Ratsasan

Ratsasan
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ram Kumar
Written by	Ram Kumar
Produced by	G. Dilli Babu R. Sridhar
Starring	Vishnu Vishal Amala Paul
Cinematography	P. V. Shankar
Edited by	San Lokesh
Music by	Ghibran
Production company	Axess Film Factory
Distributed by	Trident Arts Skylark Entertainment
Release date	5 October 2018 (2018-10-05)
Running time	170 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹8 crore
Box office	₹75 crore[1]

Ratsasan (transl. Demon; pronounced [ɾaːtɕasaɳ]) is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language psychological crime thriller film directed by Ram Kumar. Basic structure and character of the flim based on two real personalities.The film features Vishnu Vishal and Amala Paul, while Saravanan, Kaali Venkat, Vinodhini Vaidyanathan 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 tries to track down a serial killer.

The film features music and background score composed by Ghibran, cinematography by P. V. Shankar and editing by San Lokesh. Production began in November 2016, with principal photography starting in June 2017. The film released on 5 October 2018, to mostly positive reviews from the audience, and also became a blockbuster, grossing ₹75 crore worldwide.

Ratsasan was remade in Telugu as Rakshasudu (2019) directed by Ramesh Varma with Bellamkonda Sreenivas and Anupama Parameswaran playing the lead roles. The film was released in Hindi as 'Main Hoon Dandadhikari'.

Plot[]

The corpse of Samyuktha, a 15-year-old student who was brutally murdered, is discovered. Arun Kumar (Vishnu Vishal) is an aspiring filmmaker who wants to make a movie on psychopaths. After multiple rejections and pressure from his family, he becomes an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police, with the help of his brother-in-law, Doss (Ramdoss), a police officer himself. He moves in with his sister Kokila (Vinodhini Vaidyanathan), Doss and their daughter Ammu (Abhirami). Ammu gets into trouble in school and asks Arun for help, so he meets her teacher Viji (Amala Paul) at school. He befriends Viji and her hearing and speech impaired niece, Kayal (Baby Monica).

Meanwhile, Arun investigates the abduction of a school girl, Amudha. Arun finds similarities between Samyuktha and Amudha's case, due to the mutilations on a doll found at Amudha's house. But his attempts to convince his superior officer, ACP Lakshmi (Suzane George), go futile. A few days later, Amudha's mutilated corpse is found. The pathologist Dr. Nandan (Nizhalgal Ravi), suggests that the perpetrator followed a similar modus operandi like Samyuktha. Over the next few days, another hearing impaired girl named Meera, from Viji's school is abducted and killed. The search leads to Inbaraj (Vinod Sagar), a teacher at the new school Ammu is enrolled in. Inbaraj is a pedophile who forces girls into irrumatio. Ammu herself narrowly escapes Inbaraj when Arun nabs him after getting a tip off from another victim Sharmi(Raveena Daha). Inbaraj admits to being a sexual predator but denies the murder charges. In a bid to escape, he holds Venkat (Kaali Venkat), a policeman, at gunpoint, but Arun guns Inbaraj down. The same day, Ammu is abducted from her birthday party at home and Arun finds her corpse in their car trunk. To make things worse, Arun is suspended for his negligence on shooting Inbaraj. Dejected and angry, Arun unofficially investigates the case himself, with the help of few policemen. Finding an audio clip from Meera's hearing aid, he traces a piano tune back to a lady magician Annabella George(Naan Saravanan), who performed at all the victims' schools. Arun finds that Annabella picks her victims by randomly calling them on to the stage, she then kills them within the next few days and her next target would be a girl named Sanjana. He tries to warn Sanjana but despite constant surveillance, she is abducted. Arun and his team track her location and save Sanjana from being murdered. Anabella escapes, but her real identity is revealed to be one Mary Fernandez, who was accused of murder a long time ago. Arun suspects that since her identity is out, Mary might falter in her modus operandi and deviate from her intended targets. He meets Rajamanickam, (Radha Ravi), a retired cop, to collect information.

Rajamanickam tells about Mary's son Christopher who has Werner Syndrome(progeria), a hormonal disorder that causes him to appear aged. He is an outcast at school, but a girl named Sophia befriends him. Christopher develops feelings for Sophia, but is heartbroken when she turns him down, since his condition has rendered him impotent and he cannot have a love life. Their conversation is overheard and Christopher is traumatized after his classmates humiliate him. Mary gets to know of this and meets Sophia, who apologizes saying it isn't her fault. But Mary hacks her to death for causing Christopher's humiliation. Mary and Christopher are arrested and sent to prison. They were believed to be dead, but Rajamanickam says that perhaps, Mary is still alive and has become a psychopath. Arun reaches Rajamanickam's house only to find him killed by Mary. He sees Rajamanickam's evidences but ACP Lakshmi detains him and forbids him from following this case. Arun discovers that Rajamanickam had pieced information from photographs - while Mary had only five fingers on her right hand, a photo from Mary's magic performance shows her with six fingers, revealing that it was Christopher disguised as Mary, who was long dead in an accident. 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 Dr.Nandan, who tries to hide her in his facility, but Christopher kills Nandan. Arun tracks down Christopher on time, and after a prolonged fight, kills him and saves Kayal. The media finally reports an end to the murders done by Christopher and Arun gets a chance to make a movie about a psychopath fulfilling his dream.

Cast[]

Production[]

Following the release of the comedy drama Mundasupatti (2014), Ramkumar was keen to do a serious film to avoid being type-cast. He was inspired to write a film on a psycho killer after reading an international news story about Alexander Spesivtsev, and spent close to a year writing a fictional screenplay to fit around the character of a psycho killer. Ramkumar initially struggled to find an actor to play the lead role of a forty-year-old man with a child, and despite working the child out of the script as a result, he still found it difficult to convince actors to sign the film. In April 2017, actor Jai signed the project titled Ratchasan, which was set to be produced by C. V. Kumar of Thirukumaran Entertainment.^[2] However, soon after the actor and director dropped out of the project, and Kumar took the title of Ratchasan with him. Subsequently, throughout the production stage, the film was briefly known as Cinderella and then Minmini, but neither title was kept. The former title was claimed by another Tamil film's producers, while Ramkumar felt the latter seemed too light-hearted. Eventually, the team members managed to amicably convince Kumar to offer them the title of Ratchasan, which was later stylised to Ratsasan.^[3]

Ramkumar chose to make the film with producer Dilli Babu and starring Vishnu in July 2017.^[4][5] Amala Paul joined the cast of the film in late November 2017, with production starting thereafter.^[6] In June 2017, the title of the film was changed to Raatchasan.^[7] in association with T-series

Soundtrack[]

Ghibran composed the soundtrack and background score of Ratsasan. He began composing the soundtrack in early 2017. He also finished composing the theme music for the film's teaser in August 2018. The album features four songs composed by Ghibran and lyrics written by Umadevi, Ramkumar, Ratnakumar and GKB. One song, "Kaadhal Kadal Dhana", was released as a single on 15 September 2018. The song written by Umadevi and rendered by Sathyaprakash and Chaitra H.G. received positive reviews from music listeners. It topped into the #1 position at the Radio Mirchi Top 20 Countdown, for nearly 4 weeks. Following that, a video song of the same was telecast on 30 September 2018, through Isaiaruvi channel at 4:30 p.m. IST.

The album was released on 27 September 2018, at the Suryan FM Radio Station, Chennai featuring the composer and other crew members present during the crew members present in the event. The film's soundtrack was commended by the audience and critics. M Suganth from The Times of India, gave a positive review for the soundtrack and stated "Kaadhal Kadal Dhana" as "a romantic melody, a genre that Ghibran is a master at. Slow and lullaby-like, the persistent strings in the background are soothing, and despite distinct arrangements, the vocals are pronounced enough to make an impact."

Background Score[]

The original film score of Ratsasan, composed by Ghibran, was released on 31 October 2018. The album features 41 songs for a duration of nearly 54 minutes.

All music is composed by Ghibran.

Release[]

Ratsasan was released worldwide on 5 October 2018. The film was well received by the audience as well as the critics. The film was also released in Malayalam with the same title.

Distribution[]

Initially, 24PM, had acquired the distribution rights of the film, but it was later sold to Trident Arts.

Home media[]

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV.^[8] It was dubbed and released in Malayalam with the same title. The digital rights of the Malayalam version belongs to Disney+ Hotstar.^[9] The satellite rights of the Hindi version, which was titled as Main Hoon Dandadhikaari (transl. I am a police magistrate), was sold to Star India and had a TV premiere on Star Utsav Movies on 31 December 2019 at 11:49 p.m. The film was again telecast a month later with full promotions on TV.^[10]

Reception[]

Box office[]

Ratsasan has earned around ₹75 crore.^[11]

Critical response[]

Behindwoods wrote "Watch 'Ratsasan' the structured and engaging screenplay that makes it an intense psycho thriller", giving the movie 3.25/5.^[12] Times of India gave it a 3.5/5, stating that "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."^[13] Sreedhar Pillai of Firstpost, rated 3 out of 5 stars, stating that "Vishnu Vishal's cop act is superlative but this thriller could've done with some trimming".^[14] India Today rated 3 out of 5 stars, and commented "Vishnu Vishal's Ratsasan is one of the biggest releases in K-Town this week. The film is a carefully-written thriller, that has a few great moments, says our review."^[15] Film Companion South called it "If you turn a blind eye to the coincidences (say, the plot point around an autorickshaw) and the obvious red herrings (a suspected killer), the bulk of Raatchasan works. Ghibran's terrific score is the aural equivalent of bad airplane food — it makes your tummy queasy. After Mundasupatti and Raatchasan, I'm definitely pumped about what Ram Kumar has in store next".^[16] The News Minute, commented about the movie that "The film feels like a mix of all the psycho killer films you've seen before, but this surprisingly works for it."^[17]

Accolades[]

Remake[]

After the film's success, the makers decided to remake the film in Telugu, with actor Nithiin selected to reprise the role of Vishnu Vishal. But he opted out due to schedule conflicts, and was replaced by Bellamkonda Srinivas. Anupama Parameshwaran, was selected to play the female lead, reprising Amala Paul's role. The project was bankrolled by Havish under the banner A Studios, and was directed by Ramesh Varma. In March 2019, the film was titled Rakshasudu. The film was released in August 2019, to generally positive reviews.

References[]

External links[]

• Ratsasan at IMDb