Kalamkaval

Story:

The 2025 Indian Malayalam-language action movie Kalamkaval: The Venom Beneath is helmed by rookie Jithin K. Jose, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jishnu Sreekumar. Mammootty and Vinayakan, as well as Gibin Gopinath, Gayatri Arun, Rajisha Vijayan, and Shruti Ramachandran, play supporting parts in the Mammootty Kampany-produced movie. Mujeeb Majeed wrote the music album for the movie.

When Kalamkaval debuted in theatres on December 5, 2025, both reviewers and viewers gave it positive reviews, praising the narration, director, cinematography, music, script, and performances (especially those of Vinayakan and Mammootty). The movie has become one of the highest-grossing Malayalam movies of all time and the fourth highest-grossing Malayalam movie of 2025.

Plot

The movie begins in Kerala in the early 2000s, as Sub-Inspector Jayakrishnan looks into what at first glance seems to be a typical case of local unrest after a young woman elopes. As the investigation progresses, Jayakrishnan starts to see discrepancies that imply the incident is merely a superficial diversion. His team discovers a long-standing trend of single, widowed, or divorced women going missing in rural locations, all of whom were last seen with the same unidentified male. Subsequent investigation reveals an unsettling pattern of alternation: every murder that takes place in Kerala is followed by one in rural Tamil Nadu.

Each victim’s phone is used to entice the next, creating a never-ending chain, according to the inquiry. Stanley Das, a Malayali police officer assigned to the nearest jurisdiction near the Trivandrum–Tamil Nadu border, is brought in by the team to bolster the investigation close to the interstate area. The squad tries a number of strategies to catch the murderer, but each attempt ends in failure. When a victim’s phone is found concealed in Mani’s bedroom, the team briefly suspects him of being the culprit.

Later, a bus driver recalls seeing a man travelling with one of the missing women on multiple occasions, which led to the hiring of a sketch artist.The team is shocked to see that the drawing clearly resembles Stanley instead than Mani’s face emerging from the sketch. When Vidya, a victim who managed to elude the murderer, identifies Stanley as the murderer, the case takes a dramatic turn. Stanley continues to act as an investigator alongside Jayakrishnan, unaware that he has been exposed.

Stanley takes Shiny to a lodge at night in an attempt to murder her. He leaves under the guise of smoking because he suspects the cashier is watching him, and he suddenly runs into Jayakrishnan at the main desk. Jayakrishnan gives him a piece of paper that purports to be the sketch of the suspect. Halfway up the stairs to his room, Stanley opens the paper and sees his own face on it. He quickly realizes that he has been exposed, takes out the insulin syringe that is already filled with cyanide, and turns around.

After a bloody altercation, Jayakrishnan overcomes Stanley with the cashier’s assistance and stuffs his allegedly lifeless body in his car’s trunk. The trunk starts to open from the inside as the movie comes to a close, suggesting that Stanley may still be alive.