The seeds of the alternate history (along with a film within a film) in Rekhachithram are sown in its opening scene, wherein a young character tells another that he saw his father in a film, with the shot cutting to a group of men carrying a supposedly lifeless body in the middle of a stormy night while being overlooked by that young character. The drama skips to the current timeline wherein you are introduced to the character of Vivek (Asif Ali), a cop serving a suspension for his gambling habits on duty, until a seemingly straight-forward case falls in his lap. At the center of things is a character who has committed a suicide while claiming to be one of the few responsible for the death of a woman. There is no real context on who the woman is, or if there had even been a death in the first place – a relatively skewed jigsaw puzzle that kickstarts the investigation. And therein begins the magic of creativity in this rather unique and edge-of-the-seat thriller.

I liked how the makers did not get carried away with the usual trappings of the genre – there weren’t any gimmicky transition shots or unnecessarily deviating from its core. The focus remained on the investigation through its protagonist who straight up has a stake of having to prove himself, and clear off his image of a gambling cop. You can make out that Vivek is smart and can put two and two together, an inference that you see in the scene involving him sensing and discovering the skeleton from the ground when all others have given up. The organic nature of the drama cannot be denied either – one thing leads to another in this thrilling investigative drama while keeping the viewers on tenterhooks with respect to the identity of the victim whose remains is found. As a result, you are witness to a plethora of characters that seemingly double up as a commentary on the lifecycle of an investigation that transpires from scratch.

The focus shifts to something meta in its transition from the first to the second act wherein you are briefly transported to the sets of the 1985 Bharathan film. Like Varshangalkku Shesham, that followed a story of friends against the backdrop of the film industry, this investigation intercuts the portions of the past amidst the backdrop of the film industry, in particular the sets of Kathodu Kathoram (1985). You are instantly transported to the era of superstandom amidst no signs of social media, even while being witness to the mobbed fan-following of Mammootty (and the fact that he remains super relevant even today is a whole new story of success). This, while the writing also offers a searing commentary on the state of the junior artists on a film set, including how they were treated back in the day. There is also a brief encounter of yesteryear’s paparazzi struggling to be relevant today, even as the writers seamlessly integrate the mystery to a true event that unfolded on the sets of that film. The consistent thread remains on Vivek having to deal with a plethora of witnesses and their connections to the main event that transpired, thereby keeping the mystery alive at any given point of time.

There are brief traces of religion that is integrated in the drama, much like the director Jofin T Chacko’s previous outing The Priest. Here, it is pertaining to a sin which is committed with respect to a couple of characters concerned, something that eventually forms the core of the investigation later on. There are dead-ends and fresh starts that frequent the investigation, something that can be pieced together even before the grand reveal transpires. But the meta-references amidst the attempt of an alternate history is what continues to make this police procedural unique, something that remains the soul of the drama. The old-world charm of buying magazines and writing letters to your favourite superstars are only some of the nostalgic moments that the drama caters to, even as it effectively manoeuvres over the predictability of the reveal. I must admit that the intensity of the investigation mildly dropped a notch towards the end, but I must also admit that I was swooned by the alternate history genre that is neatly done and invariably holds the narrative together even in its dying moments. The screenplay is crisply penned while daring to enter a zone that is largely untapped in this incredibly unique mystery thriller.