# Forensic (2020 film)

Forensic is a 2020 Indian Malayalam-language psychological thriller film co-written and co-directed by Akhil Paul and Anas Khan in their directorial debut. The film stars Tovino Thomas, Mamta Mohandas, Saiju Kurup, Renji Panicker, and Reba Monica John. The film was released on 28 February 2020 in India and the rest of the world, and 4 March 2020 in GCC countries.

## Plot

A young boy steals the organs of slaughtered animals from a local butcher and preserves them in jars underneath his bed. Upon discovering this, his father beats him. As he grows up, he decides to kill his father.
Meanwhile, ACP Rithika investigates the abduction and murders of two girls from Thiruvananthapuram. No apparent motive leads to Rithika suspecting that there is a serial killer. She requests a forensic team but finds it awkward that the forensic personnel assigned is Samuel John Kattookkaaran, the younger brother of her estranged husband Xavier. The couple separated after the death of their child which was caused by Rithika's carelessness. This incident has caused their other surviving child Nayana to undergo counselling with a psychologist, Dr. Alphonse Kurien as a result of the trauma. Samuel deduces that the killer is a child as the killer is seemingly able to move comfortably through a 4-foot tunnel but is unable to dispose of a body over a 5-feet wall, and also because the killer is able to blend easily in a compound of children.
Initially dismissive at first, Rithika is forced to accept Samuel's theory as an eyewitness reveals to having witnessed a boy dumping a dead body, though she does so in grace. Further victims are added to the list even as the police publish a sketch of the killer child as described by the witness. Alphonse states the boy in the sketch seems to be a juvenile prisoner, Reuben Elias whom he counselled a few years earlier. Clinical therapist Dr. Jayakumar Menon, who had handled Reuben's case, confirms that Reuben indeed demonstrated murderous psychopathic behaviour and escaped from him recently. Abdul Wahab, a retired SP volunteers to do a DNA test for matching, which brings up a decade-old forgotten serial murder case, which also happened to be Rithika's first case.
When three girls from the Burma Colony in the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram were murdered in succession, and the body of another was discovered in a school bus, the police arrest the bus driver Ubaid Ahmed, but he is proven innocent as another victim is kidnapped, and murdered in the same manner while he is in custody.
Samuel concludes that there is a second personality behind the child killer, likely to be a mastermind. Due to the intern Shikha's insight, it is discovered that this DNA matches perfectly with that of the Burma Colony murderer ten years earlier.
Samuel decides to examine every one of the hundreds of medical and police personnel present at the hospital during the last abduction, for which DNA samples are procured with the help of Abdul Wahab and Alphonse. Rithika zeroes in on Reuben and captures him from a church, Samuel is baffled to find that not a single DNA from the collection matches the one on the candy wrapper. Reuben delivers apocalyptic delusions on the inquest, which is conveniently taken as a confession by Rithika and the team. Samuel, however, observes from the footage of the inquest that Reuben was in fact responding to instructions from his hearing aid, likely from the mastermind. By the time he arrives at the station, Reuben commits suicide per transmitted instructions.
When a broken Rithika is unable to handle Nayana, Samuel convinces her to let Nayana stay with Xavier for the weekend. At their residence, Samuel is informed by Shikha that a Violet Honda Civic car could be seen near the station premises in the footage around the time of Reuben's suicide. Noticing the exact model right outside his gate, Samuel proceeds to check the vehicle, only to get knocked out and abducted by Ubaid. Another kidnapping occurs, the victim being the daughter of a member of the team. Confronted with evidence proving that they were in the wrong, the team tracks the GPS of the victim's phone. In an abandoned truck in a forest, a psychotic Ubaid taunts Samuel. He plays footage of his niece and Rithika's daughter, Nayana carrying the murdered victims out of a truck.
Ubaid reveals that he framed Nayana as a serial killer as revenge for ruining his life in the Burma Colony case. This is followed by a confession from Xavier's and Rithika's other daughter and Nayana's twin sister, Navya, whom is presumably dead. She was shown a video of a dishevelled Navya confined in a basement. It was revealed that Navya actually removed the corpses of the children from the abandoned truck deep inside the forest. He taunts Samuel by swearing revenge on Rithika and her family and attempts to kill him. Despite overpowering Ubaid, Samuel is unable to extract further information about the mastermind and Ubaid is unexpectedly shot dead from someone in a Violet Honda Civic. Samuel pursues the car and is led to chase a yellow minivan, only to end up in front of the police and discover the minivan containing the body of the latest victim. Framed as the serial killer, Samuel flees but is supported by his Xavier, Shikha and Abdul Wahab. They arrange a meeting with Rithika, who is forced to accept the evidence on Ubaid's phone.
Navya's location can be traced within a 500m radius of Ubaid's location, but with the sense that she will be in danger once the murderer realises that Ubaid's phone is lost. Rithika and Xavier go to the location to search for Navya, while Samuel asks Alphonse to join him to discuss the case, during which Samuel reveals to him that he knew that he was the perpetrator all along. A flashback shows that Alphonse was the boy, who killed his father for smuggling organs, but was leading a normal life for his wife. After her death he lived for his son, Naveen, but after being diagnosed with blood cancer, he looses control of himself after dropping off his son's friend in the Burma Colony and then proceeds to take out the frustration of his medical condition by killing the kids in that colony.
When Rithika arrives to search the colony, he shifts his next victim from his car to a school bus, he sees parked near the road, which is accidentally witnessed by Naveen, who was in the car with him. Later in the evening, Ubaid's arrest is shows on the news, because the child was found on his bus. Naveen watches the news and realises that his father is the killer and goes to the terrace to check a room that his father keeps locked, realising that it was the room where he killed his victims. Dr. Alphonse tries to explain everything to his son who tries to get away from him and accidentally falls off the terrace and dies. Dr. Alphonse buries his son's body and kills one more child just to prove to the police the Ubaid isn't the real killer. Later, he decides to take revenge on Rithika by kidnapping her daughter and keeping her hostage. He then meets Reuben and plans to use him and Navya in his plan.
Alphonse deduces that Samuel has not handed him over to the police as he and his family would prioritise the safety of his missing niece Navya, and use it as a backup to escape from Samuel and Rithika. He also tells Samuel that they have no proof connecting him to the killings and that he had tested his blood and it wasn't a match. A flashback shows Samuel telling Shikha that Alphonse has two sets of DNA because of his bone marrow transplant but his skin and hair cells will have his old DNA which is enough proof to tie him to the case. Rithika and Xavier find Navya.
Shocked, Alphonse wrestles and attempts to attack Samuel, leading to Alphonse getting thrown out and killed whilst Samuel is protected by the airbags. A few days later, Rithika applies for a 2-month leave to spend time with her family before which she will be handed a new case file for which she requests the same forensic team. It is implied that she has reconciled with her husband who spends time with both of their daughters. She calls Shikha who informs her that Samuel is in an inquiry about the accident. In the inquiry, Samuel reveals to the police about what occurred as seen earlier. Later on, it is revealed that in the midst of the fight in the car, Samuel killed Alphonse through unlocking his seat-belt, leading to him being thrown out of the car.

## Cast

* Tovino Thomas as Samuel John Kattookkaran
* Mamta Mohandas as SSP Rithika Xavier IPS
* Saiju Kurup as Xavier John Kattookkara
* Reba Monica John as Shikha Damodar
* Renji Panicker as Retd. SP Abdul Wahab IPS
* Rony David Raj as ACP Dano Mammen
* Giju John as Dr. Alphonse Kurian
** Aditya R. Menon as Young Alphonse
* Thamanna Pramod as Nayana/Navya Xavier
* Anwar Shereef as CI Murali Mohankumar
* Prathap Pothen as Dr. Jayakumar Menon
* Ramu as Rajeev Madhavan IPS, Commissioner of Police
* Dhanesh Anand as Ubaid Ahmed
* Lukman Avaran as Vinod
* Srikant Murali as SP Isaac IPS
* Anil Murali as Kurian, Alphonse's father
* Mohan Sharma as Abraham Kattokkaran, Xavier and Samuel's father
* Thennal Abhilash as Malavika Das
* Anjali Nair as Malavika's mother
* Balaji Sharma as Dr. Jayan Krishna
* Arunamshu Dev as Reuben Elias
* Sameksha Nair as Divya Divakar
* Navis Xavier as Rahul Nath IAS
* Devi Ajith as Burma Colony victim's mother
* Rajesh Hebbar as Burma Colony victim's father

## Marketing

The trailer for the film was launched on 13 February 2020.

## Release
### Theatrical

The film was theatrically released on 28 February 2020. The film was a commercial success at the box office despite theatre shutdowns all over India due to COVID-19, collecting ₹15 crore (US$1.7 million) in 13 days from Kerala alone and ₹25 crore (US$2.9 million) worldwide, including satellite and other digital rights.
A Hyderabad based production house named Geetha Arts owned by Allu Aravind, bought the Telugu dubbing rights for the film. The Telugu dubbed version had a digital release on Aha. The film was also dubbed in Hindi and directly premiered on Zee Cinema on 13 May 2021.
It went on to become the highest rated Malayalam film of 2020 with a 14.67 TRP following its release on Asianet.

### Home Media

Forensic began streaming streaming on Netflix on 7 June 2020.

## Remake

A Hindi remake also titled Forensic was released on ZEE on 24 June 2022. It stars Vikrant Massey and Radhika Apte.

## Music

Jakes Bejoy composed the music and background score for the film.