Romancham
Directed by	Jithu Madhavan
Written by	Jithu Madhavan
Produced by	Johnpaul George Girish Gangadharan Joby George
Starring	Soubin Shahir Arjun Ashokan Sajin Gopu Sajin Gopu Siju Sunny Abin Bino Anantharaman Ajay Afsal P.H.
Cinematography	Sanu Thahir
Edited by	Kiran Das
Music by	Sushin Shyam
Release date	3 February 2023 (2023-02-03)[1]
Running time	129 minutes[2]
Country	India
Language	Malayalam
Box office	est. ₹70 crore[3]

Romancham (transl. Goosebumps) 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.^[4] 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,^[5] emerging as a sleeper hit at the box office grossing ₹70 crore worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing Malayalam film of the year until it was surpassed by 2018.^[6] It is currently one of the highest-grossing Malayalam films.^[7]

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. The group agrees with Jibin's idea of making the evening all the more fun.

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

Music

Release

Romancham was slated for a release on October,14, 2022 but was postponed.^[16] It was released on 3 February 2023 across 144 theatres in Kerala.^[1]

Reception

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.^[33]

References