Athiran


Athiran is a 2019 Indian Malayalam-language psychological thriller film directed by Vivek and scripted by P. F. Mathews from a story by Vivek. It was produced by Raju Mathew through his production company Century Investments. The film stars Fahadh Faasil and Sai Pallavi. The film features original songs composed by debutant P. S. Jayhari and a musical score by Ghibran. The story is set in a psychiatric asylum. The film is heavily inspired by the movie Stoneshearst Asylum.
Principal photography began in November 2018 was completed in January 2019 in a 55-day shoot, extensively shot in Ooty. The film was released on 12 April 2019.

Plot

Back in 1967, Lakshmi comes home to witness her niece, Nithya, playing with a piece of thread, having been completely dissociated from reality, while surrounded by the dead bodies of her family members. Her mental state and reaction upon seeing her aunt leads us to believe that she is the killer.
The story then shifts to an eerie mental asylum set in the wilderness 5 years later where Dr. Kannan Nair, a psychiatrist, has come to inspect the place. We are introduced to the 5 resident patients, Renuka, the caretaker and Dr. Benjamin, who is the main doctor there, he is also the owner of the place.
Upon meeting Dr. Benjamin, Dr. Nair is upset about the whole setup of the asylum and continues to question Benjamin's integrity as a doctor. Dr Benjamin says he will make Dr. Nair see how good of a psychiatrist he is by hypnotizing him. Dr. Nair notices that, although there are only five patients on the records; there seems to be a sixth patient, Nithya, who happened to be chained in a cell hidden away from the public's eye. Dr. Nair demands to see her, accusing that the treatment methods adopted by Dr. Benjamin is primitive, illogical and illegal, upon which Dr Benjamin states that Nithya is his daughter and that he has her locked away because she is too dangerous.
Dr. Nair proceeds to visit Nithya in her cell and enters it avoiding the guard's warning to not do so, Nithya appears as a scary and sinister person, almost ghoul like. Nithya, upon spotting an intruder in her space hits Nair and he falls unconscious on the cell floor only to wake up in his room hours later. He records his day's findings on his voice recorder and decides to explore the place a bit. It was previously mentioned by Renuka that the asylum is so big and with so many corridors and rooms that even she hasn't explored the whole place yet. He comes upon a door that opens to a tunnel at the end of which Lakshmi was locked in a cell. She tells the Nair to somehow rescue Nitya from this place. After coming out of the strange tunnel, he goes into Dr. Benjamin's room to escape from a security guard who was patrolling the corridors. There, he comes upon a diary which was hidden under the doctor's study.
The next day, Dr. Nair leads Nithya out of her room and settles her with the other patients, to live among them. When Dr Benjamin questions this act, Dr. Nair mocks him and says autism, which is what Nitya has, is not a mental disability to be locked up for. Dr Nair reads the diary he found from Dr. Benjamin's desk and it reveals to the viewer about Nitya's history. We see her father is not Benjamin, but Jaya Narayana Varma, a royal from Nadakkal Kovilakam. Nitya was brought to Benjamin by Lakshmi after the murders in their family and she asks him to treat her. and look her after as his daughter till the end of the days. We see that Varma loved his daughter and refused to believe she was mentally disabled by treating her just like a normal child, and when he discovers her perfect reflexes he teaches her kalari, a martial art form native to Kerala. While Nair was reading the diary, standing in front of a dock, he slips into the water and the hospital guard ends up saving him. Though Dr. Nair believes he was pushed by someone and tries to escape from the place at night with some medical documents but is chased the ground dogs and watchman suspecting him to be an intruder. These acts of assault lead him to believe that Benjamin is trying to kill him and this suspicion is somewhat strengthened by a dialogue they share afterward where Benjamin states that "sheep don't hunt, they are to be hunted".
After this appalling turn of events, Dr Nair grows close to Nitya and takes her out on the hospital grounds and an obvious romance is bubbling between them. This disturbs another young patient Jeevan who also likes Nitya. In a conversation with the nurse and Dr. Benjamin, who appears to be lovers, it is revealed that he had erased Nitya's memories completely. Dr Nair finds this out, and tries to spark her memories by talking about her father and asking her what happened to him, and Nitya starts to remember her father, her aunt Lakshmi, and her cousin, Vinayan. Dr Nair later goes to Dr Benjamin and tells him that he is going to take Nitya away and save her from his evil methods, Dr Benjamin mocks him and warns him to not make promises that he cant keep.
Dr Benjamin suspecting Nityas memories are coming back plans to continue his primordial methods on her. Nair who searches her is misled by Benjamin and in an effort o find her chases a car that turns out to carry the catatonic body of asylum patient Jeevan. Upon running back to the facility, he is helped by the patients who are all fond of Nitya and they lead him to the place where the Benjamin conducts his therapeutic experiments. There ensues a fight between Nitya, Nair and Benjamin whereafter the two manage to escape by severely injuring Benjamin.
The story then proceeds to a few days later when a man claiming to be Dr Kannan Nair visits the hospital. In a rather mind boggling twist of events it is revealed that he is the original Dr. Nair and the imposter was actually Vinayan, Nitya's cousin. It turns out Vinayan was a patient of Dr Nair and was suffering from schizophrenia with delusions and all of its psychotic elements.
Here we are shown various scenes from the movie that proves this, as it happens there was no real Lakshmi imprisoned in the hospital, it was all a figment of Vinayan's hallucinations. Lakshmi died a few years after admitting Nitya in the asylum. Vinayan plunged himself into the water while reading the diary, his paranoia made him believe someone pushed him, his growing anger and lack of professionalism, his attempts to be close to Nitya and a little too much protectiveness towards Nitya as a visiting psychiatrist, etc.
The real Dr Nair censures Dr. Benjamin and his lack of insight in interpersonal relationships despite being a psychiatrist. He mocks the inability of theirs to spot someone as mentally unstable as Vinayan in those three days and is stunned by the fact that they didn't even ask Vinayan for any form of identity proof to show that he was Dr Nair. He explains to them that Vinayan from childhood was a sociopathic child. He was also trained by Nitya's father. During treatment he was able to maintain his composure of sanity under medication and was admitted there after the 4 murders he committed. It is revealed to the audience that it was not Nitya who murdered her family but Vinayan in his spree after Nithya's father was killed by his brothers and to further stop their attempt at harming Nithya. Both of them were actually promised to each other by Varma before his tragic death, and the voice over states that they are both very close to each other and will do anything to keep the other safe. The film ends with the real Dr. Nair swearing that he will catch Vinayan wherever he is hiding and it is shown that Vinayan and Nitya are happily living together in a beautiful house on the hills at peace. Finally free from the external world.

Cast

Title of the film was announced on 17 February 2019 alongside the first official poster. Athiran marks the directorial debut of Vivek. According to Vivek, the story was formed based on a real-life account combined with inspiration from a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. He said: "the story idea came up after I went to a Kalari school in Thrippunithura, Kerala, where autistic students were performing with the same prowess as the school's other students". The screenplay was written by P. F. Mathews. When Vivek briefed the story idea to Faasil two-and-a-half years ago, it was Faasil who introduced him Mathews. Vivek himself titled the film. Vivek cites Ulladakkam, Sesham, and Devadoothan as the major inspirations for the film, and were also inspired by Shutter Island, A Cure for Wellness, and Stonehearst Asylum.
Principal photography began in November 2018. The film was extensively shot in Ooty, Tamil Nadu. Filming was completed on 21 January 2019. It took 55 days to complete the filming process. The film is set in a psychiatric facility.

Music

The film score was composed by Ghibran, the film marks his Malayalam cinema debut. The film features three songs composed by debutant P. S. Jayhari, who was supposed to debut with the same director's shelved film Aanenkilum Allenkilum. The lyrics were written by Vinayak Sasikumar and Engandiyoor Chandrasekharan. The soundtrack album was released by Manorama Music.

Release

The film was released on 12 April 2019.

Critical reception

Rating 4 out of 5 stars, Sajin Srijith of The New Indian Express called the movie an Impressive, emotionally rewarding psychological thriller. Filmibeat.com rated it 3.5 and written, "Athiran isn't a routine entertainer but it remarkably keeps us hooked with the intelligence in the narrative. It definitely offers a unique experience for Malayalam movie audiences."
Sify has reviewed that the film is an engaging psycho thriller and rated 3/5. Deccan Chronicle rated the movie 3/5 Stars and stated, "It is a onetime watch for those who like psychological thrillers with some mind-bending and adrenaline rush moments."
The Times of India reviewer Anna Mathews rated it 2.5/5 and stated "While the film has thrills and is a venture with a difference, it lacks in some heft. There is a 'thrills for the sake of thrills' feel to the movie. But if you are in the mood for a adrenalin rush, 'Athiran' won't disappoint." S. R. Praveen of The Hindu reviewed the film as an enticing movie that falls short of expectations.

Box office

The film grossed $194,952 in the United Arab Emirates in the opening weekend and $255,663 in four weeks. In the opening weekend, it grossed $1,358 from two theatres in the United Kingdom, $14,230 from 43 screens in the United States and $321 from 2 screens in Canada. It collected $18,974 in the US in three weeks.