Ratsasan

Ratsasan
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ram Kumar
Written by	Ram Kumar
Produced by	G. Dilli Babu R. Sridhar
Starring	Vishnu Vishal Amala Paul Saravanan Ammu Abhirami
Cinematography	P. V. Shankar
Edited by	San Lokesh
Music by	Ghibran
Production company	Axess Film Factory
Distributed by	Trident Arts and Skylark Entertainment (India) Phars Film (International)
Release date	5 October 2018 (2018-10-05)
Running time	152 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Box office	₹20 crore

Ratsasan (transl. Demon) is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language crime thriller film directed by Ram Kumar. The film stars Vishnu Vishal, Amala Paul, and Saravanan, while Ammu Abhirami, Kaali Venkat, Vinodhini Vaidyanathan, and Ramdoss play supporting roles. The film features music and a background score composed by Ghibran, cinematography by P. V. Shankar, and editing by San Lokesh. It tells the story of an aspiring film director who becomes a police officer after his father's death and tries to track down a serial killer.

The film was released on 5 October 2018 to critical acclaim. It was remade in Telugu as Rakshasudu and in Hindi as Cuttputlli.

Plot

In the opening scene, two elderly men discover the corpse of Samyuktha, a 15-year-old schoolgirl who was brutally murdered. Arun Kumar, an aspiring filmmaker passionate about psychopaths, becomes a sub-inspector in the Tamil Nadu Police under family pressure and help from his brother-in-law, CI Doss. Arun moves in with his sister Kokila, Doss, and their daughter Ammu. After an incident at school involving Ammu, Arun meets her teacher Viji and gradually befriends both her and her hearing and speech-impaired niece, Kayal.

Meanwhile, Arun investigates the abduction of a schoolgirl, Amudha, and notices similarities to Samyuktha’s case, especially a mutilated doll at Amudha’s house. His superior, ACP Lakshmi, dismisses his theory. Soon after, Amudha’s corpse is found. Pathologist Dr. Nandan confirms that the same modus operandi was used. A few days later, another hearing-impaired girl, Meera, is also abducted and murdered.

The investigation leads to Inbaraj, a teacher at Ammu’s new school. Inbaraj, a pedophile, is caught after a victim tips off Arun. Although he confesses to sexual abuse, he denies involvement in the murders. During an attempted escape, Inbaraj holds a policeman at gunpoint but is shot dead by Arun. That same day, Ammu is abducted from her birthday party, and her mutilated body is found in the car trunk. A devastated Arun and Doss hide the truth from Kokila and return home.

Arun is suspended for his actions and begins investigating unofficially. With help from a few officers, he traces a piano tune from Meera’s hearing aid to magician Annabella George, who had performed at all the victims' schools. Arun learns that Annabella randomly selected students during her shows, later abducting and killing them. The next target is a girl named Sanjana. Despite surveillance, she is abducted, but Arun and his team manage to rescue her. However, Annabella escapes.

Arun meets retired cop Rajamanickam, who reveals Annabella’s real identity as Mary Fernandez. Her son, Christopher, has Werner Syndrome (progeria), a condition that causes premature aging. Christopher, a gifted magician and pianist, was mocked at school despite befriending a girl named Sophia. After she rejected his romantic advances due to his condition and avoided him, he was humiliated by classmates. Mary, enraged, murdered Sophia. Both were arrested but presumed dead in an accident.

Rajamanickam suspects Mary may still be alive and warns Arun. But before revealing everything, he is killed. Arun finds clues suggesting that Christopher is alive and has been impersonating Mary, who actually died in the accident. Before he can inform Lakshmi, Christopher attacks Viji and kidnaps Kayal.

Christopher kills Venkat and Dr. Nandan while trying to silence anyone who could expose him. Arun tracks Christopher and confronts him in a violent fight. He ultimately kills Christopher and rescues Kayal, though he is injured.

The case concludes with the media reporting the end of the serial murders. Arun, now recognized, finally gets a chance to make a film about a psychopath, fulfilling his dream.

Cast

• Vishnu Vishal as SI Arun Kumar
• Amala Paul as Vijayalakshmi "Viji"
• Saravanan in a dual role as
  • Christopher Fernandez (Annabella George)
    • Yasar as Young Christopher
  • Mary Fernandez, Christopher's mother
• Kaali Venkat as Venkat
• Abhirami as Ammu, Arun's niece
• Baby Monica as Kayal, Viji's niece who lives with Arun and Viji
• Munishkanth as Doss, Arun's brother-in-law and Ammu's father
• Vinodhini Vaidyanathan as Kokila, Arun's sister and Ammu's mother
• Usha Elizabeth as Arun's mother
• Suzane George as ACP Lakshmi IPS
• Nizhalgal Ravi as Dr. Nandan
• Sangili Murugan as Arun's house owner
• Raveena Daha as Sharmi, Ammu's classmate
• Ragavi Renu as Sophie, Christopher's love interest
• Trishala in a dual role as:
  • Sanjana
  • Sangeetha
• Priya as Meera
• Nehah Menon as Amudha
• Adhithri Dinesh as Samyuktha
• Vinod Sagar as Inbaraj
• Gajaraj as Gajaraj, Senior Police Officer
• Jai Anand as Anbarasu, Police Officer
• Thangam Paramanantham as Simon, Police officer
• Pasupathi as Pasupathi
• Sanjay as Inspector Durai Raj
• Ravishankar as Amudha's father
• Rekha Padmanaban as Amudha's mother
• Akshay as Mahesh, Ammu's classmate also one who loves Ammu
• Kumar Das as Auto Driver Kumar, Inbaraj's helper
• Geetha Narayanan as Sanjana's and Sangeetha's school principal
• Radha Ravi as Inspector Rajamanickkam (cameo appearance)
• Karunakaran as himself (cameo appearance)
• Ghibran as himself (cameo appearance)

Production

Following the release of the comedy drama Mundasupatti (2014), Ramkumar was keen to do a serious film to avoid being type-cast. He was inspired to write a film on a psycho killer after reading an international news story about Alexander Spesivtsev, and spent close to a year writing a fictional screenplay to fit around the character of a psycho killer. Ramkumar initially struggled to find an actor to play the lead role of a forty-year-old man with a child, and despite working the child out of the script as a result, he still found it difficult to convince actors to sign the film. In April 2017, actor Jai signed the project titled Ratsasan, which was set to be produced by C. V. Kumar of Thirukumaran Entertainment. However, soon after the actor and director dropped out of the project, and producer took the title of Ratsasan with him. Subsequently, throughout the production stage, the film was briefly known as Cinderella and then Minmini, but neither title was kept. The former title was claimed by another Tamil film's producers, while Ramkumar felt the latter seemed too light-hearted. Eventually, the team members managed to amicably convince Kumar to offer them the title of Ratsasan.

Production began in November 2016, with principal photography starting in June 2017. Ramkumar chose to make the film with producer Dilli Babu and starring Vishnu in July 2017. Amala Paul joined the cast of the film in late November 2017, with production starting thereafter. In June 2017, the title of the film was changed to Ratsasan. in association with T-series.

Music

Soundtrack

Ratsasan (Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by Ghibran
Released	27 September 2018
Recorded	2017–2018
Genre	Film soundtrack
Length	14:13
Language	Tamil
Label	Saregama
Producer	Ghibran
Ghibran chronology
Aan Devathai (2018) Ratsasan (Soundtrack) (2018) Athiran (2019)
Singles from Ratsasan
"Kaadhal Kadal Dhana" Released: 15 September 2018

Ghibran composed the soundtrack and background score of Ratsasan. He began composing the soundtrack in early 2017. He also finished composing the theme music for the film's teaser in August 2018. The album features four songs composed by Ghibran and lyrics written by Umadevi, Ramkumar, Ratnakumar and GKB. One song, Kaadhal Kadal Dhana, was released as a single on 15 September 2018. The song written by Umadevi and rendered by Sathyaprakash and Chaitra Ambadipudi received positive reviews from music listeners. It topped into the #1 position at the Radio Mirchi Top 20 Countdown, for nearly 4 weeks. Following that, a video song of the same was telecast on 30 September 2018, through Isaiaruvi channel at 4:30 p.m. IST.

The album was released on 27 September 2018, at the Suryan FM Radio Station, Chennai featuring the composer and other crew members present during the crew members present in the event. M Suganth from The Times of India, gave a positive review for the soundtrack and stated Kaadhal Kadal Dhana as "a romantic melody, a genre that Ghibran is a master at. Slow and lullaby-like, the persistent strings in the background are soothing, and despite distinct arrangements, the vocals are pronounced enough to make an impact."

Ratsasan track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singers	Length
1.	"Kaadhal Kadal Dhana"	Umadevi	Sathyaprakash Dharmar, Chaitra Ambadipudi	3:26
2.	"Hey Piriyame Piriyame"	Ratnakumar	Yazin Nizar, Anudeep Dev, Pragathi Guruprasad, Ratnakumar	3:50
3.	"Kanamma Kanvizhi"	Ramkumar	Sean Roldan	3:27
4.	"Maayangal Naanada" (Theme Song)	GKB	Yazin Nizar, Ranjth, Shabir, Shenbagaraj, Narayanan	3:30
Total length:				14:13

Release

Theatrical

Ratsasan was released worldwide on 5 October 2018.

Home media

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV. It was dubbed and released in Malayalam language with the same title. The digital rights of the Malayalam version belongs to Disney+ Hotstar. The satellite rights of the Hindi dubbed version, which was titled as Main Hoon Dandadhikaari (transl. I am a police magistrate), was sold to Star India and had a TV premiere on Star Utsav Movies on 31 December 2019. The film was again telecasted a month later with full promotions on TV.

Reception

Behindwoods wrote "Watch Ratsasan, the structured and engaging screenplay that makes it an intense psycho thriller", giving the movie 3.25/5. Times of India gave it a 3.5/5, stating that "Ratsasan is a competent thriller, for the most part. There is a tautness to the storytelling, especially until the interval block, that keeps us hooked." Sreedhar Pillai of Firstpost, rated 3 out of 5 stars, stating that "Vishnu Vishal's cop act is superlative but this thriller could've done with some trimming". India Today rated 3 out of 5 stars, and commented "Vishnu Vishal's Ratsasan' is one of the biggest releases in K-Town this week. The film is a carefully-written thriller, that has a few great moments, says our review." Film Companion South called it "If you turn a blind eye to the coincidences (say, the plot point around an autorickshaw) and the obvious red herrings (a suspected killer), the bulk of Ratsasan works. Ghibran's terrific score is the aural equivalent of bad airplane food — it makes your tummy queasy. After Mundasupatti and Ratsasan, I'm definitely pumped about what Ram Kumar has in store next". The News Minute, commented about the movie that "The film feels like a mix of all the psycho killer films you've seen before, but this surprisingly works for it."

Accolades

Awards and nominations

Date of Ceremony	Award	Category	Recipients	Result	Ref.
5 January 2019	Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards	Best Editing	San Lokesh	Won
25–28 April 2019	Norway Tamil Film Festival Awards	Best Actor	Vishnu Vishal	Nominated
		Best Villain	Saravanan	Won
		Best Editor	San Lokesh	Nominated
		Best Screenplay	Ram Kumar	Nominated
		Best Music Director	Ghibran	Nominated
16 August 2019	8th South Indian International Movie Awards	Best Debut Actor	Saravanan	Nominated
August 2019	Oniros Film Awards	Best Soundtrack	Ghibran	Won
		Best Thriller	Axess Film Factory	Won
	Diamond Film Awards	Best Original Score	Ghibran	Won
20 September 2019	Los Angeles Theatrical Release Competition & Awards (LATCA)	Best Musical Score	Ghibran	Won
		Best Action Sequence		Won
21 December 2019	66th Filmfare Awards South	Best Film	G. Dilli Babu, R. Sridhar	Nominated
		Best Director	Ram Kumar	Won

Remakes

Telugu-language

After the film's success, the makers decided to remake the film in Telugu, with actor Nithiin selected to reprise the role of Vishnu Vishal. But he opted out due to schedule conflicts, and was replaced by Bellamkonda Srinivas. Anupama Parameshwaran, was selected to play the female lead, reprising Amala Paul's role. The project was bankrolled by Havish under the banner A Studios, and was directed by Ramesh Varma. In March 2019, the film was titled Rakshasudu. The film was released in August 2019, to generally positive reviews.

Hindi-language

The movie is also remade by Pooja Entertainment in Hindi-language which is directed by Ranjit Tiwari and stars Akshay Kumar, Sargun Mehta, Rakul Preet Singh and Chandrachur Singh. Earlier titled Mission Cinderella, the film premiered as Cuttputlli on Disney+ Hotstar on 2 September 2022.

External links

• Ratsasan at IMDb