Theevram

Plot

The Movie opens with a crime where a young man is beaten to death with a club in front of his fiance. Then comes an investigation officer Alexander (Sreenivasan), and an assistant Ramachandran (Vinay Forrt). Alexander unlike the assistant, is an officer who doesn't believe in torturing the accused people to prove crimes. Though he is a man who even fears to witness a live postmortem, he is intelligent enough to prove crimes. He proves this one too without much problems. Parallel to this, Harsha Vardhan (Dulquer Salmaan), a man of mystery, lives lonely in a big house, and teaches music to a girl named Sophie. He one day kidnaps and brings an auto driver (Anu Mohan) and tortures him in his house cellar covered with plastic. Alex and Ramachandran take up the case and upon investigation, Alex suspects Harsha. But Harsha turns out to be quick and swift before his suspicion turns into his belief. He murders the auto driver and then eradicates every single evidence which proved him guilty and revealed the identity of the driver. Once the severed parts are found, the case heats up further and Alex realizes that it's a well planned murder, only after he finds Harsha to have left the city without any notice.

The story then moves four years back. Harsha, as an aspiring young musician, struggles not only in his career, but also in his life to maintain his relationship with his lover Maya. After getting married, both of them, with their two more friends, Nimmy (Riya Saira) and Dr. Roy (Vishnu Raghav) start living together. One day, May joins a call center and gets miffed with a driver on his careless driving. Harsha leaves for Chennai, after getting his break and while he's away, the driver murders his wife and buries her severed head to avoid suspicion. But Alex finds it out and the driver is imprisoned. Harsha gets devastated by the loss of Maya and gets furious upon finding that first of all, the driver was given life imprisonment instead of death penalty, and secondly, he got freed before time. He makes a plan along with his two friends to kill the driver. Nimmy starts using his auto and befriends him. One day, while going with him, Nimmy follows Harsha's plan and the driver takes her on a route through a forest, and she suddenly jumps out. In order to stop her from running, he jumps out but is held by Harsha. A fight takes place between them in which Harsha overpowers the driver and injects him to unconsciousness.

Then in the present, Nimmy and Roy are shown watching news which proves the system's failure in finding out the dead body's identity and that the case would go on with further investigations. Upon being asked by Ramachandran about what was to be their next action, Alex smiles and replies that, "It's not Jesus Christ who has died. It's Judas. He'll have to die", after which he is accompanied by Ramachandran through his laughter, indicating that they won't disclose anything about Harsha.

Cast

Development

Dulquer joined Theevram after rejecting yet another promising film in the name of 'June' due to date clash. The director had announced the film in December 2011. It was previously titled 'Maya'. The film features a fresh music director, Roby Abraham. The film is produced by V C Ismail, under the banner of VCI Movies. The film's distributor is director Lal Jose. This is his 2nd distribution venture after Thattathin Marayathu, under the banner of LJ Films. The costume designer of the film is Sameera Saneesh.

Casting

During the planning of the film in late December, Fahad Fazil was cast to play the lead but he had to drop the film due to date clash. The director also had a difficult time finding many actors to play the characters in the film. After a successful debut in Second Show and after playing another highly appreciated role in Ustad Hotel, Dulquer Salmaan was a perfect choice for the director, in which he was chosen to play the role of Harsha Vardhan, a music composer who has a conflict with the legal system. Harsha Vardhan has a brutal mental outlook of angry young man making the character Dulquer Salmaan was chosen to play a tough role with Negative shades. Sreenivasan was chosen to play a prominent role. Riya Saira was chosen after her performance as Tissa in the 2012 film '22 Female Kottayam', while the others chosen to play supporting roles were Janardhanan, Vinay Forrt, Anu Mohan, and Vishnu Raghav. This will be second movie that both Anu Mohan and Vishnu Raghav are seen in after their debut film Orkut Oru Ormakoot. It gave Vishnu Raghav a role which provided more scope to perform. Debutant actress Shikha Nair was chosen as the female lead, as the director felt it would be a great opportunity for the film to showcase a new actress. Shikha was a Chennai based model, who was being prepared for a Tamil debut started her career through this film.

Filming

The film started its shoot on 5 August 2012 at Kochi after the pooja ceremony which had directors Siddique, Anwar Rasheed and the lead actor Dulquer Salmaan lit the ceremonial lamp. Hari Nair is the director of photography. It is shot at various locations in and around Ernakulam, Alappuzha and Chalakudy.

Soundtrack

The music for the film has been composed by Roby Abraham. The lyrics have been penned by Arun K. Narayanan and Rafeeq Ahmed. Music Aloud's review rated the soundtrack 7.5/10.

Critical reception

Theevram got mixed reviews from critics. Rediff.com rated the film 2.5/5, writing "Theevram's interesting plot keeps its viewers gripped but leads to lukewarm ending." Now Running rated the film 2.3/5, writing that "The cumulative chill that you expect to work wonders in Roopesh Peethambaran's 'Theevram' is not there." The Times of India rated the film 2/5, writing "What is lost is a sense of identification and purpose. The characters bemoan their loss, battle for justice and plot reprisal. But everything appears too distant and shallow to be felt."