Abraham Ozler

Midhun Manuel Thomas's 2024 Malayalam film drops the senior officer Abraham Ozler into a serial murder investigation. Ozler is a scattered man in his own life, and the line between his work and his private grief is blurred. As the inquiry proceeds it emerges that the killings are not random and that the perpetrator is following a particular logic. The film works in the calm, procedure-led thriller language Malayalam cinema has developed in recent years, with interrogations, files and belated realisations in place of large action sequences. Jayaram leads, and Mammootty's late arrival in the film became one of the most discussed things about it. The ending goes somewhere more uncomfortable than the genre's usual resolution. Who it's for: viewers who like Malayalam procedurals and slow-building serial killer narratives. Who it's not for: anyone troubled by scenes in which violence is shown in detail.