Bhoothakaalam

Bhoothakaalam
Promotional poster
Directed by	Rahul Sadasivan
Written by	Rahul Sadasivan Sreekumar Shreyas
Story by	Rahul Sadasivan
Produced by	Teresa Rani Sunila Habeeb
Starring	Shane Nigam Revathi Saiju Kurup James Eliya Athira Patel
Cinematography	Shehnad Jalal
Edited by	Shafique Mohammed Ali
Music by	Gopi Sundar (score) Shane Nigam (song)
Production companies	Plan T Films Shane Nigam Films
Distributed by	SonyLIV
Release date	21 January 2022 (2022-01-21)
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Bhoothakaalam is a 2022 Indian Malayalam-language horror film written and directed by Rahul Sadasivan, starring Shane Nigam and Revathy.^[1] The film is presented by Anwar Rasheed and produced under the banner Plan T Films in association with Shane Nigam Films.^[2][3] Gopi Sunder handles the background score while Shane Nigam makes his debut as a music director as well as producer.^[4][5] Principal photography took place from January 2021 to February 2021 in Kochi.

The film had its worldwide premier through SonyLIV on 21 January 2022. It received widespread critical acclaim.^[6]

Plot[]

Asha (Revathi) lives with her son Vinu (Shane Nigam) taking care of her ill mother who later dies. Asha is a school teacher and manages her home's finances single-handedly. Vinu has completed B. Pharm and has been searching for a job for almost two years but in vain. Unable to resist the struggle of unemployment, Vinu resumes his smoking and drinking habits. Asha is mentally and physically drained in trying to make Vinu find a job.

Vinu begins to get a feeling that there is someone else staying in his house. Initially, he assumes that it was his mother who was trying to show her anger at him, but later he is convinced that there is actually someone else. Just like his friends and relatives, Vinu's mother also thinks that something is wrong with him and takes him to a counselor. But Vinu does not cooperate with the counselor. While Asha begins to realise that Vinu's feelings about someone else being present in the house is true, the counselor learns about the past history of the house in which the mother and son are living. In the same house, several years ago, two people hung themselves unable to tolerate the feelings of the presence of another person. He also finds that each of them was suffering emotional setbacks due to different reasons back in their time.

In the climax, Asha and Vinu get trapped in the house amidst horrific happenings. They ultimately realize that all of the happenings are their own hallucinations due to the setbacks they faced and escape from the house. They reconcile and vacate the house.

Cast[]

• Shane Nigam as Vinu
• Revathi as Asha
• Saiju Kurup as George
• James Eliya as Madhu
• Athira Patel as Priya
• Valsala Menon as Vinu's grandmother
• Abhiram Radhakrishnan as Shyam
• Gilu Joseph as Dr Beena
• Manju Sunichen as Asha's neighbour

Music[]

Gopi Sundar has done the background score for the film. The sole song from the film has been written, composed and sung by Shane Nigam.

Track listing[]

Themes and analysis[]

Bhoothakaalam deals with themes of psychological disorder and its effects. Though the film disguises as a horror, it's an allegory for grief, trauma, clinical depression and how the central character is slowly going insane. The movie follows a template of connecting psychological disorder with fear inducing fantasy. The film also depicts the portrayal of characters who are affected by mental disorders like clinical depression and substance abuse, delivering a hard reality check on the gravity of such mental issues. The director has used an eerie looking house as a metaphor for the minds of its inhabitants, a mother and son. When the mother suffers from clinical depression, the son also shows similar traits of this suffocating state of mind. Asha is reluctant to take her anti-depressants, and Vinu is addicted to alcohol and drugs as an escape from crushing depression and sleeplessness. Once they both start to experience paranormal activities in the house they live in, fear becomes real in their minds. The movie shows what is psychosis, a kind of overwhelming fear which is capable of twisting and tweaking reality. This can be a result of many underlying psychic problems like depression or substance abuse.^[7]

Its slow narrative builds this unsettling sense of atmosphere and dread of the unnatural and unknown, along with an unexpected but welcome mystery element. The concept of paranormal is brought together playing with perspectives mixed with psychological settings. The subject also speaks about the universal fear of isolation and emotional longing. And when attaching this sadness and gloom to the central characters, the experience becomes haunting in a very personal and relatable way.^[8]

Reception[]

Professional reviews
Review scores
Source	Rating
The New Indian Express
Firstpost.com
The Indian Express
NDTV
The News Minute
The Times of India

Bhoothakaalam was well received with positive reviews from the critics.^[9][10] Rohan Naahar from The Indian Express stated: "Bhoothakaalam has one of the most thrillingly staged conclusions to any horror film in recent memory. It works because of a discipline in the writing and filmmaking, and a palpable love for the genre. The almost impossibly well-made horror picture whittles the genre down to its bare essence, with a disregard for jump scares that comes across as positively rebellious."^[11]

The Hindu wrote: "Bhoothakaalam shows us how to get the scares right, in quite an understated, effortless fashion." It is "...a textbook in how to scare the audience with minimal use of jump scare techniques. By the end, one is left wondering whether the film’s title is referring to the past or to ghosts."^[12] Sajin Srijith of The New Indian Express gave 4/5 stars and described Bhoothakaalam as a "Gimmick-free, supremely effective horror flick" further saying the film "employs ambient sounds, silence, light, and shadows – all the simple stuff, really – to conjure up one-of-a-kind horror experience that’s been missing from Malayalam cinema lately. The kind where atmosphere takes precedence over everything else."^[13]

Writing for Hindustan Times, Devarsi Ghosh wrote that the film is a "moving mental health drama disguised as horror." The characters of "Vinu and Asha are well-written and well-performed, and that’s what’s great in Bhoothakaalam. The writing, acting and direction leaves us in no doubt about Vinu and Asha's loneliness and heartache."^[14] Deepa Soman of The Times of India gave 3 out of 5 and wrote: "Though it's all staple horror film elements, thanks to the performance of the lead actors – one stays enticed till the last moment of the film to see how things turn out for the family in distress. It’s their powerful expressions that give the nightmare-inducing effects of the paranormal tale to the audience, more than the events around them."^[15]

Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost gave the film 4 out of 5 stars praising the story, direction, performance, cinematography. She mentioned "mental health, the pressure of elder care, alcoholism, drug abuse, a flawed education system, unemployment – Bhoothakaalam touches upon all this and more, leaving us with plenty to think about after the last credit has scrolled off screen."^[16]

Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, the film is "fleshed out with commendable control by Revathi and Shane Nigam" as they "confront a rapid unravelling of their lives in a house where a dark secret lurks in the shadows." "Bhoothakaalam is Rahul Sadasivan’s sophomore directorial. The screenplay... builds up tension one little, measured driblet at a time, providing a peep into the cumulus of factors that has pushed Asha and Vinu to the edge of sanity." "The coiled strength of the film stems from writing, the acting and the way the interiors of the house are captured to convey the contrast between the domestic space inhabited by Asha and Vinu, neither of whom is in a happy place." He further states, "Sadasivan orchestrates his austere material with precision and finest to deliver a minimalistic, well-crafted thriller that employees horror movie tropes, including a jump scare or two and a spine-chilling finale, without falling into the usual traps of the genre."^[17]

Sowmya Rajendran of The News Minute stated, the film became an "...instant favourite with fans of horror genre. With a minimal cast and hardly any dependence on visual effects, the film has emerged as one of the scariest horror films to come out in recent times." She further adds: "Horror film seldom hold up beyond the first viewing, when they have revealed all their jump scares and 'boo' moments. Bhoothakaalam is a rare exception that becomes more reward with every watch."^[18]

Sanjith Sidhardhan from OTTplay gave 3.5 /5 stars and wrote, "This thriller revolving around a mother-son duo, who battle their own issues – alone and together, is sure to keep you at the edge of your seat, thanks to powerful performance from its lead cast and eerie atmosphere in which most of the story evolves."^[19]

Manoj Kumar R from The Indian Express gave 3.5 out of 5 and wrote, "Bhoothakaalam is allegorical." "Shane Nigam is impressive as the man staring into the abyss while Revathi channels the pain of a torment soul. Together, they draw us by the collar and retain the hold till the very end. The last 15 or 20 minutes of the film are a real doozy as they set the heart racing."^[20]

Cris from The News Minute gave 3.5 out of 5 and stated, "Bhoothakaalam is a well-prepared movie, scripted carefully and made richer by beautiful performances." "At one point the film may appear like a psychological thriller, and you connect it to issues of the mind. In another, it can be entirely supernatural. And a third interpretation can be purely about relationships."^[21]

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma tweeted that he hasn't seen a more realistic horror film than Bhoothakaalam since William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973).^[22][23]

References[]