Kuttram 23 2017

A tense, twisting thriller unfolds across Chennai as medical ethics collide with family secrets and a calculated crime syndicate. Jessica arrives at St. Thomas Church in Villivakkam to confess her sins, but the scene turns brutal when the priest is murdered and Jessica is abducted, setting a dark tone for a case that will pull several lives into its orbit.

ACP Vetrimaaran IPS is marking a family milestone back home, celebrating the wedding anniversary of his elder brother Aravind Akash and sister-in-law Abhinaya. The atmosphere is festive, yet Vetri’s mother nibbles at the edge of happiness, nagging Abhinaya about not having a grandchild after years of marriage. A fertility breakthrough comes when Abhinaya becomes pregnant, but Vetri senses a growing moodiness in her that doesn’t fit the celebratory mood. The tension between duty and personal worry threads through Vetri’s world as he gets pulled into a case that could shake the entire family.

Vetri is assigned to the Jessica abduction, assisted by Sub-Inspector Thirupathi. He digs for links between Jessica’s murder and her disappearance, and soon a lead points toward Thendral, a preschool teacher who witnessed the priest’s body. Thendral’s family then moves into Vetri’s neighborhood, directly opposite his home, and the arrangement stirs a new complication: if Vetri keeps pressing Thendral for information, her family’s social situation could be jeopardized.

Thendral Mahima Nambiar reveals a crucial detail: she saw two vehicles that day—one belonging to Jessica and another black SUV filled with a group of mysterious young men. When Thendral is attacked by a gang in a similar SUV, Vetri intervenes and rescues her; the spark between them intensifies as they begin to date. Shortly after, Jessica’s body surfaces at a landfill, and investigators learn she was pregnant—a fact her husband, the director of a major TV channel, tries to downplay by claiming they had only recently attempted to conceive.

Vetri’s probe leads him to a petrol bunk near the church, where CCTV footage captures the men in the black SUV. Meanwhile, Thendral experiences fresh danger when the unknown assailants hover outside her apartment; Vetri urges her to stay indoors, and when he confronts the danger at her doorstep, the men have already vanished. Back at home, tragedy strikes again: Abhinaya is found dead, having hanged herself. Her funeral reveals a new clue: Abhinaya’s mother recalls that days earlier she had asked her father for ₹50 lakh.

In a pivotal turn, Thendral connects the dots: a doctor friend treated Aravind and Abhinaya, and Aravind is infertile, which leads to the theory that Abhinaya may have been unfaithful. Vetri discovers Abhinaya’s postmortem shows traces of clomiphene, a pattern mirror to Jessica’s, and the search expands to a third young woman who matches the same profile. Confronting Aravind, Vetri learns that he and Abhinaya had pursued artificial insemination using his own sperm.

Vetri shifts his attention to Tulsi, a fertility doctor. He asks for every file on artificial insemination patients and notices a watermark with the number 23 on the documents. A trail leads to Kousalya, a TV artist, and Vetri and his team begin to monitor her and her husband. They observe a large withdrawal of money, a sudden trip, and a man who bursts into their car to seize the funds. A tracker hidden in the money bag brings them to the perpetrator: Gaurav, a member of a gang that blackmails several women who have undergone artificial insemination at Tulsi’s hospital. Jessica was one of the first victims; she had even tried to obtain a cricket player’s donor sperm for her child, but guilt and fear drove her to seek help—and ultimately paid with her life. The gang’s victims also include a politician’s daughter-in-law, who killed herself at a baby shower, and Abhinaya, who uncovered the deception and sought an abortion after learning Tulsi had lied about using Aravind’s sperm. Gaurav’s gang killed Abhinaya and framed it as suicide, forcing Vetri to confront the depths of the conspiracy—culminating in Vetri killing Gaurav in a burst of righteous anger.

As Vetri and his team head to Tulsi’s hospital to arrest her, a long-buried thread resurfaces: John Matthew, a man who had reported his wife’s disappearance years earlier after she rejected his plan for artificial insemination with a “superior male.” The wife disappeared, and John vanished as well. Vetri’s investigation reveals that John is working as a lab assistant at Tulsi’s sperm bank, manipulating donor records and relaying information to Gaurav.

Tulsi and her husband threaten to expose the truth, but John strikes first, killing them and abducting Thendral. Vetri tracks John down, rescues Thendral, and engages in a brutal confrontation where John proves to be a formidable fighter. In their confrontation, John admits that he arranged for Abhinaya to be inseminated with his own sperm; when she planned an abortion, he could not accept it and had Gaurav kill her. Vetri overpowers John and kills him, bringing a brutal closure to the criminal web.

The following day, Vetri and Thendral discuss the dangers of misusing medical advances and the ethical imperative to consider adoption for orphans. The case binds their fates closer together and leaves them to ponder the consequences of science without conscience, a message echoed in the film’s final moment: a call to reflect on how medical power should serve humanity, not exploit it.