Ezra 2017

After the death of the last Malabar Jew in Cochin, an antique seller breaks into a home and pockets a mysterious box etched with Hebrew inscriptions. That same night, an unseen force from the box unleashes a brutal attack on a shop worker. In response, ACP A. C. P. Shafeer Ahammed is assigned to the case, but his team quickly finds themselves with no clear leads to chase.

Ranjan Mathew, a nuclear waste management specialist based in Mumbai, is transferred to Kochi with his wife Priya Raghuram. Caught between two cultures—Marathi and Malayali—Priya struggles to adjust to a new life, a struggle pressed further when, during a shopping trip, she purchases the same enigmatic box. The moment she unlocks it, a wave of unsettling, inexplicable events begins to ripple through their home, shattering the sense of safety they once had.

To understand what they’re dealing with, Ranjan asks Fr. Samuel to visit their house. Fr. Samuel immediately recognizes the box as a Dybbuk box, a cursed artifact from Jewish folklore. He advises Ranjan to seek guidance from Rabbi David Benyamin in Mumbai. The Rabbi explains that a Dybbuk tends to possess those who are mentally vulnerable or very young, and that anyone who attempts to exorcise it risks becoming the object of its revenge. Tragically, the next day, the Rabbi dies, casting a heavier shadow over the unfolding mystery.

Soon the couple learns that Priya is pregnant, which raises the fear that their unborn child could be possessed by the malevolent force. Ranjan turns to Rabbi Benyamin’s son, Marques, for help. Marques travels to Kochi and learns that the Dybbuk’s name is Abraham Ezra, a detail written on the box in Hebrew. He then reaches out to Joshua Yehudi, a former friend of Rabbi Benyamin, who provides a book recounting the tale of Abraham Ezra set in 1941 in Thiru-Kochi.

In a flashback to Thiru Kochi, the romance between Abraham Ezra and Rosy—a poor Christian girl—unfolds against a rigid backdrop of class and faith. Rosy’s pregnancy becomes a point of crisis when Ezra’s father, Yakoob Ezra, refuses to bless their union. Ezra’s heartfelt plea to Rosy is cut short by a rift that leaves her heartbroken and ultimately drives her to suicide. The ensuing confrontation ends in a violent clash: Rosy’s father is killed, Ezra is deemed brain-dead, and Yakoob turns to darker means, placing Ezra’s soul inside the Dybbuk box. Ezra’s body is hidden at sea, while the box is buried away, only to later wander back into the lives of Ranjan and Priya.

As the layers unfold, the group discovers that the box’s influence has found a new target—Ranjan—exploiting his orphaned past and his profession dealing with dangerous waste to bend him toward a ruinous plan for the city. Marques, Fr. Samuel, and A. C. P. Shafeer Ahammed work together to enact a Jewish exorcism that drives the Dybbuk back into its container. They cast the box into the ocean, ending the immediate threat and letting Priya give birth to a healthy baby, a quiet moment of relief for the small circle of allies who faced the terror together.

Yet the danger lingers just outside the frame. In a mid-credits moment, the box is discovered again along the seashore by two young men, who pick it up with the obvious intent to open it, leaving the door to the past ajar and the unresolved superstition of what lies within hovering just beneath the surface.