''Aayushkalam'' () is a 1992 Indian

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

-language ghost film directed by Kamal and written by Vinu Kiriyath and Rajan Kiriyath. It stars

Mukesh Mukesh is an epithet for the Hindu god Shiva, and literally means "conqueror of the Muka demon". It also means god of 3 worlds, heaven, hell & earth, which in turn represents Hindu god Shiva. It is commonly used as a male given name in India. Peopl ...

and

Jayaram Jayaram Subramaniam, (born 10 December 1965) known mononymously as Jayaram, is an Indian actor who predominantly appears in Malayalam,Tamil films, along with a few Telugu films. He is also a chenda percussionist, mimicry artist, and occasional ...

in the lead roles and

Sreenivasan Sreenivasan (born 6 April 1956) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, director, dubbing artist and producer who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. Sreenivasan has starred in over 225 films. Sreenivasan wrote the screenplays of films such as ...

, Sai Kumar and

Gavin Packard Gavin Packard (9 June 1964 – 18 May 2012) was an Indian actor of Irish American descent, noted for the villainous roles he portrayed in many Bollywood films of the 1990s like Sadak, ''Mohra'', ''Tadipaar'' and '' Chamatkar''. He had also act ...

in supporting roles. The film was a commercial success at the box office. ''Aayushkalam'' is based on the Hollywood films ''

Ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to re ...

'' and '' Heart Condition'' and was in turn remade in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

as '' Hello Brother''.

Plot

Balakrishnan (

) is a heart patient, yet he drinks and smokes a lot. He works in a bank. He urgently needs a heart transplant, for which he is unlikely to receive a heart and has given up all hope of living any longer. Surprisingly and luckily he receives the heart of Aby Mathew (

), a youth who has died in a car accident. The surgery is performed after both families agree to it. Gradually, Balakrishnan recovers from the surgery. Soon after he is discharged from the hospital, he visits the doctor and asks him who gave him the heart out of curiosity. Although initially reluctant, the doctor gives him the newspaper report about Aby's death which contains his photograph. While leaving the hospital, Balakrishnan is frightened to see Aby's ghost and he is unable to escape from Aby's hold as he is able to follow him everywhere. Eventually, Aby starts following Balakrishnan at work, the restaurant, hospital and even at home, where he is initially not allowed to enter by the ghost of Balakrishnan's late father Gopala Menon (

Innocent Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. In other contexts, it is a lack of experience. In relation ...

), who is miserable because he cannot communicate with anyone but ghosts. Balakrishnan tries various methods to drive Aby's ghost out of the house, but all fail and makes everyone believe he has gone crazy. He especially has trouble because Aby is invisible to everyone but himself, and hilarity ensues. Aby tells Balakrishnan that he was in fact murdered very unexpectedly on a busy road, by a man whom he could not identify, initially using a gun, but he was later run over by the vehicle while he was leaving to see his newborn child. Balakrishnan visits Aby's family- his mother (

Kaviyoor Ponnamma Kaviyoor Ponnamma is an Indian actress who appears in Malayalam films and television. She began her career performing in theatre dramas before foraying into cinema. She has also acted in TV serials and commercials and has playback singing cred ...

) and wife Shobha (

Maathu Madhavi (born 1973), better known by her stage name Maathu, is an Indian actress who was active during the 1980s and 1990s in Malayalam cinema. She is born to Telugu-speaking parents Venkit and Shantha. She is best known for her role as ''Radha ...

) with Aby's ghost. Damu (

), a police Sub-Inspector, arrests Balakrishnan believing he is a flirt due to Aby's invisibility. He does not believe Balakrishnan when he talks about Aby's ghost and punishes him even more instead. However, Aby plays a trick on him to make him believe it by visiting his house and he reluctantly does. The character Damu causes significant hilarity at this point, especially because he appears foolish and naive but shows off as though he is a wise and experienced policeman. As it proceeds towards the climax, the film takes a serious turn. With the help of Inspector Damu, Balakrishnan discovers that Aby Mathew was murdered by a notorious criminal named Benjamin Bruno (

). However, Bruno refuses to tell the truth and escapes from prison by acting as though he has fainted. However, Aby follows him and hears him talking on the phone to a mysterious person. Aby sees Alex, his adopted brother, talking to Bruno about his murder and that it needs to be covered up. Aby realises that Alex hired Bruno to kill Aby and to take over his businesses which he had inherited from their father. Alex murders Bruno fearing that the truth would come out soon. Aby informs Balakrishnan about the matter. Balakrishnan approaches Aby's family, who initially refuse to believe it. However, he tells them about Aby's ghost and they do so. The film proceeds to the next scene where Inspector Damu refuses to help them anymore, as he fears he could get transferred anytime for believing in ghosts. As the story proceeds to the climax, Alex forces Shobha and Aby's mother to sign certain documents that make him the owner of all the businesses and assets that Aby had inherited from his father. He kidnaps Balakrishnan and threatens to destroy Aby's heart if they did not sign the documents. Aby decides to save them. He enters Inspector Damu's house and possesses his body. He fights with Alex and kills him. Alex's ghost rises and both face each other, but soon Alex is sent to

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

. Balakrishnan and Aby try to communicate with each other, but they no longer can do so. In the end, a divine light appears from the sky and transports Aby to

heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

Cast

as Balakrishnan *

as Aby Mathew *

as SI Damodaran Nair * Sai Kumar as Alex Chandanavelil *

as Aby's Mother *

as Shobha *

as Gopala Menon *

Oduvil Unnikrishnan Oduvil Unnikrishnan (13 February 1943 – 27 May 2006) was an Indian actor who worked in Malayalam cinema. He has portrayed supporting roles in both dramatic and comedic roles.The HindMalayalam film actor Oduvil Unnikrishnan dead He is a four- ...

as Menon *

as Benjamin Bruno * Siddique as Dr. Hariprasad *

Mamukkoya Mamukkoya (born 5 July 1946) is an Indian actor known for his work in Malayalam cinema, and has also appeared in French film ''Flammens of Paradise''. He has mostly appeared in comedic roles. His unique usage of the Mappila dialect and style mar ...

as Varghese *

Sankaradi Chandrashekaran Menon, better known by his screen name Sankaradi (14 July 1924 – 8 October 2001), was an Indian actor. He was a veteran Malayalam comedian and character artist, who had over 700 Malayalam films to his credit. He dominated the ...

as Fernandez *

Alummoodan Alummoodan (15 March 1933 3 May 1992) was an Indian actor who worked in Malayalam films. He had acted in more than 100 films and mainly did comedy roles. Background Alummoodan was born to Alummoottil Joseph and Rosamma in Changanassery, Changa ...

as Velu Mooppan *

Idavela Babu Ammanath Babu Chandran (born 11 August 1963), better known by his stage name Edavela Babu, is an Indian actor who appears in Malayalam cinema. He made his acting debut in 1982 with ''Idavela'', from which he got his stage name. Since then, he ...

as Gopi *

K. P. A. C. Lalitha Maheshwari Amma, better known by her stage name K. P. A. C. Lalitha, was an Indian film and stage actress who worked primarily in Malyalam. She started her acting career with K. P. A. C., a theatre collective in Kayamkulam, Kerala. In a caree ...

as Dakshayani *

Rudra Rudra (; sa, रुद्र) is a Rigvedic deity associated with Shiva, the wind or storms, Vayu, medicine, and the hunt. One translation of the name is 'the roarer'. In the Rigveda, Rudra is praised as the 'mightiest of the mighty'. ...

as Sujatha *

Zeenath Zeenath A.P is an Indian actress and dubbing artist. She was a prominent supporting actress during the 1990s in Malayalam films. Background Zeenath was born to Abu Achippuram and Fathima in Nilambur, Malappuram district. She had her primary edu ...

as Geetha * James as Auto-Rikshaw driver *

N. F. Varghese Nadakkaparambil Francis Varghese (6 January 1950 – 19 June 2002) was an Indian actor who worked in Malayalam film industry. He began his career as a mimicry artist in Kalabhavan, acting in minor roles, but later he turned to strong villain r ...

as Police Officer *

T. P. Madhavan T. P. Madhavan (born 7 November 1935) is an Indian actor who appeared in Malayalam films. He started acting at the age of 40. He has acted in more than 600 films. He came into the film industry playing villain roles; later he started doing com ...

as Police Officer * Abu Salim as Peter

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Ouseppachan. "Mounam Swaramaayi"'s tune was reused in the song "Chitti Kuruvi" in the 2003 film ''

Mullavalliyum Thenmavum ''Mullavalliyum Thenmavum'' () is a 2003 Indian Malayalam-language romance film directed by V. K. Prakash, starring Kunchacko Boban and Chaya Singh. Plot Shelly and his girlfriend, Rajasree are in love, but Rajasree's mother is against their ro ...

'', also composed by Ouseppachan, but the song is a bit western, starting from a hum by

Unni Menon Unni Menon (born 2 December 1955) is an Indian film playback singer. He has recorded over 4000 songs in many Indian languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.S.S.KavutaA melodious journey The Hindu. Retrieved 29 November 2008 In ...

and

Sujatha Mohan Sujatha Mohan (credited as Sujatha) is an Indian playback singer who is popular for singing in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu movies. She has also sung for Kannada, Badaga, Hindi and Marathi movies. In a career spanning 48 years, she has record ...

, both songs are in

Kalyani (raga) Kalyani is a melakarta raga (parent musical scale) in the Carnatic music. It was called Kalyan but is now more popularly called Yaman in Hindustani Music. Its Western equivalent is the Lydian mode. Kalyani in Carnatic music In South Indian w ...

References

External links

* {{Kamal (director) 1992 films Indian remakes of American films 1990s Malayalam-language films 1990s fantasy comedy films 1990s psychological thriller films Indian fantasy comedy films Indian ghost films Films directed by Kamal (director) Films scored by Ouseppachan Malayalam films remade in other languages Indian psychological thriller films