Forensic (2020 film)

Forensic is a 2020 Indian Malayalam-language psychological thriller film co-written and co-directed by Akhil Paul and Anas Khan in their directorial debut, starring Tovino Thomas, Mamta Mohandas, Saiju Kurup, Renji Panicker, and Reba Monica John. 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.

Plot
A little boy smuggles organs of various animals at home from a local meat shop and preserve them in jars under his bed. Upon discovering this, his father beats him. When he grows up, he kills his father.

Meanwhile, ACP Rithika investigates the abduction and murder of two little girls from Trivandrum in succession. No apparent motive makes Rithika suspect that there is a serial killer. She requests a forensic team but finds it awkward that the forensic personnel assigned is Samuel John Kattookkaaran, who happens to be the younger brother of her estranged husband Xavier. It is shown that the couple broke away after losing one of their children apparently due to her carelessness and that the surviving child Nayana consults a psychologist, Dr. Alphonse Kurien. Samuel concludes that the killer must be a child as the killer seems to move comfortably through a 4-foot tunnel but is unable to dispose of a body over a 5-feet wall, and also because the killer is able to blend easily in a compound of children.

Though dismissive at first, Rithika is forced to accept Samuel's theory as an eyewitness shortly confirms a little boy dumping a 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. Alphonse states the boy in the sketch seems to be juvenile home inmate Reuben Elias whom he counseled a few years back. Clinical therapist Dr. Jayakumar Menon, who handled Reuben's case, confirms that Reuben indeed demonstrated murderous psychopathic behaviour and escaped from him recently. Abdul Wahab, a retired SP volunteers a test DNA for matching, which brings up a decade-old forgotten serial murder case, which also happens to be Rithika's first case.

When three little girls of Burma Colony in the outskirts of Trivandrum were murdered in succession, and the body of another was discovered in 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.

Samuel concludes that there is a second personality behind the child killer, probably a mastermind. Due to the intern Shikha's insight, it is discovered that this DNA matches perfectly with that of the Burma Colony murderer ten years earlier.

Samuel decides to examine every one of the hundreds of medical and police personnel present at the hospital during the last abduction, for which DNA samples are procured with the help of Abdul Wahab and Alphonse. Rithika zeroes in on Reuben 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. Reuben delivers apocalyptic delusions on the inquest, which is conveniently taken as a confession by Rithika and the team. Samuel, however, observes from the footage of the inquest that Reuben was in fact responding to instructions from his hearing aid, probably from the mastermind. By the time he arrives at the station, Reuben commits suicide per transmitted instructions.

When a broken Rithika is unable to handle Nayana, Samuel convinces her to let Nayana stay with Xavier for the weekend. At their residence, Samuel is informed by Shikha that a Violet Honda Civic car could be seen near the station premises in the footage around the time of Reuben's suicide. Noticing the exact model right outside his gate, Samuel proceeds to check, only to get knocked out and abducted by Ubaid. The 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. In the abandoned truck in a forest, the psychotic Ubaid taunts a bound Samuel with shocking details. He starts with video footage of none other than his niece and Rithika’s daughter, Nayana delivering the murdered victims out of the truck.

Ubaid reveals that the whole saga was planned to frame Nayana as a serial killer as vengeance for ruining his life in the Burma Colony case. This is followed by the revelation of Xavier's and Rithika's other daughter and Nayana’s twin sister, Navya, whom everyone believed to be dead. She was supported by a video showing a dishevelled Navya confined in a basement. It was revealed that Navya actually removed the corpses of the children from the abandoned truck deep inside the forest. He taunts Samuel by swearing vengeance on Rithika and her family and attempts to kill him. Though Samuel wriggles himself out and subdues Ubaid, he is unable to extract further information about the mastermind and Ubaid is unexpectedly shot dead by somebody in the Violet Honda Civic. Samuel doggedly pursues the car and is cleverly led to take up a yellow minivan, only to end up in front of the police and discover the minivan contains the body of the latest victim. Framed as the serial killer, Samuel flees but is supported by his 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 Alphonse to join him for a ride discuss the case, during which Samuel reveals to him that he knows Alphonse is the real child killer. A flashback shows that Alphonse was the boy, who killed his father for smuggling organs in the beginning, but was leading a normal life for his wife. After her death he lived for his son, Naveen, has but everything came crashing down after he was diagnosed with blood cancer. Dr. Alphonse lost control of himself when he drops off his son's friend in the Burma Colony and then proceeds to take out the frustration of his 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 Naveen, who was in the car with him. Later in the evening on the news Ubaid's arrest is shown, because of the child found on the school bus. Naveen watches the news and realises that his father is the killer and goes to the terrace to check a room that his father keeps locked, realising that it was the room in which he killed his victims. Dr. Alphonse tries to explain everything to his son who tries to get away from him and accidentally falls off the terrace and dies. Dr. Alphonse buries his son's body and kills one more child just to prove to the police the Ubaid isn't the real killer. Later, he decides to take vengeance on Rithika by kidnapping her daughter and raises her in captivity. He then meets Reuben and plans to use him and Navya in his plan.

Alphonse guesses correctly that Samuel has not handed him over to the police as he and his family would prioritise the safety of his missing niece Navya, and plans to use it as a backup to escape from Samuel and Rithika. He also tells Samuel that they have 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 Alphonse 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 him to the case. Rithika and Xavier find Navya.

Shocked, Alphonse wrestles and tries to attack Samuel which leads to an accident, and Alphonse 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 is also seems to have reconciled with her husband who spends time with both their daughters. She calls Shikha who informs her that Samuel is in an inquiry about the accident. In the inquiry, Samuel tells the police exactly what happens as seen earlier. Later on, it is revealed that during the fight in the car, Samuel killed Alphonse by unlocking his seat-belt which caused him to be thrown out of the car.

Marketing
The official trailer of the film was launched by Muzik247 on 13 February 2020. The film was also released worldwide via Netflix on 7 June 2020.

Theatrical
The film was theatrically released on 28 February 2020. The film was a financial success at the box office despite theatre shutdowns all over India due to COVID-19, collecting inr 150000000 in 13 days from Kerala alone and inr 250000000 worldwide, including satellite and other digital rights.

A popular Hyderabad based production house named Geetha Arts owned by Allu Aravind, bought the Telugu dubbing rights of the film. The Telugu dubbed version had a digital release on Aha. The film was also dubbed in Hindi and directly premiered on Zee Cinema on 13 May 2021.

It went on to become the highest rated Malayalam movie of 2020 with a 14.67 TRP following its release on Asianet.

Remake
A Hindi remake also titled Forensic was released on ZEE on 24 June 2022. It stars Vikrant Massey and Radhika Apte.

Music
Jakes Bejoy handled the music and background score of the film.