Kolai is a crime-thriller-cum-psychological Tamil Movie released in the year 2023. Directed by Balaji K Kumar, it stars Vijay Antony, Meenakshi Chaudhary, and Ritika Singh in lead roles. Even though one can assume it to be based on some real incidents, it is simply a hotchpotch. It was a Box-Office Failure due to the quirky cinematic treatments and confusing tactics employed by the production teams.
The story revolves around the murder mystery of a young singer-cum-model named Laila in her house. Initial assumptions by police were that strangulation was the cause of her death. However, several suspects emerge through interrogations carried on by them. Within hours, the murder becomes sensational news.
From this stage, the entire movie becomes a setup of a maze with lots of hectic activity leading to confusing results with no clear-cut lead. Inspite of all these oddities, I enjoyed the movie.
I am providing the story as per my understanding and deductions.
The Investigating Team
DCP Thilak Verma is in charge of the case and, as he is to be transferred from there in a couple of days, he wants the case to be solved and closed before his transfer letter arrives. He instructs Police Officer Sandhya, who has been appointed as in charge of the case, to seek the services of Vinayak, a reputed Detective who solved more than 200 cases in his career till then. The DCP is confident of Vinayak's exceptional skills and knows that Sandhya has been his best student during her training period.
But Vinayak is mentally disturbed, and undergoing guilt and mental tensions. His daughter Ammu met with an accident and is in hospital getting treatment for trauma and severe brain injuries. Vinayak believes that he was the cause of her accident as he took her for a drive against her will (with the belief that she would enjoy some memorable moments spent with her father before leaving for her higher studies). Another cause for worry is the rift between Vinayak and his wife Yamuna because of his excessive involvement in work to the extent of ignoring his family life.
When Sadhya seeks his help in solving the case, Vinayak does not accept her request. But his mind changes after studying the file and he agrees to involve himself in the case to seek justice for the murdered girl. He believes that his daughter will be happy if he can deliver justice.
Initial Investigations and Testimonials
Vinayak examines the place of murder and after a detailed study using his extraordinary skills, collects some important clues using the fingerprints and testimonials from the maid and security guards of the residence. He observes that many persons visited the victim before her death. One frequent visitor was her boyfriend Satish and another was her agent Babloo. Besides them, it is revealed through the CCTV footage that two more people visited her. On inquiry, they get identified as Arjun, a photographer who is supposed to be a violent person, and Aditya Koushik, an agent for a modelling agency supervised by Rekha, a business tycoon.
More witnesses and contacts get questioned time and again to grab more details regarding the suspects's activities and their locations. Thereupon, Sandhya and Vinayak indulge themselves in building cases for and against each suspect, considering their motives or alibis in the murder.
Deep Scrutinies & Findings
The suspicious entrance of Arjun and Aditya Koushik through back doors during that night before the murder took place, makes them as the murder suspects. On questioning them, Vinayak concludes that both of them could be merely suspects but not fit into the place of murderers. Moreover, Vinayak observes an ice cube missing from the refrigerator of Laila's room. He conducts a deep search and it struck to his mind that the ice cube must have been used to disable the alarm of the emergency exit. So, he assumes that the agent Babloo must have disabled that alarm to provide entrance to Aditya Koushik. Consequently, Babloo must have been present inside the house when the murder was committed.
Vinayak cross-examines Babloo who repeatedly denies providing any clues as to his role in the happenings, but asserts he is not the murderer. He enquires calmly whether babloo knew anything about Yamini. Yamini was a missing girl who died many years ago. It remains a puzzle in Vinayak's mind. So he asked whomever he met during the interrogations about Yamini's identity. But nobody knew her.
Twists and Turns
Meanwhile, things get worse. Babloo gets murdered in a toilet. Arjun is also murdered leading the attention towards Sathish, the lover of Laila. Vinayak cross-examines Sathish and follows his activities consistently. His smart observations lead him to the conclusion that he is the murderer. He enters his house secretly and searches for evidences. But nothing is found except the lines from a song "yaar nee..." scribbled in his diary.
Vinayak becomes perplexed. But calms himself and tries to link each development in the case. He somehow believes that Laila's case could be interlinked with Yamini's murder. So he employs his assistants to search for the location of Yamini's parents. He contacts her father, on location, and is able to get some torn pieces of a line from some lyric. He arranges the pieces in different positions and finds out that it is a line from the same song that he found in Sathish's apartment. Now, he gets confident that both murders are committed by Sathish. But, he needs to collect some proof.
In the meantime, Sandhya and Vinayak met an extraordinarily smart boy named Vinod who is closely associated with Laila. He lives in the opposite building of Laila's apartment and was saved by Laila from being crushed by a vehicle. Laila loved his nature and used to spend time with him in his home. He is, perhaps, the grandchild of a retired Justice(a strict lady) in whom Laila used to confide in. He wants to trace the murderer using his talents through computer-tracking.
Vinayak suddenly remembers that, during his interrogations, Sathish once asked for permission to retrieve a personal album from Laila's apartment as he wants to keep her memories. He immediately gets into the place and searches for the album. While doing so, he finds some irregularity in the things kept on the racks/shelves. He searches deeply and unearths a small chip hidden therein. He immediately discovers that it was the taped voice of Laila that was heard by people while calling for her to enquire her safety. This finding proves that the case has been manipulated by Sathish. He taped her voice secretly employing some tricks and then played it after murdering her as an alibi to prove that she is not dead when he visited her the last time accompanied by the security guards.
But, Vinayak could not deliver justice by getting Sathish arrested as the case got closed by that time due to pressure on the DCP and due to the rash judgment of one Police Officer who publicly announced before media that Aditya Koushik was the murderer who later killed himself after writing on the mirror that he is the murderer of Laila.
The Final Judgment
At this stage, it is Vinod who takes charge of the entire situation. He throws the dice before Sathish inviting him to meet for some settlement. When they confront each other in the middle of a street disguised themselves in hoodies, both of them shoot each other and collapse simultaneously on the spot. Sandhya arrives there with police force only to find that both of them are dead. Vinayak, to his surprise, watches from behind the scene that his daughter "Ammu's soul" is walking away with that of Laila's. He finds relief that ultimately justice has been delivered to Laila's soul and, as a token of gratitude, she is taking Ammu with her to the heavenly abode.
You may like to enjoy this beautiful song which is the cause of Laila's attention towards Sathish that ended up in her murder.