Anjaam Pathiraa 2020

In a tense thriller set in Kochi, a renowned psychologist turned consulting criminologist, Anwar Hussain, is brought in on the special recommendation of his friend ACP Anil Madhavan to assist the city police with a surgically precise case that tests both mind and method. A nightmarish start hits hard when DYSP Abraham Koshy is abducted and his body is found in a gypsum field, eyes and heart cruelly removed. The investigation is led by DCP Catherine Maria, whose team notes a zolpidem presence in the autopsy but finds no signs of coercion. Soon after, a second officer vanishes, only to reappear as a corpse in the police station’s backyard, accompanied by a Lady Justice figurine. The twin crimes push the case into a web of mystery where symbolism and science clash.

Anwar spots a familiar artefact in the forensic photos from the earlier scene, and the autopsies reveal the same eerie signature. The CCTV footage has been tampered with, pointing to a killer who can also manipulate digital evidence—a security hacker at work. To chase the cyber trail, Anwar brings in the hacker Andrew, and Catherine hatches a plan to draw the killer out: two officers must patrol at a fixed 100-meter distance, paired together for safety and leverage, to test the killer’s pattern.

During the late-night shift, Catherine’s driver, Paulson, is kidnapped. His scooter’s camera captures a wolf-masked man and a second voice, suggesting a two-person team. The shock intensifies when Paulson’s body is delivered to Anwar’s home in a refrigerator box, a chilling message that the killer will stop at nothing. The investigation widens as a cocaine dealer, Shameer Abdulla, is fingerprinted and traced to a cottage where a mummified corpse is found—only to reveal itself as a decoy.

During the chase, Anwar discovers a distinctive signature etched onto the figurine, revealing the work of its sculptor, Sudhakar Devalokam. When he questions Sudhakar, he learns that five such figurines existed for two men who blinded him after delivery. From this, a grim inference emerges: two more murders are likely to come. The tension spikes when CI Sharathchandran is abducted; the scene yields not just the figurine but a spinning fidget spinner, and his body ends up dumped on a Kochi Metro train by a mysterious woman. The police then shift leadership, with ACP Prakash Seetharam taking charge in Catherine’s stead, raising the stakes and questions of loyalty within the force.

Sharathchandran’s medical history adds a crucial twist: he had been taking the prescription drug Tenormin, a counteragent against hypnotic Zolpidem. Anwar theorizes the killers inject a hypnotic dose into their victims before kidnapping, amping up the hypnosis and controlling the outcome. A photograph of a spinner in a police file surfaces, linking a homicidal hacker named Simon to the case. Andrew confirms Simon’s identity as the man who once cross-dressed as the woman on a train, complicating the portrait of the suspects.

Despite presenting his findings, Anwar faces a troubling turn: Simon and his crime partner [Aravindan] were found dead with a suicide note, supposedly confessing to the murders, a development that reads as a deliberate decoy meant to derail the investigation. Yet the stubborn detective in Anwar remains unconvinced. A breakthrough comes when Sudhakar contacts him about a sixth figurine and reveals a painting inspired by his daughter’s description. Anwar recognizes the artist as the psychologist Dr. Benjamin Louis, a guest lecturer whose work has long hinted at the consciousness behind such symbolism. Through Benjamin’s foster parent [Sudhevan], Anwar uncovers a dark family history: when Benjamin was a teenager, his sister Rebecca was impregnated by a priest named Bennet Franco.

The past comes rushing forward as Louis, the father, is accused and jailed after being framed for assault by corrupt officers in cahoots with Bennet. Rebecca is sent to a convent, and Louis eventually dies behind bars. Benjamin later travels to the United States for higher studies and returns with a sharper, colder edge. From these threads, Anwar surmises that the first three murders were decoys or random acts, while the actual targets were Sharathchandran and Anil. He warns Anil, only to find his car deserted and an ominous quadcopter sighting of Benjamin’s van. Andrew catches the van’s trail to a pig farm, where the final confrontation will unfold.

In a tense interception, Anwar and two officers stop Benjamin before he can strike at Anil. Benjamin fights back, choking Anwar, but Catherine intervenes and the suspect is finally arrested. When questioned, Benjamin remains elusive about his motive. The trail leads to a devastating realization: the burnt prison corpse once identified as Simon is actually Bennet. En route to court, Bennet’s associates stage a fake encounter, killing Benjamin under escort. In a quiet, shattering moment, a girl visits Anil’s apartment; Anwar enters, and the room reveals Anil’s lifeless body. He realizes the killer was the girl himself, and as in a grim, final twist, he looks out the window and whispers “Rebecca,” recognizing the girl’s true identity before she vanishes into the night.

The case closes with a melancholy echo—a detective’s victory shadowed by a human cost, and a clue that reverberates with the living memory of a family torn apart by secrets, lies, and the buried truths that bind them together.