''Aayushkalam'' () is a 1992 Indian

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

-language

supernatural horror Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defi ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

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 is commonly used as a male given name in India. People with the name Mukesh include: * Mukesh (singer) (1923–1976), Indian playback singer from ...

and

Jayaram Jayaram Subramaniam, (born 10 December 1965), is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema, in addition to Tamil cinema, Tamil, Telugu cinema, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Sanskrit, and Bhojpuri language films. He is also a chenda ...

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 a ...

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

Ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

'' and ''

Heart Condition Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina, heart attack), heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumatic he ...

'' and was in turn remade in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

as '' Hello Brother''.

Plot

The film follows the story of Balakrishnan, a bank staff and a heart patient, yet he drinks and smokes a lot. He urgently falls in need of a heart transplant, for which he is unlikely to receive a heart and has given up all hope of living any longer. 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, 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. Balakrishnan finally befriend Aby when the latter 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. Aby is seeking Balakrishnan's help to identify his murderer. Balakrishnan visits Aby's family- his mother and wife Shobha with Aby's ghost. Damu, a

Sub-Inspector Sub-inspector (SI), or sub-inspector of police or police sub-inspector (PSI), is a rank used extensively in South Asia: in the police forces of Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka, which are primarily based on the British model. It was form ...

, 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. 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 Damu, Balakrishnan discovers that Aby 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 Damu refuses to help them anymore, as he got suspended for the jail escape and death of Bruno. 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 Damu's house and possesses his body. He fights with Alex and kills him. Alex's ghost rises and both face each other, soon Alex is sent to

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

. 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 cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

Cast

as Balakrishnan *

as Aby Mathew, Ghost Spirit *

as SI Damodaran Nair * Sai Kumar as Alex Chandanavelil *

Maathu Madhavi, 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'' in the 19 ...

as Shobha, Abey's wife *

Rudra Rudra (/ ɾud̪ɾə/; ) 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". Rudra ...

as Sujatha *

Kaviyoor Ponnamma Kaviyoor Ponnamma (10 September 1945 – 20 September 2024) was an Indian actress who appeared in Malayalam films and television. She began her career performing in theatre dramas before foraying into cinema. She also acted in TV serials and c ...

as Aby's mother *

Gavin Packard Gavin Packard (8 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 ac ...

as Benjamin Bruno *

Innocent Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is prior to the sense of legal guilt and is a primal emotion connected with the sense of self. It is often confused as being the op ...

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 * Siddique as Dr. Hariprasad *

Mamukkoya Mamukkoya (5 July 1946 – 26 April 2023) was an Indian actor known for his work predominately in Malayalam cinema. He mostly appeared in comedic roles. His unique usage of Kozhikode dialect and style marked his presence in the industry. In a c ...

as Varghese *

Sankaradi Paravoor memana Kanakku Chembakaraman Parameswaran Chandrashekara 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 70 ...

as Fernandez *

Alummoodan Dominic Alummoodu, known by his stage name Alummoodan (15 March 1933 3 May 1992) was an Indian actor who worked in Malayalam films. He acted in more than 100 films and mainly did comedy roles. Background Alummoodan was born as Dominic to Rosa ...

as Velu Mooppan (voiceover by

Dileep Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan, better known by his stage name Dileep, is an Indian actor, producer, comedian and entrepreneur who predominantly works in the Malayalam film industry. He has also acted in Tamil, Hindi, and Kannada films. He has ...

) *

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

as Gopi *

K. P. A. C. Lalitha Maheshwari Amma, better known by her stage name K. P. A. C. Lalitha (10 March 1947 – 22 February 2022), was an Indian film and stage actress who worked primarily in the Malayalam cinema, Malayalam film industry. Considered one of the greatest ...

as Dakshayani *

Zeenath Zeenath A. P. (born 29 December 1964) is an Indian actress and dubbing artist. She was a prominent supporting actress during the 1990s in the Malayalam film industry. Background Zeenath married Malayalam drama director and producer K. T. Mu ...

as Geetha * N. F. Varghese as Police Officer *

T. P. Madhavan T. P. Madhavan (7 November 1935 – 9 October 2024) was an Indian actor who worked in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam films. He began acting at age 40 and appeared in over 600 films. Initially known for playing antagonistic roles, he transitioned t ...

as Police Officer * Abu Salim as Peter Cameo appearance *

as Ghost *

Lal Jose Lal Jose is an Indian director, actor, producer, and distributor who works in the Malayalam film industry. He started his career as an Assistant director in the Malayalam cinema. His directorial debut was with the 1998 film '' Oru Maravat ...

as Ghost *

Charuhasan Charuhasan Srinivasan (born 5 January 1931) is an Indian actor, director and retired lawyer who has acted in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He won the National Film Award for Best ActorSubha J Rao,Entertainment for a cause, Th ...

as Ghost *

James James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Ja ...

as Auto Rikshaw Driver

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

Ouseppachan Mechery Louis Ouseppachan (born 13 September 1955), known mononymously as Ouseppachan, is an Indian film composer and singer who primarily works in Malayalam films. He is a recipient of National Film Award, Filmfare Award and Kerala State Fil ...

. "Mounam Swaramaayi"'s tune was reused in the song "Chitti Kuruvi" in the 2003 film '' Mullavalliyum Thenmavum'', also composed by Ouseppachan, but the song is a bit western, starting from a humming by

Unni Menon Nambalatt Narayanankutty Menon (born 2 December 1955), known better by his stage name Unni Menon is an Indian film playback singer. He has recorded over 4000 songs in many Indian languages including Malayalam, Tamil language, Tamil, Telugu lang ...

and

Sujatha Mohan Sujatha Mohan is a renowned Indian playback singer known for her contributions to a wide range of Indian film industries, particularly in Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu cinema. Over her decades-long career, she has also recorded songs in other ...

, both songs are in

Kalyani (raga) Kalyani is a melakarta raga (parent musical scale) in the Carnatic music. It is the prati madhyama equivalent of the raga Sankarabharanam. It was called Kalyan but is now more popularly called Yaman in Hindustani Music. Its Western equivalent ...

References

External links

* {{Kamal (director) 1992 films Indian remakes of American films 1990s Malayalam-language films 1990s fantasy comedy films 1992 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 Indian comedy horror films Indian horror film remakes Indian romantic fantasy films Indian romantic comedy films Indian fantasy drama films Indian films about revenge Indian romantic drama films Supernatural drama films Films about invisibility Films about murder Films about psychic powers Films about spirit possession Films about the afterlife 1990s buddy cop films Indian supernatural films Films based on adaptations Films based on multiple works Fictional portrayals of the Kerala Police Films about the illegal drug trade Films about banking Indian comedy-drama films 1990s police comedy films Indian buddy comedy films Buddy action films