Athey Kangal 1967

A woman named Vasantha discovers her husband Ranganathan has been murdered, and a masked killer makes a second, unsuccessful attempt on her life. The shock leaves her in a state of emotional fragility, and as the investigation begins, the case threads its way through a household already tense with secrets. A formal inquiry is launched, and every detail becomes a potential clue in a puzzle that looks woven from coincidence and intent alike.

Susi, a college student, arrives with friends for a vacation stay at Vasantha’s home. The house is populated by Kamalanathan and Vimalanathan, two younger paternal uncles; the elderly aunt Vasantha; the loyal butler Appukutty Nair; and the Siddha doctor Vedamurthy who often visits. During their stay, a chilling pattern emerges: a string of murders occurs within the same walls, and after each killing the killer leaves a cigar butt as a signature, a small but telling token that hints at a personal ritual or a concealed motive.

With Vasantha as the only eyewitness to the original murder, danger remains ever-present. Despite security measures, the killer infiltrates the house again and claims Vasantha’s life. The killer then begins to taunt the remaining residents with threatening phone calls to Susi, declaring that she will be the next victim. Frightened but determined, Susi seeks help from Baskar, a resourceful investigator who vows to uncover the truth.

Baskar pours over alibis and leads, focusing his scrutiny on the people closest to the murdered couple. He tracks various threads through the house, including Kamalanathan, Vimalanathan, and the other inmates, searching for the hidden connections that could explain the string of murders. In a pivotal turn, Baskar tails Kamalanathan to a secluded residence, where he encounters a woman who is soon revealed to be Mala, Kamalanathan’s lover. Mala’s presence sheds new light on the family dynamics; she was once rescued by Kamalanathan after a suicide attempt years earlier, and his current plan appears to be to secure Mala’s future only after Susi’s marriage.

To test his theory and break the pattern, Baskar stages a controlled night at the house, asking everyone to stay away from the central areas while he and his team monitor the scene. The killer takes advantage of the moment, slipping into Susi’s room to strike, but Baskar’s vigilance allows him to glimpse only the killer’s eyes before the intruder escapes, leaving behind a clue in the form of a masked face. The investigation takes a grim turn when Baskar discovers Vimalanathan murdered at the doorstep, intensifying the sense that the killer’s reach extends beyond a single victim and that a darker motive lies at the heart of the killings.

As the birthday celebration for Susi approaches, Kamalanathan urges everyone to leave the house to ensure safety for the party. The murderer makes another move to attack Susi, but Baskar intervenes just in time to save her. The chase leads through the garden and into the surrounding grounds, but the killer disappears again, slipping from sight as the search resumes. On the way back, Baskar discovers Vedamurthy badly injured, and he wastes no time in pulling the doctor away to safety and medical care. Yet the question remains: who is behind the killings, and why?

With mounting pressure, Baskar confronts Kamalanathan and presses him to reveal the family’s hidden history. Kamalanathan speaks of a complicated past involving his father’s extramarital affair and a fire that claimed the life of the woman and her 10-year-old son, a tragedy Kamalanathan’s elder brother has been accused of causing. Baskar theorizes that the son may still be alive and living under the radar, driven by vengeance and embedded within the very household that has become a stage for murder. The detective’s mind races through possibilities, weighing motive, opportunity, and the intimate knowledge of how the killer has exploited each member’s position within the family.

To identify the culprit, Baskar uses a stark, decisive test: he places the killer’s mask on the faces of the men in the house and looks for the eyes that match the killer’s. The method narrows the field and ultimately reveals Vedamurthy, who had been wearing prosthetic disguises to conceal his true identity. Vedamurthy’s deception unravels, and a tense pursuit ensues. The killer is injured in the confrontation and makes a final retreat into a tunnel near the garden, but the truth lies in a hidden room beneath the garden that leads to the killer’s lair and his corpse, proving the path of his escape and the deception that had governed the entire case.

In the aftermath, the house settles into a new kind of balance. Baskar marries Susi, choosing to remain in the same house where the killings unfolded, while Kamalanathan completes his own arc by marrying Mala, a quiet denouement that closes the circle of danger that once permeated the family.

The case is resolved with careful attention to each character’s secrets and the way the setting—the house, the garden, the hidden tunnel—shaped the murders. It remains a story of how fear, legacy, and desire can fuse to create a chain of events that only a persistent investigator can untangle, transforming a house of whispers into a place where truth, finally, can be spoken aloud.