave cryptic notes at the crime scenes. They name the killer as "Birthday killer". As the team unravels the connections, they discover Krishnandas, a man using an artificial larynx, as a key suspect. They also learn that Krishnadas, a child prodigy singer, had lost his voice in a failed surgery.

Delving into the past, Ozler discovers a shared history among the victim's parents: Shivakumar and Selvaraj were postgraduate medical students at Kozhikode Medical College in 1989. Shivakumar, Selvaraj, a retired police surgeon Xavi Punnoose and Alexander Joseph were all found to have been friends and PG batchmates. They were heard to have gotten into an accident, after which they parted ways. Krishnadas is captured while he kidnaps Alexander. But even as Krishnadas is in Ozler's custody, Xavi is kidnapped. As the truth surfaces, the real Alexander is revealed to be another person. Alexander is arrested as soon as he inflicts the first cut on Xavi's body to kill him. Once in custody, Alexander narrates the flashback to Ozler and his team.

Alexander was a dedicated PG student at surgery department of Kozhikode Medical College. Xavi, a fellow PG student of surgery, is not as good a surgeon as Alexander, and he is jealous of Alexander. Shivakumar, a PG student of General Medicine, despises Alexander for being in a relationship with a first year MBBS student Suja Jayadev whom Shivakumar had been pursuing. Selvaraj, a PG student of anaesthesia, and a junkie who used to be on drugs even while on duty, was found to use drugs from operation theatre stock by Alexander who then reports this to the college and Selvaraj is suspended. Professional jealousy of Xavi, fuelled by Shivakumar, led to Xavi orchestrating a failed surgery resulting in Krishnadas losing his voice forever. Alexander reports Xavi's intentional act to seniors, and Xavi, as well as Alexander being the first assistant at the surgery, are suspended from college. Xavi is blacklisted by his professors and told he shall never be allowed to do a surgery on a living human being again. Selvaraj, Xavi and Shivakumar then go ahead to severely injure Alexander, leading him into coma. They made up an accident scene, faked injuries on themselves, and told everyone that a drunk Alexander took them for a drive and crashed the car. Alexander lays in a vegetative state for months and Suja goes into deep depression seeing this. One day, doctors suggested that they remove Alexander's life support and allow him to die peacefully. A depressed Suja becomes heartbroken after overhearing this and in a fit of emotion, she commits suicide by jumping in front of a moving bus. In a fateful irony, Alexander survives life support removal and with years and years of nursing care, regains movement, although he had dissociative amnesia, causing him to forget most of the events of his PG time, including Suja and the cruelty done by Xavi and his friends. 3–4 years ago, Alexander sees a TV programme featuring Krishnadas, wherein some old videos of him singing are shown. This triggers his memories and Alexander slowly recollects all the past events. He meets up with Krishnadas who had become wayward after losing his voice, and together they plan the murders. The motive behind the murders were to seek revenge on those who ruined their lives.

Back to the present, Xavi meets Alexander and Krishnadas in Ozler's custody and has no remorse at all. Ozler feels very bad in saving Xavi and tells that he needs to die. A surprising turn occurs as Xavi dies on stage at the release ceremony of his autobiography, with forensic surgeon Dr Satheesh Madhavan revealing to Ozler that Alexander had poisoned him with a bacteria-infected surgical ink before making cuts on his body. Later, it is shown that Shivakumar is found dead, and that Selvaraj became an alcoholic and his wife leaves him realising that he caused their son's murder.

On his routine visit to Vineeth in prison, Ozler unexpectedly encounters Alexander and Krishnadas in the prison. Alexander cryptically utters "Bone Residue", hinting at an unresolved truth about Ozler's family. Ozler confronts Vineeth, realizing that there is no bone residue on the weapon he allegedly used in the murders. Vineeth challenges Ozler to dig deeper for the truth.

Cast
{{cast listing|
 * Jayaram as ACP Abraham Ozler IPS
 * Mammootty as Dr. Alexander Joseph "Alex" (extended cameo appearance)
 * Adam Sabiq as young Alexander, Suja's boyfriend
 * Anaswara Rajan as Dr. Suja Jayadev, Alexander's girlfriend
 * Arjun Ashokan as Vineeth
 * Anoop Menon as Dr. Satheesh Madhavan
 * Saiju Kurup as Krishnadas PS, Alexander's associate
 * Joseph Mathews as young Krishnadas
 * Arya Salim as SI Divya Sreedharan, Ozler's subordinate
 * Senthil Krishna as SI Sijo T Venu, Ozler's subordinate
 * Jagadish as Dr. Xavi Punnoose
 * Shivaraj as young Xavi
 * Kumarakom Raghunath as Dr. Shivakumar
 * Shiva Hariharan as young Shivakumar
 * Ravi Venkatraman as Selvaraj
 * Shajeer P. Basheer as young Selvaraj
 * Dileesh Pothan as Sudhakaran Payyarath / Dr. Alexander Joseph (Fake)
 * Assim Jamal as DIG Pradeep Rajan IPS
 * Arjun Nandhakumar as Dr. Arun Jayadev, Suja's younger brother
 * Harikrishnan as Naveen Shivakumar
 * Aneesh Gopal as SI Sarath
 * Sreeram Ramachandran as speech therapist
 * Darshana Sudarshan Nair as Maya, Naveen's wife
 * Krishnaprasad as MRI technician
 * Boban Alummoodan as Dr. Sreedharan Nambiar
 * Prasanth Alexander as Dr. Salam
 * Maala Parvathi as Dr. Annapoorneswari
 * Rajan Thrissur as Raghavan
 * Rini Udayakumar as Raghavan's wife
 * Rakesh Pattu as Ashok Selvaraj
 * Mani Shornur as Dr. Zacharia
 * Devendranath as Dr. Eeswaran Potty
 * Lali Marikar as Krishnadas's mother
 * Nandan Unni as Mani, ambulance driver
 * Habeeb Thrissur as Dr. Govindaraj
 * Jolly Chirayath as CEO Sasikala
 * Maya Menon as Alexander's mother
 * Sonia Giri as Xavi's wife
 * Kala as Shivakumar's wife
 * Maya as Selvaraj's wife

Special appearances
}}
 * Anju Kurian as Aneesha Ozler, Ozler's wife
 * Saniya Rafi as Jennifer, Ozler's daughter
 * Sai Kumar as Counsellor
 * Benyamin as himself

Development
After the success of Anjaam Pathira (2020), Midhun Manuel Thomas wanted to direct a film featuring Kunchako Boban. However, the commencement of shooting didn't occur due to various reasons. It was during that time that director John Manthrikkal narrated a story to Midhun which was written by ortho surgeon Dr. Randheer Krishnan. He liked the story and decided to direct the film.

In an interview with Anandu Suresh of The Indian Express, Midhun revealed that the film's titular protagonist was named after the Canadian physician William Osler, regarded as the 'Father of Modern Medicine'. He also revealed that he had initially included a backstory, explaining that Abraham Ozler's father, a doctor, named his son after his favorite physician with the hope that Abraham would also become a physician like his father. The film marked Midhun's return to direction after a four-year hiatus. Meanwhile he had penned the screenplay for Garudan (2023) and Phoenix (2023).

Casting
Midhun approached Jayaram to play the titular role. Initially, Jayaram was hesitant to commit to the project as he believed that it was unlike any film he had done till now. He believed it was a heavy character and had to appear in two timelines with different looks. However, he agreed to play the role as Midhun convinced him. In preparing for the role, Jayaram put in some weight and grew a long beard with a tired look to fit the character. Abraham Ozler marks Jayaram's second Malayalam venture since 2019.

There were reports that Mammootty would have a 15-minute cameo appearance in the film which was denied. Reports suggested that Mammootty would have a screen-time of over 45 minutes in the film, and it was also reported that he would be playing a negative role, which was unconfirmed. Regarding Mammootty's cameo, Jayaram revealed that Mammootty was not the first choice to play the role of Alexander. The makers approached actors Sathyaraj, R. Sarathkumar, Prakash Raj, and others. Midhun said that, when he narrated the story of Abraham Ozler to Mammootty, he liked the script and asked him if he could play the antagonist. Midhun was apprehensive about casting Mammootty. However, Jayaram convinced him to give the role to Mammootty. Midhun met Mammootty again, who consented to play the role of Alexander.

Filming
The project was announced on 19 May 2023. Principal photography began on 20 May 2023 in Mission Quarters in Thrissur. Producer Irshad M. Hassan performed the switch-on ceremony. The first scene was reportedly shot between Jayaram and Sai Kumar. Apart from Thrissur, Palakkad, Coimbatore, Idukki and Wayanad were the other shooting locations. The filming wrapped up on 14 November 2023.

Music
The film's music was composed by Midhun Mukundan. It consists of one track, Poomaname, from the 1985 film Nirakkoottu. The track was originally composed by Shyam and the lyrics were written by Poovachal Khader. The song was sung by Nitin K. Siva, while the original song was by K. S. Chithra, G. Venugopal and K. G. Markose.

Theatrical
The film was initially scheduled to release on 25 December 2023, on the occasion of Christmas. The release date was postponed to 11 January 2024 to avoid a clash with other major Christmas releases. The film was released in North America on 12 January 2024.

Home media
Abraham Ozler is released in Disney+ Hotstar on 20 March 2024 and it will also be available in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada languages.

Critical response
Gopika IS of The Times of India gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Jayaram starrer Abraham Ozler turned out to be an interesting watch and can undoubtedly be seen as a new phase in the actor's career." Sara Anna Eepan of The Week gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Abraham Ozler is worth a watch on the big screen for those interested in an investigation drama with medical thriller elements."

Sajin Shrijith of The New Indian Express gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Abraham Ozler doesn't lack the ability to hook us, but it made me wonder whether it would've worked better as an airport novel than a film." Nikhil Sebastian of Pinkvilla gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Abraham Ozler falls into the category of another half-baked thriller, relying on the performances of the actors and a brilliant original score." Anandu Suresh of The Indian Express gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Midhun Manuel Thomas' film can be dubbed as a crime thriller that meets the essential criteria for the genre. However, determining whether it has done a good job requires more than a simple yes/no answer."

S. R. Praveen of The Hindu wrote "The Jayaram-starrer is marred by generic treatment to the serial killer genre, with a cameo from superstar Mammootty offering only a temporary relief." Vishal Menon of FIlm Companion wrote "By reinventing Jayaram as an actor and by infusing so much information into a stereotypical thriller, Abraham Ozler remains fairly engaging even if you've seen it all before." Princy Alexander of Onmanorama wrote "The initial feeling of repetitiveness affects the thrills in the first half. However, true to the expression "to end with a bang," Midhun employs the right tactics in the second half to provide viewers with a more than satisfactory conclusion."

Box office
Abraham Ozler grossed ₹28.8 million from the Kerala and ₹60 million worldwide, on its opening day. The film grossed ₹2.34 crore on its second day, with worldwide gross exceeding ₹10 crore. Abraham Ozler grossed ₹2.9 crore on its third day and ₹3.19 crore on its first Sunday. The film grossed around ₹11.31 crore in its first four days from Kerala.

The film grossed a total of $61,616 from the North America in the first weekend. The film grossed ₹1.4 crore on its fifth day from the Kerala. The film grossed a total of ₹150 million in its first 8 days from Kerala. The film grossed a total of ₹31 million in its second weekend at Kerala. The film grossed a total of $1.36 million (approx Rs. 113 million) from 11 days at the UAE and GCC box office, while it grossed ₹17 million from ROI circuits in 11 days. In North America, the film grossed $130K in UK and Europe it grossed $150K and in Australia $17K in 11 days at the box office. In 16 days, the film grossed more than ₹20 crore from Kerala and became the first commercially successful Malayalam film of 2024.