Murmur, written and directed by Hemnath Narayanan, is the kind of film that not a lot of people would enjoy or appreciate. Since most of the scenes are in camera perspective, one needs a lot of patience to sit through the entire duration of the film. That said, I loved what the filmmaker was trying to do, and the dull shots where nothing much happened piqued my interest and kept me hooked. If you decide to watch this film, make sure that you do not go there expecting a mainstream commercial horror film that keeps you entertained by its jump scares. So let’s find out what happened in the Murmur movie and if the paranormal investigators were able to find evidence that proved the existence of the village ghost.
Spoiler Alert
Is It Based On A True Story?
There is no proof that the legend of Mangai, as shown in Murmur, exists in real life, though the people of Southern India do worship the seven goddesses, or the Saptha Kanni. The film showed that the Saptha Kanni never came to Kathoor village after a woman named Mangai arrived there, which also is merely an invention of the filmmakers. It could be possible that the filmmakers have taken inspiration from certain real-life incidents and then weaved fictional narratives around them. That said, the entire found footage style of cinematography and also the details of the case, where a group of friends disappeared after they entered the Javadhu hills, mentioned at the beginning of the film, do give the impression that the film is not a work of fiction. There have been multiple cases in the past where tribal people have gone missing in the Javadhu hills, and nobody has ever come to know what happened to them. Often, in such places, folklores and legends are quite prevalent, though these are merely stories that cannot be substantiated by any evidence.
What was the legend of Mangai?
Rishi, Melvin, Ankitha, and Jenifer, the paranormal investigators, had been paid to go into Kathoor village and uncover the truth behind the legend of Mangai. They were excited about their mission, and they were pretty confident that they would be able to find some spooky evidence that could make their documentary a hit. Little did they know that they were going to encounter the worst nightmare of their lives. The group had hired a local man who was supposed to accompany them on their journey. But just a day before they arrived at the village, that guide got bitten by a snake and had to be hospitalized. His daughter, Kaantha, came to meet the investigators and told them that, instead of her father, she would come with them to help them out. Kaantha, unlike the investigators, believed in the legend of Mangai, but she needed money, and she also believed that things wouldn’t get out of hand. Kaantha took Melvin and his group to meet an old lady who knew what had happened back in the day, because of which the villagers felt that the ghost of Mangai haunted them.
A man named Govindam decided to get married to Mangai, not knowing that her entire family practiced black magic. The moment Mangai arrived at Kathoor village, a lot of children started to disappear, and for the longest time, nobody could figure out what happened to them. Then one day, Govindam’s sister’s child disappeared, and that’s when the villagers found out it was Mangai who had killed the children. The villagers killed Mangai and disposed of her body in the water body surrounded by the dense forest. It was believed that Mangai’s ghost still roamed in the nearby forest, and there were unfounded beliefs that it was attracted to the smell of blood. The old woman from the village also told the group that, for the past 80 years, the Kanni festivals hadn’t been celebrated in the village as the people feared that Mangai would get angry and take their lives. After listening to the folklore, the paranormal investigators realized that everybody was making up their own story, and in all probability, there wasn’t any truth behind it.
Why did the group split up?
Kaantha was the first one to be killed by Mangai, as Rishi did something that put the life of the local girl in jeopardy. After setting up their camps, Melvin and his gang decided to interact with the ghost of Mangai through an Ouija board. They sat with their fingers on the board for a long time, but nothing happened. But then Rishi pricked Kaantha’s finger with a safety pin and put a drop of her blood on the Ouija board. Kaantha got very disturbed after that incident, and she decided to go back to her village. But it was late in the night, and Melvin and the girls requested her to stop till the morning. Rishi felt extremely apologetic for what he had done, but still he didn’t think that anything could happen to her. But then later in the night, Mangai came and claimed her first victim. After failing to locate her the next morning the group believed that Kaantha must have gone back to her village, so instead of looking for her, they decided to keep moving forward. But all hell broke loose at their second stop, and they realized that the legend of Mangai was not merely a myth.
Melvin was attracted to Jenifer, and he had made plans to express his love the moment their investigation got over. What Melvin didn’t understand was that just because he had feelings for somebody didn’t mean that she too reciprocated it. And even if, for one, we were to believe that she did, Melvin did overstep the line and do something that he should not have. After having a couple of drinks, all of them went to sleep in the tent. Melvin started forcing himself on Jenifer, and he didn’t stop until the latter shouted and pushed him off. Even then Melvin was quite unapologetic about what he had done, blaming Jenifer for her erratic behavior. Jenifer decided to travel to the next point, together with Rishi, as she didn’t want to be around Melvin. After they left, Melvin and Ankitha got intimate, as apparently the latter had always had feelings for him. Ankitha realized that Rishi had taken all the smokes, and so she too decided to locate them in the middle of the night. On her way, Ankitha saw Kaantha’s dead body, but before she could do anything else, she too got killed by Mangai. It seems that the belief that Mangai was attracted to human blood was true. Rishi went to find Ankitha and left Jenifer behind, hoping that nothing would happen to them. But both of them also got killed in the same brutal manner. Mangai’s bloodlust just didn’t seem to end as she made her way to her fifth and final victim through the darkness of the cursed forest.
Was Melvin able to find Mangai?
Melvin, who was still pretty drunk, came back to his senses when he realized that somebody was unzipping his tent from the outside. Melvin made a run for his life, and he ended up in that same lake where the Saptha Kanni bathed. The old lady from the village had told the group that if anyone saw the goddesses taking a bath, they got angry, and that’s what happened at the end of Murmur. Though Melvin spotted the goddesses, he too became prey to the wandering ghost. It could be that it was one of the goddesses who killed Melvin because the lad unknowingly interrupted their sacred ritual.
Murmur never told us why Mangai practiced black magic or how she became a cannibal, believing that she did what the villagers said. Melvin and his group did have a face-to-face encounter with the ghost, but none of them lived to tell the tale. As stated in the beginning, the police, after several days, found their camera and 7 hours of footage, through which they got to know what had happened. I believe nobody dared to step foot in the forest after that incident, as the footage was enough to send shivers down the spines of every self-proclaimed paranormal investigator who didn’t respect the culture of the place and disregarded the beliefs of the locals. The film didn’t explain the reason or show us a pattern behind all the deaths we had witnessed throughout its runtime. However, if I theorize that it was people’s actions that led to their fate, then maybe the young girl Kaantha didn’t actually die. It could be that she returned to her village, and the girl that the protagonists saw after her disappearance was Mangai shapeshifting as Kaantha. With that said, the ghost had been going on killing people, probably to protect the sanctity of the forest, and only let Kaantha live because she hadn’t wronged anyone with the ancient rituals of that place.
