Psychological thrillers in Kollywood have been underrated for years. The response that recent movie Ratchasan received gives us a hope that psychological thrillers are welcomed by the audience henceforth.

While there are quite a few psychological thrillers in kollywood, we will be seeing about two important movies in Kollywood that got my attention.

Aalavandhan-The unsung movie of Kolywood

Aalavandhan(known in Hindi asAbhay) was released in the year 2001.
The movie revolves around Kamal Hassan playing a dual role as twins Vijay Kumar, an army commando in Delhi, and Nandu a patient with Schizophrenia who spends his life in jail for killing his stepmother. The movie revolves around Nandu wanting to kill Vijayakumar’s fiancé Teju( Raveena Tandon) as he hallucinates her to be like his stepmother. Nandu also ends up killing a socialite Sharmili( Manisha Koirala) to whom he develops a liking because he hallucinates her as well to be like his stepmother.

The flashback in the movie explains why Nandu developed psychopathology.
After Nandu and Vijayakumar’s mother passed away, their Father gets married again. While Vijayakumar ends up being adopted by his uncle, Nandu lives with his father and an abusive stepmother who abuses him physically and also manipulates Nandu’s father into blaming Nandu for things he did not do. Later Nandu brutally murders his stepmother (Jayanthi).

In the climax in an attempt to save Teju,Vijaykumar involves in a fight with Nandu. Meanwhile Nandu visualises his mother asking him to join her as Jayanthi(Stepmother) is torturing her up there. He realises his mistake and apologises to his brother Vijay for chasing Teju. To kill his stepmother, Nandu suicides by lighting up some cylinders which explode

The movie is a classic example of how parenting and early life traumas can influence an individual’s life and the way he/she grows up to be and and it’s influence on twins whose biological make up is the same.

The movie doesn’t end there and Teju is later revealed to be pregnant with twins. In which the director’s touch is revealed so beautifully where he expresses subtly to the audience that it is up to Vijayakumar to raise the twins the way they are supposed to be raised as he has witnessed the sad life of his brother.

Aalavandhan faced a box office flop and was not recognized. Kamal Hassan’s movies have always been ahead of the time and have failed to be recognized.

Anniyan

Anniyanwas released in 2005. The movies revolves around Ramanujam alias Ambi who develops Dissociative Identity Disorder (Earlier called Multiple Personality Disorder) and forms two other identities Remo and Anniyan. In which Remo is a chocolate guy who woos the girl he loves and Anniyan is a psychopath who murders those who are negligent in the society and do notabide by government rules.

The flashback reveals that Ambi gets deeply disturbed by the death of his sister which was due to the negligence of few government officials and he grows up hearing stories of Garudapuranam (book of punishment) and believing that all those who do wrong will be punished by God.

One prominent theorist stated on Dissociative Identity Disorder that “The problem is not having more than one personality, it is having less than one”

In the movie Anniyan, Ambi’s suppression of emotions for the girl he loves, frustration towards the society and he himself constantly abiding by the laws and not seeing a change in the society leads him to develop psychopathology. The movie was a box office hit and received a lot of positive accreditations for Vikram for portraying all the three identities diligently.

The recent movie Ratchasan is also an extravagant movie which explains how being bullied and being raised up in bad parenting can develop psychopaths.

While Kollywood has seemed to neglect psychological thrillers for years, these movies can imbibe a lot of life values on parenting, coping with societal pressures and stressors. Although psychological thrillers are not for those who seldom watch movies just to relax, it is to be noted that these kinds of movies can be more value yielding to society than horror movies. These kinds of movies make it worth the while and the audience can take back home something for the money they spend.

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