Memories (2013 film)

Memories is a 2013 Indian Malayalam-language neo-noir crime-thriller film written and directed by Jeethu Joseph, starring Prithviraj Sukumaran, S. P. Sreekumar, Vijayaraghavan, Meghana Raj, Miya George, Suresh Krishna, and Rahul Madhav. It is produced by P. K. Muralidharan and Santha Murali under the banner of Anantha Visions. The film follows Sam Alex, a drunkard cop, who is forced to investigate a series of murders.

Memories was released on 9 August 2013 to positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success at the box office.

The film received a cult status and is regarded as one of the finest and most entertaining crime thrillers in Malayalam cinema. It was remade in Tamil as Aarathu Sinam. The climax sequence is adapted from Hollywood film Kiss the Girls (1997)

Plot
Sam Alex is a SP of Kerala Police, who is heavily dependent on alcohol to ease the loss of his family. Sam was a peaceful family guy, leading a good life with his family. His beloved wife, Teena, and daughter were murdered by his enemy right in front of his eyes. He kills him and as a result, turns into an alcoholic. Sam's superior officer, Aravindhaksha Menon, requests him to proceed with a parallel investigation in a case involving the disappearance and possible kidnapping of several young married men, since the present police team is not able to make any progress in the case.

Sam refuses to do this. Later, his mother, Marykutty, requests him to take up the investigation. Sam soon gets into the case files and consults the post-mortem documents and the doctors who conducted it. Soon, Sam is seen making a breakthrough in the case. Another two kidnappings happen, and all this leads to Sam's rough conclusion of the killer. The killer is an eccentric person, who has a limp and a short right leg, and either hates or loves women. The killer leaves certain clues inscribed by a sharp surgical knife on the chest of the victims.

This serves Sam's thinking of what kind of person the killer is and who is his next target. Upon careful examination of the words inscribed in the body of the victims, Sam uncovers that the words are actually Aramaic, the language Jesus used for communication. The words are later found to point to biblical proverbs, thus helping Sam lead to the conclusion that the killer is insane and assumes the victims gave up their lives for the sins committed by their respective wives. He calls the wives for an inquiry and tells them that they had a link with a guy named Anand, who studied with them a certain years back, but there was no evidence of such a person. Sam concludes that Anand changed his identity and is living under a new name, Peter, and identity.

Sam realizes that there is a final target that Anand will not miss and will disappear after that. He eventually finds out that the target is his brother, Sanju, and his wife, Anitha, is the last link in the connection. Sam finds out with the help of his colleague and other evidence that Anand has a property near Kottayam. He goes there to save Sanju. After killing Anand, Sam gives up drinking, and he finally moves on and adopts Anand's sister Parvathi's daughter.

Release
Memories was released on 9 August 2013.

The film had been remade into Tamil as Aarathu Sinam with Arulnithi in lead.

Reception
Sify.com rated the film as "Good", stating that "Memories is an engaging film that has been well made." Gayathry of Oneindia.in says that "Memories is undoubtedly an entertaining investigation movie." Aswin of The Times of India says that "Memories is an engaging watch, courtesy a good plot and a cast that does justice to the plot." Indiaglitz.com says that "Memories is a thriller which may find space among the list of well crafted suspense thrillers in Mollywood. Nowrunning.com rated the film as "Above Average", stating that "Memories is a decent entertainer and stunning thriller in which plot twists abound, and the ambiance is laced with intrigue."

Music
The music for the film was composed by Sejo John and the background score by Anil Johnson.

Accolades

 * Won the Kerala State Film Awards in 2014 for Best Cinematography. Memories - IMDb
 * Won the Asianet Film Awards in 2014 for Most Popular Actor.