‘Thalavan’ Ending Explained & Movie Recap: Who Killed Ramya?

Thalavan is a brand-new Malayalam language investigative thriller that also features two warring police officers working in the same police station. Their sour relationship takes a turn as one of them is accused of murder. Directed by Jis Joy, the movie follows the investigation with clarity to give the audience an idea about the motive and reason behind the murder. There is also the question of whether the arrested police officer was indeed the killer or being framed.

Spoilers Ahead

What Did Udhayabanu Find Out?

Thalavan begins with a retired DySP Udhayabanu running a show about old cases that had been solved. He was given an idea by the producer of the show about the infamous Ramya murder case. Udhayabanu was hesitant, but he chose to take up the challenge, and made it clear he would not sugarcoat any details about the case, which involved his ex-colleagues SI Karthik and CI Jayashankar.

Why was there a tiff between Jayashankar and Karthik?

CI Jayashankar was known for being a strict police officer who was firmly against bribes and intolerant of people committing any sort of crime. His new colleague, SI Karthik, was known to be temperamental and honest about his reactions to any situation. Karthik had been transferred many times because of his behavior. Jayashankar had hoped to mentor Karthik, but only a few days later they had a falling out over a certain Manu Das, who was arrested for attacking a rival businessman. While Karthik claimed Manu Das was innocent, Jayashankar said he had almost killed a man, and he arrested Manu Das again. This falling out led to friction between them, and the atmosphere of tension lingered in the station ever since. Jayashankar also faced a tragedy when his wife was attacked by a killer for hire, Joshy. Joshy claimed he was supposed to attack another person but targeted Jayashankar’s wife by mistake. Jayashankar was livid and made sure the attacker was sent to jail for a long time. His wife had to walk with a limp after the incident. Joshy’s girlfriend, Ramya, along with her daughter with him, approached Jayashankar multiple times, asking him to help Joshy find a way out of the prison. Jayashankar denied them his help many times and refused to accept any bribes from her as well. 

Why was Jayshankar arrested?

Jayashankar was alone in his home as his wife and family had gone to her place. There was a temple festival concluding near his place, which added to the noise in the surroundings. As DySP Udhayabanu tried to patch things up between Jayashankar and Karthik, his attempt failed. The next morning, Jayashankar found the dead body of Ramya in a gunny sack with a gunshot wound to the temple. The plumber at his home, Sajeev, panicked and informed the police about the discovery. As the investigation began, a lot of details shared by Jayashankar did not line up with the time of death. It also did not match up with the statement given by a neighbor who had last seen Ramya getting out of a rickshaw with her daughter near Jayashankar’s home. This led to Jayashankar becoming the prime suspect and soon being arrested for what the police believed was his role in killing Ramya while her daughter just disappeared.

Why was Karthik given the investigation charge?

Karthik belonged to an influential family, which led to him being given the charge of investigating the murder charges against Jayashankar as they were mounting. Jayashankar initially did not have any alibi or evidence to prove his innocence, which led to his bail being canceled. He was attacked in jail by Joshy, Ramya’s boyfriend, which forced the police to move him to a hospital. Since Jayashankar needed time to recover, he was given bail on health grounds, for a duration of sixteen days. Karthik now had sixteen days to find the real culprit who killed Ramya and kidnapped her daughter.

Who were the initial suspects?

The first suspect was Manu Das, who was arrested by Jayashankar initially for the attack on his rival businessman. Manu Das was arrested again, but Karthik let him go. On meeting the said business rival, Karthik realized the mistake he’d made, as Manu Das was now out of state and his location was unknown to anyone. The next suspect was Sinto, a small-time daily worker who was arrested with his friends by Jayashankar for physically harming a police officer. One of the friends of Sinto happened to be the son of Jayashankar’s ex-colleague Shivadasan. The son was Arun Shivadasan who was now in Ireland as per the retired ex-colleague who was helped by Jayashankar. The third suspect was Reghu, who was arrested by Jayashankar when he was caught harassing a rich woman. Reghu was suspended for a while, and he joined the same station working under Jayashankar, but had come back with a plan to destroy him. 

Did Karthik and Jayashankar fight?

Karthik’s investigation was leading him to dead ends. Reghu was briefly arrested, but that led to Ramya’s daughter being released. The young girl, however, could not reveal much because of her trauma. Jayashankar and his colleague Venu began to look for a different angle in the investigation. They wanted to question Sajeev, who was at their home the previous day for plumbing work. Sajeev ran away at the sight of Jayashankar and Venu, which confirmed their hunch about his involvement. They caught Sajeev by pretending to be Sinto. Sajeev confirmed he’d kept some doors open to pave the way for Sinto to place the body of Ramya on the terrace.

Since the animosity between Jayashankar and Karthik was increasing, someone close to them tried to make the best of the situation. Karthik found Sinto’s body outside his home in a wooden box and was soon attacked by Jayashankar. Jayashankar attacked Karthik because he was informed the latter was building up a case against him by framing him for Sinto’s murder as well. They stopped as they realized someone was taking advantage of their friction. If Sinto’s body was found dead which would mean the case would be closed. This would again prove Jayashankar as guilty as he had nothing to prove his innocence. Meanwhile Karthik’s job might be in danger as well.  

Where did CPO Benny disappear?

Jayashankar and Karthik decided to take another route with the investigation, as there was not much time left before his medical exemption expired. Karthik was sent a voice note by his colleague named Benny, who claimed to have strong evidence that would help them get closer to the killer and acquit Jayashankar. Benny’s phone was unreachable, and he could not be found in his home either. The details of his cell tower location revealed that he’d visited regional passport offices to find details about the case. Jayashankar and Karthik wanted to know more about the case of Sinto beating a police officer when they learned Arun Shivadasan had died. One of their colleagues dug deeper into Benny’s visit to the passport office; he learned that Arun Shivadasan and Sinto were the only people who had passports, but there was no record of Arun leaving the country. 

How did Jayshankar and Karthik narrow it down to Shivadasan?

On learning Arun Shivadasan never left the country, Jayashankar and Karthik wanted to question the young lad’s father, the retired police officer Shivadasan, about his lies. As Shivadasan claimed he did not know anything about Arun, Karthik searched the house. Jayashankar was taken to Shivadasan’s room, where he found a photo of the young boy. Jayashankar quickly concluded Arun had been dead for many years and Shivadasan had been lying all along. Jayashankar and Shivadasan, as colleagues, had a bad history after Sinto, with his friends, including Arun and his girlfriends, were arrested for beating up a police officer. Shivadasan reached the station to find Jayashankar mercilessly beating the young lad. He also forced Shivadasan to beat the boy to make him learn a lesson. The beating was a traumatic experience for Arun, and he could never recover from it. Shivadasan could not help his son and, sadly, one day found him dead. Arun had killed himself because of the trauma of humiliation, so Shivadasan buried him in the house itself with the help of his friend, and created a false narrative about him leaving for Ireland for higher studies.

Who killed Ramya?

Shivadasan was filled with rage against Jayashankar, who wanted revenge for the man’s role in causing Arun the pain and trauma. Shivadasan believed Jayashankar was the reason his son committed suicide, and the man should pay for the crime. There were several loopholes in the story narrated by the police officers who claimed Shivadasan and Jayashankar were on good terms. The reality was the opposite, as there was no clarity on what transpired after Arun was beaten mercilessly. The makers wanted to reach a point that proved Shivadasan wanted Jayashankar to be in prison and pay for his crimes. It was revealed that Shivadasan took the help of Sinto and Joshy to trap Jayashankar. All three of them had motives to go after Jayashankar, kill his career, and make sure he paid for the harm he caused them. 

Jayashankar, as a police officer, was only doing his job, but these people clearly had criminal tendencies. Joshy was a criminal who did not think twice before using his girlfriend Ramya and his daughter for his own benefit. Shivadasan slowly eliminated everybody including Ramya and Sinto, to make it look like Jayashankar had killed them. Shivadasan was close to killing himself, which would make matters worse for Jayashankar, as he would be found at the scene of the crime. Shivadasan’s death would be the end of Jayashankar’s career. Jayashankar stopped Shivadasan’s suicide attempt the latter was arrested for his role in Ramya’s murder. End of this story also meant concluding the episode recorded by DySP Udhayabanu. 

Thalavan ended with Benny being rescued from Shivadasan’s home. The ending was rushed, as there was no explanation for how Benny concluded that Arun might have been dead for a long while. Even though the ending was interesting, there were plot holes that the makers did not cover. The movie ended with DySP Udhayabanu’s episode on the murder case being telecasted, following which he was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head. As Karthik and Jayashankar were given charge of the investigation, it’s possible that someone related to Ramya’s death could have killed the man. It could have been Joshy or Shivadasan who may have escaped prison to carry out this murder. It could also be Manu Das, who may have had some issues with DySP Udhayabanu, perhaps unrelated to Ramya’s murder at all. This could set the film up for a sequel to explore who killed the DySP Udhayabanu.