Bhoothakaalam (2022)

Asha, a schoolteacher, lives with her son Vinu in a rented house, where she cares for her ailing mother until her death. Vinu has a pharmacy diploma but has been unable to find a job for almost two years. He starts drinking and smoking again. Asha is depressed, on medication, and frustrated with him.

Vinu begins to notice strange things in the house, as if another presence is there. At first he thinks his mother is angry with him, but he becomes convinced someone else is in the house. Everyone thinks he is unwell, and after a drunken fight, Asha takes him to a counsellor, George.

Asha slowly realises Vinu might be right. George learns from a neighbour that the house has a dark past: the owner's son once killed his wife and daughter and hanged himself there, and a later tenant, a bank manager, was left paralysed. Both had been going through emotional crises and behaving strangely while living in the house.

Vinu's uncle decides he must be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. That night, Asha tries to poison herself and Vinu at dinner, but they finally talk, understand each other and reconcile, and she throws the food away. Soon after, the ghosts in the house reveal themselves, and mother and son barely escape. The next day, with help from the uncle and George, they move out of the house.

Were the ghosts real? Yes. After Asha and Vinu reconcile, the presence in the house reveals itself to both of them.

What is the house's secret? Earlier tenants in emotional crisis were driven to tragedy there: a man killed his family and himself, and another was left paralysed.

Why does Asha try to poison them? Overwhelmed by depression and the house's influence, she sees no way out. Talking honestly with Vinu saves them both.

Why do they survive? Unlike the earlier tenants, they reconnect with each other before the house can destroy them.

What does the title mean? Bhoothakaalam means "Past", pointing to both the house's history and the family's unresolved grief.