Romancham

''Romancham'' () is a 2023 Indian Malayalam-language comedy horror film written and directed by Jithu Madhavan in his directorial debut. Based on a real life incident, it stars Soubin Shahir, Arjun Ashokan, Sajin Gopu, Siju Sunny, Abin Bino and Anantharaman Ajay and Afsal P.H. Set in Bangalore, the plot revolves around seven unmarried men who, out of boredom, use an Ouija board and the subsequent events that follow. The film is produced by Johnpaul George, Girish Gangadharan and Joby George under the banner of Guppy Films and Johnpaul George Productions. Kiran Das handles the editing, while Sanu Thahir is the cinematographer. Sushin Shyam was the music composer.

''Romancham'' received positive reviews from the critics, emerging as a sleeper hit at the box office grossing worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing Malayalam film of the year until it was surpassed by ''2018''. It is currently one of the highest-grossing Malayalam films.

Plot

Jibin Madhavan partially wakes up in the ICU of a hospital in Bangalore when he is told that he has been suffering from meningitis for a week. This is the first time he has regained consciousness, and he is told that no visitors are allowed to meet him because of his condition. Jibin insists on meeting his friends or being moved to another room, but the doctor makes it clear that unless his vision improves, he will not be moved out of the ICU. Jibin is desperate to meet his friends as he wants to convey something important to them. He tries to trick the on-duty nurse into letting him move into the room, but she doesn't fall for his antics. Jibin seems very restless, and he is insistent on wanting to meet his friends urgently. The nurse is curious to know the reason, and that's when Jibin recalls his tale of encountering the unseen in the past few weeks.

Seven of them live on the outskirts of the city, trying to make a decent life. Rivin, Niroop, Shijappan, Mukesh, Karikuttan, and Soman are the residents of the house and are trying to make their lives bearable. Among them, only Rivin and Karikuttan have full-time jobs and Soman runs a business the rest are just trying to scrape by, while Niroop is waiting for an appointment letter from an IT company, something he hopes would change his life for the better.

The boys play Volleyball in the evening, which Jibin resents as he does not know how to play the game. One day, out of spite, he deflates the ball and heads to a friend's place. At his friend's place, he sees a group conducting a séance using an Ouija board in the hope of finding a soul they can talk to. Realizing this is something the group can do at home as a pastime, he brings a carrom board and creates the atmosphere for a séance. At first the group refuses to play as they are more interested in playing volleyball but after an incident with Rivin they agree to conduct the séance just to spite him.

Rivin, being the religious one of the lot, refuses to be a part of something as sinister as Ouija, which he claims is anti-Christ. After leaving him out of the Ouija board activity, the men began their quest to find out if the spirits would come down and answer their questions. As they begin their séance, Jibin realizes no spirit has come down to move the glass on the board, and he and one of his roommates, Shijappan, start moving the glass on their own to make the rest of them believe that the séance is working.

As the séance progresses, they start asking questions. Jibin and Shijappan come up with the name Anamika, which makes the rest of them believe that the spirit is a woman, and they continue asking her questions, to which Anamika starts giving the correct answers, answers of which, technically, only Jibin and Shijappan are aware. Their séance part becomes popular among their friends. On one occasion, their friends ask a question about their pet cat. Anamika ends up having the right answer, which puts Jibin and Shijappan on the back foot and wondering if the spirit has descended into their home.

Unfortunately for all of them, Anamika predicted a person named Matthew would die. They check up on their friend Matthew, but thankfully nothing happens to him. But their neighbor's father, who was also named Matthew, passes away, making the boys wonder if they should continue playing this game after all. Even Rivin admits that he has been having blackouts and losing a sense of direction while heading home from work. Rivin starts experiencing something odd happening at home since they began their séance activity. They bring their friend, who is an expert in the game, but things go south with him as well. Niroop, being the sole decision-maker at home, decides to end the nuisance once and for all, which all of them oblige to. They are tired of seeing the negative impact of playing Ouija at home and bringing Anamika into their lives. They want to be done with the weird and bad things that have been going on like the constant fights between them and Rivin's conscious mind getting affected. Getting rid of the board is the only apparent solution.

Jibin's friend Sinu Solomon comes to live with them, because recently, he has been through an episode that no one in his family can sort out. To give him a change of place, they ask Jibin to make sure Sinu stays with them for a while. Sinu is a simple boy who is close to Jibin. But as his stay begins, Sinu starts exhibiting weird behaviour including staring at a wall until he is physically shaken and speaking to someone in the middle of the night. Jibin and his friends start noticing his weird behavior, and they maintain a distance from him. Sinu is politely asked by Jibin to leave their home, and he agrees to it.

With Sinu gone, Anamika's spirit starts wrecking their home as many unnatural and unexpected things start happening again. Rivin again starts forgetting the way back home, and Karikuttan ends up losing his job at the petrol pump because, absent-mindedly, he ends up filling a customer's petrol tank with diesel. Karikuttan also does not know what made him blank out and make a silly mistake that cost him his job. These incidents start taking a toll on the seven, and they are sure there has been something off about them since they started playing the Ouija board. All of them lose their minds and try to leave their home as soon as possible. Jibin, on the other hand, out of worry, ends up with high fever, which develops into meningitis.

Jibin ends up in the hospital because of the illness, and he is soon shifted to a room after showing signs of recovery. He informs the nurse that while going unconscious due to his fever, the last thing he saw was the spirit of a woman getting into his bag. The last scene of "Romancham" has Jibin asking his friends to get hold of the bag, and that is when he is informed that Sinu is back in town to help Jibin with his recovery, and he will be getting the bag for him. Because Jibin had a very high fever, he may have hallucinated before becoming unconscious. There is no proof that Anamika exists in the home for them to be triggered about. Or even if she existed, her power would have been neutralized by Sinu's presence at home. The men hardly went through any major incidents during Sinu's stay at their home.

Cast

Production

Development

''Romancham'' was produced by Johnpaul George, Girish Gangadharan and Joby George under the banner of Guppy Films and Johnpaul George Productions. Jithu Madhavan who has previously worked as an assistant director in the films ''Utopiayile Rajavu'', ''Guppy'', ''Maradona'' and '' Ambili'' was chosen to direct the film that marked his directorial debut. He also wrote the script. Jithu Madhavan revealed that the film was based on his personal experience. He stated that, despite being frightening at the time, it now seems amusing after all these years. The script was inspired by his time as an aeronautical engineering student in Bengaluru in the late 2000s and it was during the period from 2005 to 2007, when he was living with ten friends in Bengaluru and out of curiosity decided to play the Ouija board game. He said that it was not easy to depict real life moments and he had to ensure that there were enough filmy elements. He said Sinu's character was a mix of many incidents that happened in his real life.

Casting

Soubin Shahir and Arjun Ashokan joined the cast in May, 2022. Most of the actors in the film were not mainstream actors. They were chosen due to their popularity in other media such as Instagram reels, and web series, each of them was selected without any prior audition. Jithu Madhavan called Abin Bino, while Bino was working in Dubai after seeing him play the role of Naththu in the webseries ''Othalanga Thuruth''. Sajin Gopu who rose to fame with the role of a Jeep driver in ''Churuli'' was chosen by John Paul Geroge. Siju Sunny, who garnered an online following after uploads of his comic content on Reels during COVID lockdown, was noticed by Jithu Madhavan, which prompted him to pick him. Siju had brief appearances in ''Visudha Mejo'' and ''Vellari Pattanam'' earlier.

Music

Release

''Romancham'' was slated for a release on October,14, 2022 but was postponed. It was released on 3 February 2023 across 144 theatres in Kerala.

Home Media

''Romancham'' was released on Disney+Hotstar on April 7, 2023, and it was available Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu from April 17, 2023.

Reception

Critical response

Gopika I.S. of ''The Times of India'' gave 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "''Romancham'' is the movie that gives us this wonderful formula. There is no exaggeration, no nonsensical humour, the movie is simply hilarious and interestingly, it's inspired from real life incidents." S. R. Praveen of ''The Hindu ''wrote "Along with some top-notch comic performances from the entire cast, everything works like a charm and evokes uproarious laughter in director Jithu Madhavan's debut film." Saikat Chakraborty of ''The Telegraph'' wrote,"Debutant director Jithu Madhavan blends situational comedy with eerie overtones, stringing together incidents from his real-life experiences. Debutant director Jithu Madhavan blends situational comedy with eerie overtones, stringing together incidents from his real-life experiences.

Ann Jacob of ''The Week'' gave a rating of 4 out of 5 and wrote," Jithu Madhavan, the director-writer of the movie, ensures that the pace of the plot does not lag at any point and has succeeded in leaving the audience wanting for more." Cris of ''The News Minute'' gave 4 out of 5 stars and wrote, "With such a package, the horror and the comedy come off really well. But if you are not quite a fan of horror, chances are that you might have trouble with the viewing, despite the comedy accompanying it."

Sajin Shirjith of ''The New Indian Express'' gave 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "''Romancham'' is at its funniest when it explores the idiosyncrasies of its well-sketched character."

Box Office

''Romancham'' grossed 4.35 crore in its first four days. It grossed 25 crore in 11 days with 17 crore from Kerala box office. The film collected 50 crore in 23 days with 30 crore from Kerala, 17 crore from overseas and 3 crore from other parts of India. The film grossed 62 crore in 34 days collecting 38 crore from Kerala, 21.15 crore from overseas market and 3.6 crore from other parts of India. It grossed 64 crore in 38 days grossing 39.35 crore from Kerala, 3.8 crore from other parts of India and 22 crore from overseas.

''Romancham'' grossed over 68 crore after 50 days of its theatrical run by collecting 41 crore from Kerala, 4.1 crore from other parts of India and 22.9 crore from overseas market. ''Romancham'' grossed 70 crore worldwide to emerge as the highest-grossing Malayalam film of the year.

Sequel

The film ends with a hint of a possible sequel in the future. The director has stated that a sequel will only be pursued if the script can match the quality of ''Romancham'', and that they will not proceed with the sequel for the sake of it."Romancham director Jithu Madhavan on sequel plans: ‘We have an ending in mind but will go ahead only…’"
''OTT Play''. 20 February 2023. Retrieved 3 May 2023.

References

{{Reflist

2020s Malayalam-language films
2023 comedy horror films
2023 films
2023 directorial debut films
Films shot in Bangalore