Romancham () is a 2023 Indian Malayalam-language comedy horror film written and directed by Jithu Madhavan in his directorial debut, starring Soubin Shahir, Arjun Ashokan, Sajin Gopu, Siju Sunny and Abin Bino in the lead roles.

Romacham received positive reviews from the critics and was one of the highest grossing Malayalam movie in the year 2023 and announced as a blockbuster

Plot 

2007: Jibin Madhavan (Soubin Shahir) partially wakes up in the ICU of a hospital in Bangalore when he is told that he has been suffering from meningitis for a week. This is the first time he has regained consciousness, and he is told that no visitors are allowed to meet him because of his condition. Jibin insists on meeting his friends or being moved to another room, but the doctor makes it clear that unless his vision improves, he will not be moved out of the ICU. Jibin is desperate to meet his friends as if he wants to convey something important to them. He tries to trick the on-duty nursew into letting him move into the room, but she refuses to fall for his antics. Jibin seems very restless, and he is insistent on wanting to meet his friends at the earliest. The nurse is curious to know what exactly must be the reason, and that's when Jibin recalls his tale of encountering the unseen in the past few weeks.

Seven of them live on the outskirts of the city, trying to make a decent life. Jibin, Rivin (Anantharaman Ajay), Niroop (Sajin Gopu), Shijappan (Abin Bino), Mukesh (Siju Sunny), Karikuttan (Afzal PH), and Soman (Jagadeesh Kumar) are the residents of the house and are trying to make their lives bearable. Out of all of them, only Rivin and Karikuttan have full-time jobs; the rest are just trying to scrape by, while Niroop is waiting for an appointment letter from an IT company, something he hopes would change his life for the better.

The boys always resort to playing Volleyball in the evening, which Jibin resents as he does not know how to play the game. One day, out of spite, he deflated the ball and headed to a friend's place. At his friend's place, he sees a group conducting a séance using an Ouija board in the hope of finding a soul they can talk to. Realizing this is something the group can do at home as a group activity, he brings a carrom board and creates the atmosphere for a séance. The group decides to agree with Jibin's idea of making the evening all the more fun.

Rivin, being the religious one of the lot, refuses to be a part of something as sinister as Ouija, which he claims is anti-Christ.  After keeping him out of the Ouija board activity, the men began their quest to find out if the spirits would come down and answer their questions.  As they begin their séance, Jibin realizes no spirit has come down to move the glass on the board, and he and one of his roommates, Shijappan, start moving the glass on their own to make the rest of them believe that the séance is working.

As the séance progresses, they start asking questions. Jibin and Shijappan come up with the name Anamika, which makes the rest of them believe that the spirit is a woman, and they continue asking her various questions, to which Anamika starts giving the right answers. Answers of which, technically, only Jibin and Shijappan are aware. Their séance part becomes popular among their friends. On one occasion, their friends asked a question about the pet cat. Anamika ends up having the right answer, which puts Jibin and Shijappan on the back foot and wondering if the spirit has descended into their homes.

Unfortunately for all of them, Anamika predicted a person named Matthew would die. They check up on their friend Matthew, but thankfully nothing happens to him. But their neighbor's father, who was also named Matthew, passes away, making the boys wonder if they should continue playing this game after all. Even Rivin admits that he has been having blackouts and losing a sense of direction while heading home from work. Rivin, too, starts experiencing something odd happening at home since they began their séance activity. They bring their friend, who is an expert in the game, but things go south with him as well. Niroop, being the sole decision-maker at home, decides to end the nuisance once and for all, which all of them oblige to. These people are tired of seeing the negative impact of playing Ouija at home and bringing Anamika into their lives. They want to get done with all the weird and bad things that have been going on like the constant fights between them and Rivin's conscious mind getting affected. Getting rid of the board was the only apparent solution.

But now that this one nuisance is gone, Jibin's friend Sinu Solomon (Arjun Ashokan) comes by to live with them, because recently, he has been through an episode that no one in the family can sort out. To give him a change of scenery, they ask Jibin to make sure Sinu stays with them for a while. Sinu is a simple boy who is close to Jibin. But as his stay begins, Sinu starts exhibiting weird behaviors including staring at a wall until he is physically shaken and speaking to someone in the middle of the night. Jibin and his friends start noticing his weird behavior, and they maintain a distance from him. Sinu is politely asked by Jibin to leave their home, and he agrees to do the same.

With Sinu gone, Anamika's spirit starts wrecking their home as many unnatural and unexpected things start happening again. Rivin again starts forgetting the way back home, and Karikuttan ends up losing his job at the petrol pump because, absentmindedly, he ends up filling someone's petrol tank with diesel. Karikuttan also does not know what made him blank out and make a silly mistake that cost him his job. These incidents kind of start taking a toll on everyone at home, and they are sure there has been something off about them since the Ouija board games they started playing. All of them lose their minds and try to leave their home as soon as possible. Jibin, on the other hand, just out of pure worry, ends up suffering from an extreme fever, which develops into meningitis.

Jibin ends up in the hospital because of the illness, and he is soon shifted to a room after showing signs of recovery. He informs the nurse that while going unconscious due to his fever, the last thing he saw was the spirit of a woman getting into his bag. The last scene of “Romancham” has Jibin asking his friends to get hold of the bag, and that is when he is informed that Sinu is back in town to help Jibin with his recovery, and he will be getting the bag for him. Because Jibin had a very high fever, there was a chance he hallucinated something before becoming unconscious. There is no surety that Anamika exists in the home for them to be triggered about. Or even if she existed, her power would have been neutralized by Sinu's presence at home. The men hardly went through any major incidents during the duration of Sinu's stay at their homes. Part 2 will surely give the audience an idea of what led to all these incidents at their home in Bangalore and what role Sinu plays in the long run.

Cast

Production
Romancham was produced by John Paul George and Girish Gangadharan under the banner 'Guppy Cinemas'.

Music

Release

Romancham was released on 3 February 2023 across 144 theatres in Kerala.

Reception

Critical response
Gopika of The Times of India gave the film a rating of 4/5 and wrote "Romancham is the movie that gives us this wonderful formula. There is no exaggeration, no nonsensical humour, the movie is simply hilarious and interestingly, it's inspired from real life incidents."

S.R Praveen of The Hindu  wrote "Along with some top-notch comic performances from the entire cast, everything works like a charm and evokes uproarious laughter in director Jithu Madhavan's debut film."

Cris of The News Minute  gave the film a rating of 4/5.

Sajin Shirjith of The New Indian Express wrote "Romancham is at its funniest when it explores the idiosyncrasies of its well-sketched character."

Sequel 
The film ends with a hint of a possible sequel in the future. The director has stated that a sequel will only be pursued if the script can match the quality of Romancham, and that they will not proceed with the sequel for the sake of it.

References

2020s Malayalam-language films
2023 comedy horror films
2023 directorial debut films