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Sabdham
2025 Indian film From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sabdham (transl. Sound) is a 2025 Indian Tamil language horror thriller film written and directed by Arivazhagan Venkatachalam. The film is jointly produced by Siva and S. Banupriya Siva under 7G Films and AAlpha Frames and stars Aadhi and Lakshmi Menon.
The film was announced in December 2022, along with the title of the film. Principal photography commenced the same month in Munnar along with a schedule in Chennai and later in Mumbai and wrapped by late-September 2023. The film has music composed by S. Thaman, cinematography handled by Arun Bathmanaban and editing by V. J. Sabu Joseph.
Sabdham premiered in theaters on February 28, 2025, garnering positive reviews from critics. The film was lauded for its narration, storytelling, technical brilliance, sound design, and unique approach, which offered a distinct and creative narrative. The acting performances of the cast, including Aadhi, Lakshmi Menon, Simran and Laila, were also widely praised. Additionally, Thaman's score received significant acclaim, making it a hit at the box office.
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Plot
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The film revolves around paranormal investigator Rooban from Mumbai and his investigation of the several deaths at a medical college in Munnar. He meets a lecturer Dr. Avantika, played by Lakshmi, who is skeptical of his profession and is writing a thesis disproving supernatural accounts from psychiatric patients as just disorder-related hallucinations. However, it soon becomes clear that she is being affected by paranormal phenomena herself. This culminates in one night at the old library when Rooban sees and experiences several spirits attacking Dr. Avantika who he had called to assist him. She is hospitalized with several injuries, and he continues his investigation to find out why there are several spirits and who they are.
He comes across an elderly casket maker who reveals that 40 years ago, the church affiliated with this medical college had taken in 42 disabled, orphaned children under the insistence of Dr. Diana , played by Simran. She studied the effects of sound on the development of babies in the womb and believed that these disabled children could also benefit from sound-based therapy. Rooban learned that the 42 children were experimented on and had died under mysterious circumstances. The elderly casket maker shows him their graves.
He conveys this information to Dr. Avantika who questions why she has been targeted by the children. She later falls asleep while he watches over her, only to have a seizure that results in “Jennifer” (who is actually Dr. Diana) temporarily possessing her and giving her visions of a treatment being done by Dr. Avantika. The pair eventually find “Jennifer” still in a coma. Dr. Avantika informs Rooban than her supervisor never told her she was Dr. Diana and that she was instructed to continually give her anesthesia. When she said it didn’t make sense to do so, she was reprimanded by the doctor. Dr. Avantika then realizes that the 3 medical students who died were also on the team ordered to look after Dr. Diana but they were dismissive and did the bare minimum to care for her. Rooban insists that Dr. Diana is dead already but someone has been covering it up as being comatose. The police arrive as he starts disconnecting her from life support and arrest him. He tells them his theory, which prompts them to investigate the current medical college dean. The dean denies any involvement on the part of Dr. Daniel (his partner) but the police insist that he call him immediately. On his refusal, we see that he suffers the same fate as the 3 previous medical students.
At the same time, Rooban realizes there is a black magic component to this story. He finds the casket maker dead. He believes Dr. Daniel has been in contact with people who practice black magic. He starts to investigate further while Dr. Daniel arrives back at the college. He signs off to remove her from life support as her organs have been failing. Rooban is then attacked by bats as he is driving but he returns to the house he is staying at.
Rooban thinks about everything he’s learned, and believes that Dr. Diana is having an out-of-body experience due to the repeated doses of anesthesia she was given over the last 40 years. He believes that her spirit could be returned to her body if she isn’t yet off life support. Just as the supervising doctor is about to remove her from the ventilator, he suffers the same fate as any others who wanted to harm Dr. Diana. Rooban believes the attacks are coming from the children trying to protect her.
Meanwhile Rooban’s partner back in Mumbai has been analyzing all audio clips he sent back and he hears “Nancy Daniel”. Rooban and Dr. Avantika bring Dr. Diana back to the library and attempt to wake her up so that she can help the children’s spirits. Dr. Avantika finds a book on ultrasound therapy in the library, which is when it’s revealed that the true culprit is Dr. Daniel’s wife, Dr. Nancy. She was jealous of Dr. Diana’s achievements and decided to use black magic to “experiment” on the kids using the sound frequency of bats. In truth she was torturing them. It’s revealed that Dr. Nancy attacked Dr. Diana, and then used black magic to trap the children’s spirits and keep Dr. Diana in a coma.
Since her husband still loves Dr. Diana, she drugs and kills him, then goes to the college to kill Dr. Diana. Dr. Avantika, Rooban and the children’s spirits try to protect Dr. Diana. But, Dr. Nancy is wearing a hearing aid to dampen the intense ultrasonic sounds they have been using to kill people. She starts doing black magic again but Dr. Diana’s spirit manages to return to her body just in time as Rooban plays the piano to help her and the children. The children’s spirits manage to get her hearing aid off and she suffers the same fate as all the others who contributed to the mistreatment of Dr. Diana and the children. The film then fast-forwards to Rooban and Avantika visiting a children’s home where Dr. Diana is now playing the violin and treating those kids.
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Cast
- Aadhi Pinisetty as Reuban
- Lakshmi Menon as Dr. Avantika
- Simran as Dr. Diana
- Laila as Dr. Nancy Daniel
- Arthi Ashwin as Swetha
- Redin Kingsley as Arogiyam
- M. S. Bhaskar as casket maker
- Rajiv Menon as Dr. Daniel
- Vivek Prasanna as Deepak
- TSR Srinivasan as library security guard
Production
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Development
On 14 December 2022, Arivazhagan Venkatachalam announced that he was collaborating with Aadhi Pinisetty after Eeram (2009) for his next directional. Touted to be in the horror genre, Venkatachalam stated "After Eeram, I've done films mainly in the thriller and action genres, and now, with this film, I'm returning to horror." He described that "adventure horror" is more suitable for the film than "comedy horror", "thriller horror" and "romantic horror". Siva of 7G Films and S. Banupriya Siva of AAlpha Frames jointly funded the film. Venkatachalam and Pinisetty would be reuniting with Thaman S, as he also was part of Eeram. Arun Bathmanaban of Magamuni (2019) fame was roped in to handle the cinematography, while National Film Awards winner V. J. Sabu Joseph was crewed to edit the film. Venkatachalam further stated "We will be shooting it in Tamil, but will simultaneously be releasing a dubbed version in Telugu", which was also followed for Eeram.[2]
Casting
On 27 February 2023, it was announced that Lakshmi Menon was cast to play the lead actress role in the film, pairing opposite Aadhi for the first time. Venkatachalam stated "All I can reveal is that it [her role] will be a performance-orientated role, something we haven't witnessed before."[3] On 4 March, Redin Kingsley was announced to have been cast as a comedian in the film.[4] Five days later, Laila was announced to be part of the cast,[5] while Simran was also announced as other important character as Laila, seven days later.[6] Arivazhagan Venkatachalam described them both as "Very professionals and co-operative." And stated "As performers, they are single-take artistes, who absorb the character's requirements before we shoot and are fully focused during their shots."[7]
Filming
Principal photography commenced on 14 December 2022, with the first schedule in Munnar. A college set was erected in the schedule, spending around ₹1 crore for it.[8] The schedule concluded by 14 February 2023.[9] The second schedule in Chennai began in late-February, with Lakshmi Menon joining the sets by 24 February 2023.[10] Simran and Laila began filming their respective sequences by 18 March 2023.[11] The third schedule, which was filmed in Mumbai, concluded by 16 May 2023.[12] On 27 September 2023, principal photography for the film was wrapped.[13]
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Music
The songs and background score are composed Thaman S, in his fourth collaboration with Arivazhagan Venkatachalam after Eeram (2009), Vallinam (2014) and Aarathu Sinam (2016); third with Aadhi in a lead role after Eeram and Ayyanar (2010).[citation needed] The first single "Maaya Maaya" released on 13 February 2025.[14] The second single "Grandma Song" released on 23 February 2025.[15]
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Release
Theatrical
Sabdham released in theatres on 28 February 2025[16] in its original Tamil language, and in Telugu.[17] The film was certified U/A 13+ by the Central Board of Film Certification.[18]
Reception
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A critic of Dinamalar rated the film 2.75/5 stars and wrote, " Despite having a innovative idea, the film lacks the emotional connection. However praised the cinematography, music and background score.[19] M Suganth of The Times of India gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Sabdham remains intriguing until the first half when along with its protagonist, we, too, remain puzzled about what's happening.[...] the post-interval portions soon devolve into something that's fairly generic. The writing doesn't build up on the mysteries and turns very convenient and routine"[20] Anusha Sundar of OTTPlay gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Sabdham is a technically strong film which sets a great premise for a horror film. If you go past some cliches, you begin to feel the film is getting somewhere. But falls into the pit of stereotypes with no extraordinary choices, and becomes a regular template-adhering story."[21]
Gopinath Rajendran of The Hindu wrote "In an attempt to be safe and sound with its concept, Sabdham misses the high notes it requires to work, making us a mute spectator of director Arivazhagan’s most underwhelming feature film outing yet."[22] Prashanth Vallavan of The New Indian Express rated 2/5 and wrote, "Even though the film has a number of interesting ideas, they do not rise up in coherence to create a pleasing symphony. Instead, all we get is a discordant cacophony of several story elements forcefully made to fit together."[23] Kirubhakar Purushothaman of News 18 rated 2.5/5 and wrote, "The technical brilliance of Sabdham is resounding. The sound design of the horror sequence reveals immense dedication. The interval sequence is perhaps the boldest and most experimental attempt in Tamil horror and that alone warrants a watch."[24]
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References
External links
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