Level Cross is a one-of-a-kind Malayalam language film that could be categorized as a slow burn. The movie is projected as a story of two people from different backgrounds finding common ground when they begin to share their life stories. It gives Manorama Six Feet Under and Thar vibes, with its focus on life in the desert.
Spoilers Ahead
Who did Raghu find by the railway track?
The movie began with Raghu, the gatekeeper at the level crossing, doing his job of waving the green flag to the oncoming train. The railway track was right in the middle of a desert with no human contact anywhere near his small cottage-like quarters. Raghu found a woman unconscious and brought her back to the cottage near the tracks. The woman regained consciousness after a while and was shocked to find a strange man sitting next to her. Both began to converse, and the woman revealed she’d fallen off the running train accidently.
Was Chaitali scared?
Raghu offered the woman water and his bed to sleep in as she was gravely injured. She had not revealed her name yet, but she walked out of the cottage seeking shelter elsewhere. The lady ended up back at Raghu’s place in no time as she realized the desert was endless and no one would be able to help her except the person who saved her. The lady introduced herself as Chaitali and let Raghu know the next morning about feeling safe in his home. This conclusion was a result of him not trying to harm her while she was in a vulnerable situation. Raghu went out of his way to help her and offer her water to shower and a change of clothes to make her feel comfortable.
What was Chaitali’s history?
Chaitali revealed that she did not accidentally fall from the train. She was running away from her husband, Zincho, who was not a good person. Through the flashback, it was revealed Chaitali was a psychiatrist who’d met Zincho as her patient. Zincho was suffering from a severe mental health crisis after his wife committed suicide. As she began to treat him, both spent a lot of time together and eventually fell in love. Chaitali went against the best instincts of her family and married him, but Zincho showed his real face soon after they tied the knot. His mental distress spiraled into psychotic episodes, coupled with rampant drug abuse. This led to him physically abusing her and controlling her life.
Chaitali had to put him in an asylum, but at the establishment she learned that Zincho had murdered his first wife. He then killed the asylum warden and whisked her away to another place by jumping onto a train. Raghu was moved by her tale of distress and discussed how their fates were the same. Raghu revealed his mother was his only family, and ever since her death, he had been alone. He said his mother had asked him to get married to have a companion for the rest of his life, but he’d ignored her advice. It was not hard to assume both were seeking their way out of pain. Raghu was also candid about having a donkey named Signal as his pet, and how he carried out farming on a tiny-scale basis for his daily food needs, which Chaitali was impressed with.
What did Chaitali find out about Raghu?
Chaitali, while tidying up the cottage, came across many newspaper clippings about a man who killed a family of four. This petrified Chaitali as she began to wonder if she was living with a serial killer. Chaitali also came across the ID of the real Raghu, and her mind began to spiral. Raghu was quick to deduce why Chaitali was scared and began to share his life story. Raghu revealed he’d gotten married to a woman on his mother’s insistence. On meeting the woman he was about to marry, he shared the story of his one failed relationship. His ex-girlfriend had left him for a rich man. After his marriage, Raghu’s wife had invited her cousin to live with them, who was helping him with all the farming-related work. Raghu eventually had two children with his wife. However, a few years down the line, a routine test revealed he was infertile. He came home to find his wife sleeping with the man who’d pretended to be her cousin. Out of rage, he killed both of them and the children as well, since he realized he was not the father.
A trauma inflicted Raghu post-the murder ran away and reached this isolated desert place in Rajasthan, where he was helped by the man whose photo was on the ID. This man became his mentor, but he eventually died. Raghu took over the identity of the deceased to avoid being caught by the police. Chaitali sympathized with him and the reasons behind his actions as a psychiatrist and decided to stay with him instead of running away. Raghu also felt lighthearted after having talked about this incident for the first time in many years. Raghu also believed his wife may have killed his mother to make way for her so-called “cousin” to stay with them.
Who came looking for Chaitali?
Chaitali offered to bring water from the nearby village, which according to Raghu had been abandoned by the villagers. According to his mentor, the villagers claimed there was a ghost who walked upside down. The presence of this entity and the lore around it forced the villagers to leave the place. Soon after Chaitali left, a man approached Raghu and asked if anyone had come to him asking for shelter. Raghu was quick to deduce this was Chaitali’s mentally deranged husband and claimed nobody had come asking for help. Both got into an altercation because of this topic, and Zincho was forced to share why he was looking for a woman.
What was Zincho’s story?
Zincho revealed he was looking for his wife who was suffering from schizophrenia, and how he had been the psychiatrist she had first approached. Zincho said as a part of the treatment he hung out with her regularly. After spending a lot of time with each other, Chaitali confessed to having feelings for him and proposed to live together. After Zincho and Chaitali got married, she spiraled into deep depression, psychotic episodes, and drug abuse and lived in constant fear that he was planning to kill her. She killed the warden of the asylum she was admitted to, which was why he was taking her to another asylum far away from her hometown so that the police did not follow them. She jumped from the moving train to escape living in another asylum, and Zincho was here to take her as she was dangerous. Zincho accidentally blurted out Shikha, which he said was her name, Chaitali being the name of the warden she killed.
Who did Raghu trust?
Raghu was confused and decided to confront Chaitali. On asking her about the story Zincho just narrated, Chaitali claimed Shikha was the name of his first wife, and that he’d called her by that name plenty of times in the past. Chaitali begged Raghu to believe her, as she stated her husband was a horrible man who wanted to kill her. Amidst all of this, Chaitali did sense the presence of an entity, and it felt someone was watching her from an upside-down angle. Raghu was confused and hurt, as he was not sure who to believe in this matter. There was a sense of Deja Vu as another woman betrayed him.
Did Chaitali leave with Zincho?
On returning to Raghu’s cottage, Chaitali was disgusted on hearing Zincho calling her Shikha. At this point, the audience was as clueless as Raghu about who to believe since both scenarios were plausible. Chaitali could be right, as she had so far shown no behaviors that would alarm Raghu, and the same could be said about Zincho. Only the couple would know about each other’s behavior in detail. Zincho somehow convinced her to join him, as he planned to take her far away and probably be around her once her treatment started. This was Zincho’s narrative. From Chaitali’s perspective, she was going back to her old life, where he would continue to abuse her.
Raghu begged Zincho to let Chaitali live with him, as she was clearly not in a condition to go back. Raghu wanted to believe Chaitali, as she was the first person he saw and conversed with about her marital issues. He was leaning towards her perspective as he did not want to be alone. It was after many years he found comfort in a woman’s company, and he was not willing to let that go.
Was Raghu dead or alive?
Zincho offered some money to Raghu for his help and let him know that Chaitali was indeed very dangerous and she needed help. Chaitali immediately struck Zincho with an iron rod that Raghu used to carry around. She did so out of fear for her life, as she felt Zincho was going to make her life miserable. If her story was true, she wanted to get rid of him because she felt Zincho had used her to get close to her and trapped her into this relationship. Chaitali was dreading reliving her life with him. She was a psychiatrist, and yet she could not help her husband. On witnessing Chaitali distraught and guilty over harming her husband, Raghu, out of love for her, killed Zincho. Raghu wanted to make sure Chaitali trusted him, and he committed murder to bring her back to his side. Since he had committed murder before, it was not very hard for him to kill yet again. It was surprising to watch Chaitali being okay with Raghu killing her husband and not be affected by his bludgeoned head. At this point, it could be deduced that Raghu was also deeply affected by the murder he’d committed, and just like Zincho, he was suffering from mental health issues. He could have been suffering from trauma, which remained undiagnosed. Raghu was hopeful Chaitali would help him recover from the pain he’d been suffering for so many years.
Raghu was shocked to find a prescription that mentioned Shikha as the name of the patient, which made him realize the mistake he had made. Raghu all this while had believed Chaitali but he immediately regretted his move as he finally understood Zincho had been telling the truth. Zincho was the doctor, and Shikha was his wife/patient, and he genuinely wanted to help instead of abandoning her. Before Raghu could react to the realization, Shikha struck him with a shovel. Shikha knew Raghu would catch on to the truth and, just like Zincho, she wouldn’t be able to trust him. Shikha wanted to live in the reality she created in her head. It was interesting to watch the makers bring up the subject of mental health issues. We wish the director and the writer of the film had not taken the “schizophrenic patients are violent” route. It further creates stigma about this ailment. However, since this was the demand of the story, the arcs of all the characters were justified to some extent. Thankfully, violence is not glorified, as people were aware they would pay for the crimes they committed.
Level Cross ended with Raghu burning all the newspaper clippings along with the prescription he found. Raghu was alive by the end of the movie. Many speculations could be raised on how Raghu survived. The newspaper clippings revealed that Raghu was not married, and he killed his ex-girlfriend and her family for leaving him. Shikha’s lies may have triggered those memories and led to him killing her. This indicates Raghu lied from the start. It makes us wonder if he ever worked for the mentor he mentioned or killed him and took up his identity. Raghu also mentioned the village next to theirs was abandoned, and it could be assumed he committed mass murder. The last shot of the movie had the monster looking at Raghu’s home from an upside-down angle. It probably was real and was after Raghu. The entity was probably a ghost version of one of the villagers Raghu may have killed. The end credits showed Raghu’s real name was George. He was an anti-hero from the start.
