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 paedophile, 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 ageing. 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 his 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 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 recognised, finally gets a chance to make a film about a psychopath, fulfilling his dream.
Production
Following the release of the comedy 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. [3] In April 2017, actor Jai signed the project titled Ratsasan, which was set to be produced by C. V. Kumar of Thirukumaran Entertainment. [4] 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. [3]
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. [5] [6] Amala Paul joined the cast of the film in late November 2017, with production starting thereafter. [7] In June 2017, the title of the film was changed to Ratsasan. [8] in association with T-series.
