Cadaver is a 2022 Indian Tamil-language police procedural thriller film directed by Anoop Panicker and written by Abhilash Pillai. The film was under Production House Amala Paul Productions. The film stars Amala Paul with Riythvika, Munishkanth, Thrigun, Harish Uthaman and Athulya Ravi in supporting roles. The film's music is composed by Ranjin Raj with cinematography handled by Aravind Singh and editing done by San Lokesh. The film was released in Disney+ Hotstar on 12 August 2022.[1][2][3]
| Cadaver | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Anoop Panicker |
| Written by | Abhilash Pillai |
| Produced by | Amala Paul |
| Starring | Amala Paul |
| Cinematography | Aravind Singh |
| Edited by | San Lokesh |
| Music by | Ranjin Raj |
Production company | Amala Paul Productions |
| Distributed by | Disney+ Hotstar |
Release date |
|
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
A pathologist and a police commissioner try to solve a series of murders involving a prisoner. Their journey leads to shocking revelations!
[4]The film starts off with a mystery man abducting and cruelly murdering a chief heart surgeon Salim Rahman, of a reputed JC hospital in the city. As the case proceeds, we are introduced to Badra Thangavel (Amala Paul), an expert pathologist, who aids the city's assistant commissioner, Vishal (Harish Uthaman) in handling the case. Alongside, we also witness a prisoner, Vetri (Thrigun) in jail, who had already vowed to kill the same surgeon by drawing his portrait on the walls of his cell. As this news leaks out, the commissioner and the pathologist are left with no choice, but to interrogate Vetri. Despite being in captivity, the prisoner manages to kill his second target just as he vowed. This shocks the entire city and they realise someone is helping him from the outside.
Then the whole film revolves arround the Vetri and his late wife Angel (Athulya Ravi) and their connection to there case. We get to know that Angel was pregnant at that time of her death and the autopsy done was none other than Salim Rahman, itself. Bhadra raises a question with Vishal that why does a heart surgeon need to conduct an autopsy of Angel, as her cause of death was due to blood loss from her head.
That is when they find out that something is fishy with the autopsy. Angel's autopsy has never been done and her heart is missing.Vishal is transferred to another city and Bhadra thinking over the case.
It is then revealed that Bhadra met Angel before on a bus. She was returning back from a village to Vetri. Angel shows a locket to Bhadra in which she wants to keep miniature photos of her marriage with Vetri and their unborn child. After some days angel returns from hospital and meets with an accident due to chain snatching. She was severely injured. Vetri immediately takes her to a hospital where Salim Rahman works.
It is shown that the baby was taken out from her womb and Salim Rahman removed her heart for transplantation into a rich patient body. A hospital nurse Priya takes away the baby for disposal only to find it crying suddenly. She takes the baby to her home and takes care of her.
Vetri thinking his wife and child are dead mourns for them. After a few days Bhadra finds Angel's body while teaching to students and finds a worker over there suspicious as he stares at angel with grief. She questions him and finds out that he is priya's father. He tells Bhadra about what had happened. She asks Priya's help in exposing the crimes.
Initially afraid, Priya decides to serve justice for Angel. She sneaks into salim's office but Salim finds her and attacks her with his father and Abel. Priya though wounded helps Bhadra by telling the names of persons who are responsible for Angel's death but succumbs to her injuries
Bhadra then teams up with the church father and priya's father to expose the crime to the society. Church father guides vetri about what to do, who is then in prison. All the murders are not actually done by Vetri but by Bhadra! She punishes everyone according to the punishments given in puranas. Soon proper investigation is opened and the crime is exposed.
Vetri now free from all charges talks with Bhadra about his life ahead as his wife and child are dead. Bhadra gives vetri a locket which he opens and finds his and angels picture with the picture of Bhadra daughter. The locket was actually the one angel wanted to gift Vetri! Bhadra takes in the baby after priya's death and raises her as her own. Vetri hugs his daughter with emotion.
It is shown after a few days that students are afraid to conduct autopsy over a dead body and Bhadra talks about the Cadaver (dead corpse) being humiliated by not conducting autopsy on it. It is revealed that the body is of Ali Rahman's and the screen cuts black.
The film's shoot started in 2019.[5][6] The film was earlier planned to release in theatres,[7] but it released directly on Disney+ Hotstar.[8][9]
The film had an OTT release on 12 August 2022. A critic from The Hindu noted that "Cadaver sets up the milieu and its characters quite well".[10][11]A reviewer from the Times of India opined that "Cadaver is thrilling in parts".[12] A reviewer from IndiaToday wrote that "Sincere Amala Paul fails to save bland investigative thriller".[13]