Manichitrathazhu

Years ago, Nakulan's uncle Thampi wanted the former to marry the latter's daughter Sreedevi, which was later rejected by Nakulan's mother Sharadha given that Sreedevi's horoscope was an ominous one. Later Nakulan falls in love with Ganga and they get married, while Sreedevi is also married only to end up in a divorce.

Years later, Ganga and Nakulan arrive at their hometown and Thampi learns that Nakulan had decided to stay at the family mansion named Madampalli, despite attempts by the local villagers to dissuade them. The couple moves in with the help of the family including Thampi's wife and children, Thampi's sister Bhasura, her husband Unnithan and their daughter Alli.

Later Bhasura reveals the reason everyone fears the mansion. About 150 years ago, a landlord named Sankaran Thambi Karanavar who was then the head of the family travelled to Tanjavue in Tamil Nadu, where he met and fell for a dancer named Nagavalli. However, she did not reciprocate his feelings as she was already in love with another dancer named Ramanathan. As a result, Karanavar took her back to his palace by force. Unknown to him, Nagavalli made Ramanathan stay in a cottage next to the palace and met him secretly. When Karanavar discovered this, he slayed Nagavalli on a Durgashtami night at her room named Thekkini situated at the south west corner of the house. As a result, Nagavalli's ghost tried to take her revenge, and Karanavar with the help of various priests and sorcerers from all over the state, tamed the ghost by locking it up in the same room. The Karanavar too commits suicide shortly afterwards.

In the present day, Alli is in love with Mahadevan, a college professor who reciprocates her feelings. Their marriage is fixed to take place soon. Listening to Nagavalli's story, Ganga, who thinks that the story was fabricated to scare thieves from stealing treasures in the room, wishes to go there. She gets the room key's duplicate from Alli and opens the room, for which she is scolded by Sreedevi.

Subsequently, strange things begin to happen in the household; apparitions of a woman frighten the people in the house, things inexplicably break, and Ganga's sari catches fire during the day. The needle of suspicion falls on Sreedevi, who is generally found to be gloomy. Nakulan immediately calls up his psychiatrist friend Dr. Sunny to solve the case. As soon as Sunny arrives, an unknown person tries to kill Alli by locking her up in a store room.

Sunny also uncovers other incidents such as an attempt to kill Nakulan by poisoning his coffee as well as a mysterious voice singing from upstairs during the night.

Ganga mysteriously disappears during a Kathakali Night. Sunny notices her absence and searches for her, and with Nakulan's help finds Ganga, who is apparently being harassed by Mahadevan.

After the confusions settle, Sunny reveals to Mahadevan and Nakulan that all problems in the house are orchestrated by Ganga, who suffers from split personality disorder. Sunny tells them that Ganga who frequently transforms into Nagavalli's personality tried to kill Alli and Nakulan, and framed Mahadevan for sexual harassment because from Nagavalli's alter ego, Mahadevan is her lover Ramanathan since the former stays at the same house Ramanathan did. By framing Mahadevan and also framing Sreedevi via possession, Ganga's alter ego planned to stop the marriage. Now the only way to stop Nagavalli's influence on Ganga is to make her believe she killed her enemy Karanavar on Durgashtami, since Nakulan impersonated the Karanavar, a fact Sunny gauged from his conversation with Nagavalli to know her wish.

Thampi calls in a renowned tantric expert, Pullatuparam Brahmadathan Namboothiripad to solve the family's menace. To everyone's surprise, Sunny and Brahmadathan are long time friends and they discuss the matter deeply as Sunny makes a rather unconventional plan to cure Ganga.

Before carrying out his plan, Sunny asks Nakulan to trigger Ganga to see for himself whether she turns into Nagavalli or not. When Nakulan does so, she transforms into Nagavalli, which shocks him. A worried Nakulan shouts at Ganga, turning her back to normal.

On Durgashtami night, in the dance hall, the family and Namboothiripad allow Nagavalli to behead Nakulan posing as the Karanavar. Namboothiripad suddenly blows smoke and ash on Ganga's face when she is given a sword. Simultaneously Sunny turns a part of the platform over to let Nakulan escape, and a lifeless dummy of the Karanavar gets sliced instead. Convinced that her enemy is dead, Nagavalli leaves Ganga, curing her.

The family bids farewell to Ganga and Nakulan, Sunny expresses his desire to marry Sreedevi and they leave happily.

Shobhana was awarded the National Film Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Ganga / Nagavalli.

• Mohanlal as Dr. Sunny Joseph, a Psychiatrist
• Suresh Gopi as Nakulan, Ganga's husband
• Shobana as Ganga/Nagavalli
• Nedumudi Venu as Thampi, Nakulan's maternal uncle
• Vinaya Prasad as Sreedevi, Thampi's daughter, Nakulan's cousin and former fiancé
• Sridhar as Mahadevan, a college lecturer and author and fiancé of Alli (Dancer Ramanathan in Ganga's hallucination)
• Sudheesh as Chandhu, Thampi's son and Sreedevi's brother
• K. P. A. C. Lalitha as Bhasura, Thampi's sister and Nakulan's aunt
• Innocent as Unnithan, Bhasura's husband
• Thilakan as Pullattuparam Brahmadathan Namboothiripad, a tantric expert and long-time friend of Sunny
• Kuthiravattam Pappu as Kattuparamban, priest at a local temple
• K. B. Ganesh Kumar as Dasappan Kutty, a distant relative of the family
• Rudra as Alli, daughter of Unnithan and Bhasura
• Vyjayanthi as Jayasri, youngest daughter of Thampi
• Kuttyedathi Vilasini as Thampi's wife

The soundtrack for the film was composed by M. G. Radhakrishnan which went on to become one of the most popular film albums in Malayalam. The album consists of nine tracks. The lyrics sung are in Malayalam and Tamil written by Bichu Thirumala and Madhu Muttam for Malayalam and Vaali for Tamil.[11]

Manichitrathazhu was released on 25 December 1993,[12] and performed well at the box office, becoming the highest-grossing Malayalam film ever, to that date.[13][14][15] It ran for more than 365 days in some centres.[16] The film gained a profit of ₹3 crore for the producer.[17]

Manichitrathazhu is hailed as one of the best films ever made in Malayalam cinema.[5] The film has consistently fetched maximum ratings for its television screenings.[5] Even twenty years after its release it has been screened more than 12 times a year on an average on Kerala's leading TV channel, Asianet.[5] The film has received the maximum TRP rating on every screening; TRP ratings have increased every year, a rare record for a film produced in Kerala.[5][20]

In a 2013 online poll by IBN Live, Manichitrathazhu was listed second in India's Greatest Film of All Time. The poll was conducted as part of the celebration of Indian cinema completing 100 years. The poll constituted a list of 100 films from different Indian languages.[15] As per the statistics of 2015, Manichitrathazhu is the most reviewed horror film ever in IMDb, surpassing Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) with 2517 reviews.[21]

Manichithrathazhu was remade in many languages: in Kannada as Apthamitra (2004), in Tamil as Chandramukhi (2005), in Bengali as Rajmohol (2005) and in Hindi as Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007).[22]

A spin-off titled Geethaanjali was released on 14 November 2013, with Mohanlal reprising his role as Sunny.[23]

• List of Malayalam horror films
• Mental illness in film
• Dissociative identity disorder
• Identity formation

• Manichitrathazhu at IMDb