The best Oduvil Unnikrishnan’s crime movies

The title of the film Nizhalkuthu (Shadow Kill) refers to a popular play Nizhalkuthu Attakatha, adapted from the Mahabharata, about the inherent unjustness of certain punishments. In the play, the Kauravas force a witch hunter to kill the Pandavas by stabbing their shadows. However, the witch hunter's wife finds this out and is enraged. To punish her husband by making him feel what, Kunti, the mother of Pandavas must feel, she kills their child in the same way. The film reflects that death penalty is probably in the same vein. We may---like the witch hunter's wife---be handing out punishments that are equally ridiculous under the false perception that we are doing justice, if not being directly criminal like the witch hunter. Adoor's usual cinematographer Mankada Ravi Varma filmed half of the project. But he was later replaced by Sunny Joseph, since the former fell ill and was later found to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Season is a 1989 Malayalam-language Indian feature film directed Padmarajan, starring Mohanlal and Gavin Packard in lead roles. The film, though a failure at the box office, stands apart because of Padmarajan's story-telling style, unconventional plot and characters, realistic portrayal of drug trade in Kovalam and flawless performance of Mohanlal and is considered now as a cult classic. The story is set in the beautiful locales of Kovalam beach in Kerala and Poojappura Central Prison, Trivandrum. In spite of the film's commercial failure at the time, Season is now considered to be amongst the best revenge thriller classics ever made in Malayalam and Mohanlal's performance in the movie stands apart because of his unconventional style of acting in such a complex plot. The film also showed how narration can be used as a strong tool in storytelling. Many feel that this movie was much ahead of time and if it would have released in late nineties, would have done good business.

The movie starts with a loner named Ben Narendran writing a suicide note. He mentions that he is committing suicide as he has nothing to do with his life. He ends up saving another young man who has the same intention. Janardanan has committed a murder out of desperation and is scared of revenge. Narendran consoles him and offers him to take the blame of the murder so that Janardanan can live freely. Narendran gets sentenced to lifetime imprisonment. While in jail, he writes a book under the pen name "Ben" which becomes immensely popular. Once out of jail, Narendran gets word that Janardanan has died mysteriously. He sets out on a mission to find the culprits and destroy those who caused his death.