Darvinte Parinamam 2016

Anil Anto [Prithviraj Sukumaran] and his wife Amala [Chandini Sreedharan] leave their hometown of Kottarakara to start anew in Kochi, finding a modest apartment and a fresh rhythm thanks to the support of their friends. Anil works as a cable TV technician, quietly building a simple life with Amala, whose expectant glow becomes a bright note in their days.

Across town, the fearsome underworld figure Gorilla Darwin [Chemban Vinod Jose] and his brothers hold sway over the city’s darker corners, casting a long shadow over ordinary people trying to live normal lives. The couple’s happiness takes a brutal turn when Darwin’s brother steals Amala’s chain and a violent confrontation leaves Amala hospitalized with a miscarriage. What should have been a private tragedy spirals into a larger conflict, and the newly settled couple finds little recourse through the police, who are slow to react and overwhelmed by the gang’s reach.

A chance sighting during a routine work call pulls Anil into a perilous chase. He follows the culprit, confronts him, and brings the attacker to the authorities, only to be met with derision from a police inspector who is Darwin’s cousin. This officer brushes off Anil’s pain and instead calls Darwin to collect his brother, who offloads a cheap sympathy gesture—a token money for a new chain—before an embarrassing confrontation erupts. The moment leaves Anil humiliated and marked, while Darwin’s wrath begins to simmer beneath the surface, as his gang systematically strips Anil of every possession, reducing the couple to an empty apartment with nothing left but memories.

A sympathetic, if weary, white-collar policeman explains that Darwin operates by a brutal rulebook: fear, humiliation, and calculated losses. With no immediate recourse, Anil turns to a small-time gangster for help, leading to a misguided and comically failed attempt to kidnap Darwin’s child. The plan quickly expands into a bolder target—Darwin’s younger brother Gilli, who is known to be a film buff—only to crash and burn in a riotous display of misfortune.

Still, a clue emerges from the chaos: while rummaging through Gilli’s phone, Anil spots a photo of a golden church statue that Darwin hoards as a pristine treasure. It becomes clear that Darwin swapped the original statue for a replica when repairing the church, and the golden statue now sits hidden at a chicken farm. Seizing the chance, Anil steals the statue and starts to negotiate, knowing Darwin plans to liquidate it to a foreign buyer. The stage is set for a tense cat-and-mouse game, as Anil demands that Darwin return the items he has taken—no new items, only the exact ones—shifting the power balance in a dangerous standoff.

As tension escalates, Darwin’s rival, Solomon, becomes the conduit through which the stolen bike—an item that once belonged to Anil—reappears on Darwin’s side. In a frayed alliance of violence and wits, Anil intervenes when Darwin and his gang push too far, and the two seem poised for a final showdown. Yet a surprising turn of heart appears: instead of delivering a fatal blow, Darwin slows his own plan, perhaps recognizing a human thread he had long ignored.

The turning point arrives when the police arrest Darwin and his goons for the statue heist, a consequence rooted in Anil’s quiet decision to act—whether to protect his own dignity, to secure a future with Amala, or perhaps to turn a twisted page toward something redemptive. In the wake of the arrest, Anil helps Darwin articulate his own feelings to his beloved, opening a route toward reconciliation and, ultimately, marriage. What began as a fight for survival gradually morphs into a strange, uneasy alliance with the man who once represented a reckoning of violence, culminating in a quiet, hopeful resolution where love, resilience, and a second chance hold the last word.