Manichitrathazhu

A young couple, Ganga and Nakulan, arrives at Nakulan's tharavadu, Madampalli. Hailing from a traditional family that believes in superstitions, Nakulan's uncles Thampi and Unnithan object to the couple's idea of moving into a mansion that is believed to be haunted, which Nakulan ignores. The couple moves in, following which seemingly supernatural events are triggered.

The mansion was occupied decades ago by Sankaran Thampi karanavar, a feudal lord of the province and the then-head of the family. In his heyday, he had brought in a dancer girl, Nagavalli, from Tamil Nadu as his concubine. But she was already in love with a man named Ramanathan, a dancer who came along with her secretly and settled in the cottage next to the mansion. Learning of their affair and their plan to elope, Thampi murders Nagavalli in her room. Legend has it that on the eighth day of Navaratri, on Durgashtami night, Nagavalli returned as a spirit for the murdering Karanavar, but he escaped upon chanting some mantras. With the assistance of sorcerers from Aalappara, her spirit was locked in the southernmost portion of the mansion called Thekkini by placing a talisman over the lock. Later the Karanavar committed suicide and his spirit was locked up beside the same room, by means of an ornate enchanted lock called manichitrathazhu.

In the present-day, a curious Ganga manages to unlock the Thekkini, only to find paintings of the Karanavar and Nagavalli, and ancient valuables such as jewellery and musical instruments. Upon learning about the unlocking of the Thekkini, fearing the spirits are on the loose, Thampi and family move into the mansion to try and re-seal the Thekkini lock, while also looking out for Nakulan and Ganga. However, apparitions of a woman are witnessed around the mansion, along with paranormal attack at people at the mansion, including Ganga and Unnithan's daughter Alli. Nevertheless, Nakulan, disapproving of any supernatural activity, suspects Thampi's daughter Sreedevi of orchestrating the incidents as she was present during all events of attack. Hearing about his suspicion, Thampi and family fear that Sreedevi might be possessed by Nagavalli's spirit.

Sreedevi, who is Nakulan's cousin, according to tradition, was to be married to Nakulan; however, after finding that Sreedevi had an ominous horoscope, Nakulan's mother withdrew from this proposal, and got Nakulan married to Ganga; later, Sreedevi entered a marriage which was short-lived. Sreedevi's tragic past, along with her perceived gloominess, and her being the only person present during an attack on Ganga, lays cause for suspicion of her.

Dr. Sunny Joseph, a brilliant yet frolicsome Psychiatrist and Nakulan's close friend is called from the United States to investigate. Soon enough Dr. Sunny finds out that Nakulan's conclusions are not as obvious and he predicts a murder to happen during the upcoming Durga Ashtami festival. Few days later, while the entire family is watching a Kathakali performance, Ganga goes missing in the middle and Sunny and Nakulan goes in search of her. They spot Mahadevan, a renowned novelist and the family's next-door neighbor and Alli's fiance, having a tussle with Ganga. Thinking that Ganga was being abused by him, Nakulan attempts to beat Mahadevan but Sunny stops him. The three of them take care of an unconscious Ganga and after she goes to sleep, Sunny reveals certain shocking truths to the other two.

Right from the night of his arrival, Sunny begins to suspect that Ganga could well be the cause. He digs into Ganga's past with the help of Thampi's son and Sreedevi's younger brother Chandu. Ganga grew up in a highly superstitious family and had partaken in various religious rituals as a child. Her parents had left her to her grandmother at the age of three and never bothered about her due to their busy lifestyle. This made her sensitive as an individual; so when she came to know that her parents were moving her to Calcutta she was unable to come to grips with it. She had become very close to her grandmother and did not want to leave her village and her ancestral home. It was a period of great emotional and psychological turmoil for her, and she slowly developed multiple personality disorder. Years later, Madampalli with its share of superstitions and dark tales evokes memories of her childhood and Ganga slowly develops the personality of Nagavalli after having empathised with her and her devastating backstory.

Meanwhile, Thampi having lost faith in Dr. Sunny, calls in a renowned tantric expert Pullattuparam Brahmadathan Namboothiripad to get rid of his family's supernatural menace. As fate has it, both the Namboothiripad and Sunny are old acquaintances and mutually admire each other's expertise in their respective fields. At his own risk, Sunny reveals the secret to Namboothiripad and also adds some of the facts which he observed from Ganga's behaviour. When Ganga transforms into Nagavalli, her alter ego assumes the man staying in dancer Ramanathan's ancient house (Mahadevan) as Ramanathan. Similarly she assumes Nakulan to be the Karnavar, thereby waiting to kill him on Durga Ashtami night to take her revenge.

Ganga gets a loose idea of her illness during a manifestation of her alter ego by Nakulan under Sunny's instructions. Sunny, with help of the Namboothiripad, plans an elaborate Tantric ceremony to create a suitable atmosphere and invoke Ganga's Nagavalli persona and make it believe that it will finally kill Thampi. The plan is put into action and Namboothiripad orders Nagavalli in Ganga to exact revenge on Karanavar by making Nakulan lie down on a platform, and giving a sword to Nagavalli. As Nagavalli is about to pick up the sword, Namboothiripad sprays ash in front of Nagavalli blinding her and simultaneously Sunny turns the platform over, revealing a blood-filled dummy resembling the Karanavar. Thus, Nakulan is saved, and he escapes. Ganga, in her extreme rage, as Nagavalli, stabs the dummy multiple times and thinks that she actually kills the Karanavar, and drinks the dummy's blood, thereby making her feel like she has accomplished her task. Ganga falls down into a hypnotic sleep while Nagavalli leaves her.

Ganga wakes up from her hypnotic sleep and learns that she is completely cured of the illness. Sunny expresses his intent to marry Sreedevi, and they all drive off happily.

• Mohanlal as Dr. Sunny Joseph, a Psychiatrist
• Suresh Gopi as Nakulan, Ganga's husband
• Shobana as Ganga/Nagavalli
• Nedumudi Venu as Thampi, Nakulan's maternal uncle
• Vinaya Prasad as Sreedevi, Thampi's daughter and Nakulan's cousin
• Sridhar as Mahadevan, a college lecturer and author and fiancé of Alli (Dancer Ramanathan in Ganga's hallucination)
• Sudheesh as Chandhu, Thampi's son and Sreedevi's brother
• K. P. A. C. Lalitha as Bhasura, Thampi's sister and Nakulan's aunt
• Innocent as Unnithan, Bhasura's husband
• Thilakan as Pullattuparam Brahmadathan Namboothiripad, a tantric expert and long-time friend of Sunny
• Kuthiravattam Pappu as Kattuparamban, priest at a local temple
• K. B. Ganesh Kumar as Dasappan Kutty, a distant relative of the family
• Rudra as Alli, daughter of Unnithan and Bhasura
• Vyjayanthi as Jayasri, youngest daughter of Thampi
• Kuttyedathi Vilasini as Thampi's wife

The soundtrack for the film was composed by M. G. Radhakrishnan which went on to become one of the most popular film albums in Malayalam. The album consists of nine tracks. The lyrics sung are in Malayalam and Tamil written by Bichu Thirumala and Madhu Muttam for Malayalam and Vaali for Tamil.[10]

Manichitrathazhu is hailed as one of the best films ever made in Malayalam cinema.[5] The film has consistently fetched maximum ratings for its television screenings.[5] Even twenty years after its release it has been screened more than 12 times a year on an average on Kerala's leading TV channel, Asianet.[5] The film has received the maximum TRP rating on every screening; TRP ratings have increased every year, a rare record for a film produced in Kerala.[5][18]

In a 2013 online poll by IBN Live, Manichitrathazhu was listed second in India's Greatest Film of All Time. The poll was conducted as part of the celebration of Indian cinema completing 100 years. The poll constituted a list of 100 films from different Indian languages.[13] As per the statistics of 2015, Manichitrathazhu is the most reviewed horror film ever in IMDb, surpassing Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) with 2517 reviews.[19]

• Manichithrathazhu later inspired remakes and sequels in other languages, such as Apthamitra and its sequel Aptharakshaka in Kannada starring Vishnuvardhan, Chandramukhi in Tamil and Telugu (dubbed) starring Rajinikanth and its sequel in Telugu titled Nagavalli starring Venkatesh, Bhool Bhulaiyaa in Hindi and Rajmohol in Bengali.
• The central character played by Shobhana is named Ganga in all the remakes except Bhool Bhulaiya and Rajmohol. In Hindi, the character is named Avni, played by Vidya Balan whereas in Bengali, the character is named Deboshree, played by Anu Choudhury.
• All three South Indian versions (Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil) earned the actresses playing the central character (Shobhana, Soundarya, Jyothika, respectively) the state awards for best actress of the respective states (Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu).
• In Apthamitra (the Kannada version) the character of psychiatrist, played by Vishnuvardhan, is given more screen time. The Tamil version, Chandramukhi, followed the same pattern. Both films were directed by P. Vasu.[20] However, the Hindi version (Bhool Bhulaiyaa, directed by Priyadarshan) and the Bengali version (Rajmohol directed by Swapan Saha)stuck to the original script.[21]
• The story was not credited to Madhu Muttam in Apthamitra and Chandramukhi, in which the story was credited to the director P. Vasu himself. However, in Bhool Bhulaiyaa the story was credited to Madhu Muttam, following a Kerala High Court verdict in a case filed by him.
• Long before Telugu version Chandramukhi was dubbed, Manichithrathazhu was dubbed into Telugu as Aathmaragam.
• Apthamitra's sequel, Aptharakshaka starring Vishnuvardhan was written and directed by P. Vasu and went on to become a huge success in Kannada.
• P. Vasu also planned to remake it in Tamil as Chandramukhi 2. But as Rajnikanth wasn't available, he approached Ajith Kumar for the film. But the Tamil version could never make it to the sets and finally Telugu producer Bellamkonda Suresh bought the movie rights and the movie was released as Nagavalli in Telugu starring Daggubati Venkatesh.
• Even before the movie was officially remade in Kannada in 2004 as Apthamitra , the key sequences including the climax were copied in the 2004 Kannada movie Sagari which released five months before Apthamitra.[22]

A spin-off titled Geethanjali was released on 14 November 2013, with Mohanlal reprising his role as Sunny.[23]

• List of Malayalam horror films
• Mental illness in film
• Dissociative identity disorder
• Identity formation

• Manichitrathazhu on IMDb