Taxiwala 2018

In a hospital, a woman, her husband, and her brother-in-law are devastated after she delivers a stillborn baby boy, while another young woman mourns her mother’s passing. The story then shifts to a year later, introducing Shiva (Vijay Deverakonda), a young man living in Hyderabad who is struggling to find his place in life. He moves in with his friend Babai (Madhunandan) and tries various jobs before deciding to become a taxi driver. In a twist of fate, Shiva receives news of a potential car sale from an anonymous caller he eagerly accepts, leading him into a series of supernatural events.

Early in his new job with Ola Cab Service, Shiva unexpectedly falls in love with a medical resident named Anusha (Priyanka Jawalkar) after a safe ride home. However, strange paranormal incidents begin occurring during his drives—unexplained occurrences involving a haunted car that seems to have a life of its own. Shiva’s attempts to investigate the vehicle’s history lead him to a fake fakir (Chammak Chandra), who tries to steal the car through deception but nearly gets himself killed inside.

As Shiva and his friends, including Hollywood (Vishnu Oi), try to make sense of these mysteries, they discover that the car’s previous owner was a professor specializing in psychology and parapsychology. This professor had studied astral projection, a phenomenon allowing the soul to leave the body before death, which plays a crucial role in the unfolding drama. The story then reveals that Sisira Bharadwaj (Malavika Nair), a young woman from the prologue, had a tumultuous relationship with her stepfather Raghuram (Shiju) and her mother, who was wealthy but suffered from asthma.

On her birthday, Sisira had a heated argument with her mother when Raghuram tried to replace her old car, a gift from her late father. Later that night, her mother suffocated and couldn’t find her inhaler, leading to her death. Sisira was grief-stricken and deeply depressed, eventually requesting her professor to perform an astral projection ritual to see her mother once more. During the ritual, Sisira’s spirit ventured into the spiritual realm and uncovered the horrifying truth: her mother was murdered by Raghuram, who, with his friend—the doctor—poisoned her to take over her company. They staged her death as a suicide and tried to silence Sisira, capturing her spirit in her old car, which became a vessel for her soul.

In the present, the professor explains that Sisira’s spirit can be brought back to life if her body is recovered. Shiva, motivated by compassion and curiosity, teams up with his friends to break into a hospital and steal Sisira’s body, aided by a former fakir turned security guard. They face danger as Raghuram, now aware of their plans, attempts to eliminate Shiva and his companions. A climactic confrontation ensues at the professor’s lab where the haunted car is kept. During this chaos, Raghuram tries to kill Shiva but is killed in a fiery showdown, burned alive by the car’s protective force. Tragically, Sisira’s body is also destroyed in the fire, thwarting their efforts to revive her physically.

In the aftermath, Shiva learns that his sister-in-law’s baby, who was also stillborn due to a chromosome abnormality, will never survive. However, in a miraculous turn, Sisira’s soul enters the baby girl’s body, granting her a second chance at life. As the new life begins, both Shiva’s family and friends embrace this miraculous gift, bringing hope and closure to their grief. The story concludes with the young girl’s crying indicating her survival and the beginning of a new chapter for everyone involved.