Baby Girl

Posted on March 27, 2026 by Tennyson

Vampire Owl: I wonder who these babies in the movie are.

Vampire Bat: I have heard about a baby going missing in this story.

Vampire Owl: How can babies go missing? Who takes them? A succubus?

Vampire Bat: I am relieved that you did not say gargoyle.

Vampire Owl: The gargoyles are completely under the control of Uncle Dracula now.

Vampire Bat: I am glad that you did not assign them to Mr. Frankenstein.

Vampire Owl: Dr. Frankenstein has better scientific plans.

Vampire Bat: What will he invent now? A fake time machine?

Vampire Owl: I have heard that Dr. Frankenstein is going to create an elixir of invisibility.

Vampire Bat: You mean like the elixir of immortality which increased mortality by a thousand times in multiple realms.

[Gets a Paneer Fried Rice and three cups of Nuwara Eliya tea].

What is the movie about? :: Meenakshi (Mythili Nair), a young student doing engineering graduation at Bangalore had just given birth to a baby girl, only to find out that her baby had gone missing when she checked. She had married her senior at college, Akash (Akshay Prashanth) who had just turned twenty one, the minimum legal age for marriage as she had already turned eighteen and was pregnant with his child. Sanal (Nivin Pauly), the attender and Sukumaran (Jaffar Idukki), the security, becomes the worst affected due to this situation as their lack of care for their duty time becomes known to the police force led by Sub Inspector Rakesh (Abhimanyu Shammi Thilakan) and Assistant Sub Inspector Akbar (Azees Nedumangad) who try to get to the bottom of this, despite not getting enough support from Circle Inspector Sujith (Sreejith Ravi) and City Police Commissioner Shameer (Major Ravi) who are focusing more on a political protest which is going on in the city. The protests get through the blockades and with the Chief Minister at the location, there is least police support provided to the missing case.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: As the team send CPO Jeffin (Aswath Lal) to gather further information, Sanal tells them that he had seen someone in a purdah going out from the hospital with a bag, and he suspected that the baby was inside it. They keep searching for the same person in that clothing, and Sanal ends up getting a baby from a woman in the streets, but that turns out to be her own baby, making it an embarrassment for both the police and the hospital. As the hospital dismisses him with immediate effect for carelessness as much as recklessness, his wife Sini (Aditi Ravi), a nurse who had just returned from Saudi Arabia, asks him to return home and not to think more about what happened. But he is determined to find out what happened to the baby, but the situation is not like what he had been thinking, as Rishi (Sangeeth Prathap) and Rithu (Lijomol Jose) are the two people involved in this, but things had gone out of their control. Can there be some balance brought back to the situation, and will they be able to find the baby and return it to the mother before there are more complications?

The defence of Baby Girl :: The movie has the main incident coming into the picture right at the beginning itself, as not much time is wasted in a movie which had all the opportunity to waste a lot. It seems to be in a hurry in the beginning, as nothing else gets the care other than the baby girl gone missing, and the investigation is very quick to start and move on with hope. The movie needed an initial strength as it focuses more on the Passenger-model of common people going after a serious situation covered by the media, and that early boost helps the movie to keep moving forward even when pulled down. When the movie powers to an effective interval, that nicely gets to a point where emotions peak. The emotional side can also be seen as mostly working, and the deviations in the tale with more characters always seem to bring the emotions further. With realistic moments as much as performances, the movie never really moves away from our world. Cinematography and background score also adds to the overall quality of the movie. Then, the hype was always meant to keep the movie felt grand at the start itself.

The claws of flaw :: The movie’s attempt to bring the emotional side of losing a baby girl is lost in the process of getting emotionally attached to the other characters, who are not that much well-established. The movie seems to be keeping us close to different griefs and the abiding sadness here is more or less related to these people being sad for many other reasons which becomes more important than a lost child at times, and there are moments when we feel that the baby is just a missing package which has to be reminded as important by the police and the main characters through carefully crafted dialogues meant for some occasions only. The story keeps losing strength at times, as if there is some laziness which comes in here and there. The subplots often do not come up with that much of a strength, and a number of characters, fail to come up with the desired impact here. The ending is not that satisfactory, even though it is emotionally effective, for we did not wish to go the Game of Thrones finale way after a long wait. Well, this is a movie in which characters remain strange and act so, on too many occasions, as police characters also remains not effective in thinking.

The performers of the soul :: Nivin Pauly leads the way here not as the hero who would come out strong and prove that he is among the best, but as a flawed protagonist. He surely has a lot of screen time here, and is there from the beginning, and yet, I would consider the main character to be that one which is played by Lijimol Jose. One can safely say that it is her character that determines the real outcome of the movie, and scores like no other in the emotional scenes. It is also good to see Sangeeth Prathap getting roles like these, which have something far away from that usual humour. Even then, he does add a little bit of situational humour here too. Mythili Nair and Akshay Prashanth, the new faces also get some strong work to do, and they handle the same with some maturity which is to be appreciated. Abhimanyu Shammi Thilakan’s police role is solid, and Azees Nedumangad’s support is also to be appreciated, even though it comes as no surprise after watching movies like Kannur Squad. Aditi Ravi’s role is surprisingly limited to a few scenes at one house and so is that of Alphy Panjikaran at the hospital. Major Ravi, Aswath Lal and Sreejith Ravi plays their smaller police roles well as expected.

How it finishes :: As this one comes from the writers Bobby-Sanjay, the expectations were to be the much higher, and only some of the same is delivered here. There will not be the emotional power of Kaanekkaane or the investigative strength of Salute. After the success of Sarvam Maya, this next movie of the year with Nivin Pauly in the lead and with the addition of Lijomol Jose of Jai Bhim fame around was supposed to be a movie which helped expectations to skyrocket, but that journey to the clouds was surely short-lived, even though the movie does serve with entertainment and emotions as well as thrills and some twists also added here and there. The potential was so much, but movie confuses itself towards the ending which will satisfy only a small number of people. It had begun with such a compelling idea of a missing newborn case with a clear atmosphere of urgency and tension, which deviates, and feels like ready to lose its way, but then comes back, and feels like raising itself on occasions, only to end without that much of a real solution. But the journey remains memorable, and effective enough to have us go for it with the engaging moments.

Release date: 23rd January 2026
Running time: 124 minutes
Directed by: Arun Varma
Starring: Nivin Pauly, Sangeeth Prathap, Lijomol Jose, Abhimanyu Shammi Thilakan, Alphy Panjikaran, Aditi Ravi, Rudraksh, Azees Nedumangad, Major Ravi, Sreejith Ravi, Mythili Nair, Akshay Prashanth, Jaffar Idukki, Aswath Lal, Nandhu, Nisha Sarangh, Ranjini George, Prem Prakash, James Eliya, Kichu Tellus, Anoop Krishnan, Archana Prakash

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✠ The Vampire Bat.

Kalamkaval

Posted on March 3, 2026 by Tennyson

Vampire Owl: I remember that we had a thought about watching this one in the theatre.

Vampire Bat: Yes, but it is now on Sony LIV, and so we get to it.

Vampire Owl: I feel that Sony LIV has some of the most unexpected releases.

Vampire Bat: Some classic movies are surely around there.

Vampire Owl: Recharging with that Airtel unlimited offer did have that advantage.

Vampire Bat: We had lost the urge to watch movies in theatres anyway.

Vampire Owl: Yes, one of the things which corona virus lockdown had changed.

Vampire Bat: Yet the world remains too much the same.

Vampire Owl: Well, world changes, but how many times can a vampire change?

Vampire Bat: A vampire is not immune to uncertainties of life.

[Gets a poori masala and three cups of Kandy tea].

What is the movie about? :: SI Jayakrishnan (Vinayakan) is assigned with what seemed to be a usual case of local unrest following the elopement of a young woman that was slowly moving towards a communal problem due to the woman being a Hindu and the man being a Muslim. To add to this, the man had denied any involvement in the woman going missing, making the woman’s family even more angry and frustrated. But there is no proof that the two even talked to each other except for someone who looked like him being seen around. Soon, they find out that the woman had not eloped with anyone they knew. As he digs deeper and deeper, Jayakrishnan begins noticing inconsistencies and understands that there is something that lies deep beneath. He understands a long-running pattern of missing women across the rural areas of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, divorced, widowed or unmarried for a very long time, each last seen with only one unidentified man. There seems to be some pattern about this.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: There is also an alternating pattern that after a murder occurs in Kerala, the next one takes place in Tamil Nadu, as missing women from Kerala seems to travel to Tamil Nadu, and vice versa. The investigation reveals that each victim’s phone is used to call and communicate the next target, forming an unbroken chain. To help the investigation further, they seek the help of a police officer in the border and with good knowledge of both state investigations, Stanley Das (Mammootty). The number of victims and possible victims only keep increasing, to Deepa (Shruti Ramachandran), Divya (Rajisha Vijayan), Babitha (Malavika Menon), Nandhini (Malavika Nair), Abhijitha (Dhanya Ananya), Shiny (Gayatri Arun), Anagha (Vaishnavi Sasikumar) Despite trying different methods to get the killer, the team keeps failing and reaching a dead end. They begin to suspect that a policeman might be involved and the person could be a psychopath with a perfect planning and identity. Can they find the person before times runs out?

The defence of Kalamkaval :: This is one movie that dares to go through divergent patterns. It does not take the usual path, but the narrative is kept really interesting, even without the situations not really following the parallel path. The tension and the mood are what keeps the movie going, that too with minimum gore and the violence is implied, never taking over the screen despite all the dark mood that has spread through the flick. The tension goes further with the cat and mouse game that prevails throughout its run. The visuals are really good and the dark tone does not keep the visual beauty down. There are not many dramatic sequences in the movie, as we look further, and there is no attempt to take this to the masses except for those few shots of the main character. There is nothing heroic about the investigation here, which makes it closer to reality, and we see that this one progresses through understanding and observation. The silence is nicely used, and even the final action stays very realistic.

The claws of flaw :: The movie should have kept the suspense of the psychopath at least for some time instead of revealing during such an early moment. There was the requirement for some shock element, and even that surprise in the beginning is delivered cold. This where the slow pace comes in, and we see the same pattern being repeated without anything new being added. The viewer keeps wondering if the overall length of the movie could have been less, thus making the movie more interesting with lesser victims shown – there is not much variety in the method, so seeing the same thing again and again was to be rather dull. The need for innovation was surely there to avoid repetitions here and there. There were moments where the movie really needed to pick up the pace too. The struggle to bring anything other than what has been repeated from the beginning can be seen, with the progress being so slow. One would keep wondering if something extra was there to be taken from behind.

The performers of the soul :: Mammootty leads the way in this film as an antagonist that we do not see from his side. The negative shade is more intense than ever, and remains bold and strong with that restrained evil which is not easy to portray. The psychological depth of the character is very well reflected in him, and could bring more appreciation with its presence in the OTT platform, and surely can have a sequel, or even a prequel. Vinayakan does his police role so well and in a realistic manner. This is one police character that gains no exaggeration, and we are with him throughout the investigation. This is one interesting character that goes so smooth that we love his way of doing things. The female characters only a get a few moments each, as there are so many of them, but it is Rajisha Vijayan who gets to do more and makes the short impact. In the end, it is Gayatri Arun who has more moments. Seema Sindhu Krishnan also has a throughout presence. Gibin Gopinath scores in the supporting moment, while the roles of Azees Nedumangad, Shyamaprasad and Kunchan are not extended despite having some scope around.

How it finishes :: Kalamkaval makes a quality journey with a fine narrative in its core. There is the feeling that more suspense could have been added, but this mode of journey in itself proves to be effective. The box-office collections of the movie is a reflection of the quality of the movie rather than anything else. Being a quietly disturbing, performance-driven investigative crime thriller depending on atmosphere and psychology will deprive the mass audience of what they have always wanted, but in that way, this one raises itself in overall quality. It had worked well through some of those carefully constructed scenes, and uses silence, restraint and visually beautiful storytelling to explore the darker corners of human mind, and makes us remember a few killers of John Luther, Forensic and Anjaam Paathira. You can forgive its slow pace and repetitions and go through the cinematic experience instead. It reminds us that even in the calm, there can be fear and terror, and we are reminded about how easy it is to exist side-by-side with terror.

Release date: 5th December 2025
Running time: 144 minutes
Directed by: Jithin K Jose
Starring: Mammootty, Vinayakan, Rajisha Vijayan, Shruti Ramachandran, Gayatri Arun, Gibin Gopinath, Shyamaprasad, Malavika Menon, Malavika Mohan, Megha Thomas, Vaishnavi Saikumar, Dhanya Ananya, N P Nisa, Azees Nedumangad, Kunchan, Biju Pappan, Ilavarasu, Kollam Thulasi, Catherine Mariya, Sudhi Kozhikode, Ranjini George, Aravind K S, Harisankar S G, Bibin Perumbillikunnel, R J Sooraj, Sindhu Varma, Seema Sindhu Krishnan, Devadevan Vijayaraghavan, Abee Suhana