Cadaver follows Bhadra, a police surgeon, who assists ACP Vishal in unraveling a mystery related to the murder of a reputed heart surgeon.
Cadaver is a Tamil-language thriller film directed by Anoop S Panicker and produced by Amala Paul. Featuring Amala Paul and Harish Uthaman in key roles as a police surgeon and a police officer respectively, the movie follows the investigation that starts when a popular heart surgeon in the state is claimed to be murdered by a jailed criminal who hasn’t left his cell at all.
Cadaver Story and Summary
Bhadra Thangavel (Amala Paul) is a well-trained and adept police surgeon who takes her job seriously.
When a burnt body in a car is found in the nearby forest, Bhadra is requested to report. While she concludes that it is a case of murder at first glance, she deduces, after the autopsy, that the person was tortured before killing.
Bhadra concludes through the super imposition technique that the body belongs to Dr. Salim Rahman, a prominent personality in the city.
Meanwhile, a TikTok video gets leaked from the penitentiary that shows one of the inmates, Vetri (Thrigun), narrating his plan to kill Dr. Salim. When the lead investigator ACP Vishal (Harish Uthaman), along with Inspector Michael (Munishkanth), reaches the jail to talk to Vetri, he exhibits suspiciously abnormal behavior.
After demanding more details about Vetri and a priest who regularly visits him, ACP Vishal leaves.
Due to extra pressure from Dr. Salim’s father, Ali Rahman, the police authorities decide to assign the brilliant police surgeon Bhadra to the case.
During the interrogation, Bhadra comes to know about a girl named Angel (Athulya). To further investigate, Bhadra and ACP Vishal head to the priest who brought up Angel as an orphan.
It’s revealed that Angel was an orphan at the church who got married to Vetri after the couple fell in love. But after Vetri and Angel moved away from the town, to provide better care for Angel who was pregnant, Angel met her demise at the JC Hospital.
At the church, Vetri briefly hints at a connection of his next target with the biblical character Cain, who’s known as the first murderer of the world.
On the way back, the group is attacked by unknown assailants. When ACP Vishal questions Vetri, assuming the assailants to be Vetri’s men, Vetri denies it and suggests that he has already revealed his next target.
As Bhadra and ACP Vishal investigates further, they find out that Dr. Salim was the in-charge in the hospital where Angel breathed her last. Sensing the need to dig deeper into Angel’s death, which was caused by a blow behind her head, Bhadra suggests a re-autopsy that will require a formal request from the priest who brought up Angel.
With the priest’s request, the court allows a re-autopsy although soon after, the priest is attacked and left in a critical condition by unknown attackers. Fearing that the court may take the permission back, Bhadra decides to move ahead with the autopsy in the morning before the court opens again.
But Bhadra also asks ACP Vishal to protect Angel’s grave as she believes there would be attempts to tamper with the evidence. As suggested by her, they find a couple of individuals trying to dig Angel’s grave and successfully stop them, arresting one of the individuals.
The next day, when Bhadra carries out the autopsy, she finds out that it was the first time an autopsy was being carried out on Angel’s body and her heart was missing – a detail that was not present in the first autopsy report.
Bhadra and ACP Vishal visit JC hospital to investigate the lapse in the original autopsy report. While exiting the hospital, Bhadra comes across a label with the name Dr. Abraham Abel written on it. Connecting the dots using the “Cain” hint given by Vetri, she concludes that Dr. Abel will be the next victim.
Although the duo visits the doctor’s house and successfully manages to verify the doctor’s role in organ trading, Dr. Abel is killed by a man who’s revealed to be one of the assistants working at the General Hospital mortuary.
The guy who was earlier arrested by the police trying to dig Angel’s grave leads them to a chain-snatcher, who was responsible for Angel’s accident before her death.
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Cadaver Ending Explained
In the court, Vetri challenges Bhadra and reveals that he will be killing the person who received Angel’s heart next.
When Bhadra questions Vetri about the heart transplant – something that was not even mentioned in the hospital records – it’s revealed that the church priest played a role in mediating between Vetri and Kaali, the man who carried out the murders.
Kaali is the father of the nurse Priya, who unknowingly assisted Dr. Salim in killing Angel. But she had rescued Angel’s premature child, who was presumed to be dead by the doctor. The priest and Kaali joined hands to avenge the injustice done to poor Angel.
Bhadra realizes that it was an insider in her team who could have assisted Vetri. But before the priest could be questioned, he’s found dead the next morning.
Searching for the identity of the recipient of Angel’s heart, the police alert the individuals who received a transplant on July 26th – the same day Angel died.
However, ACP Vishal is transferred, thanks to the influence yielded by Ali Rahman, Dr. Salim’s father who had a role in Angel’s death. Ali had been trying to harm Vetri and erase the evidence all the while as he was also involved in the organ trading.
Ali Rahman is targeted when he was driving home. To his surprise, he opens his eyes and sees Bhadra, staring angrily at her.
How did Bhadra get involved in the killings?
It’s revealed that Bhadra knew Angel before her death as they met on a bus ride and grew fond of each other.
It’s by chance that Bhadra came to know about Angel’s death when she came across an autopsy file at work. Kaali, the man behind all the murders, who works as the assistant at Bhadra’s lab, witnessing Bhadra’s affection for Angel, revealed the truth behind Angel’s death to Bhadra.
Bhadra asked Kaali’s daughter Priya to get the evidence from Dr. Salim’s computer. But Priya was caught by Salim and harmed fatally. However, her death was made to look like an accident.
Before Priya’s death, Bhadra was able to find out the names of the real culprits behind Priya’s and Angel’s death.
Being traumatized after Priya’s death, Bhadra decided to take matters into her own hand and conspired to kill all the culprits.
Bhadra killed Dr. Salim Rahman and Dr. Abel to avenge Priya and Angel’s death. Ali Rahman also meets the same fate as his son. Bhadra cleverly uses the fingerprints from a dead body to misguide the police and cover her trail.
In the end, Vetri attends Angel’s reburial. Bhadra asks Vetri to come out of jail soon so that he can take care of his daughter. The news of his daughter being alive comes as a surprise to Vetri.
Meanwhile, the police continue the search for the person who killed Salim and Abel and kidnapped Ali.
On the other hand, the brilliant police surgeon Bhadra continues to teach young doctors about the many uses that cadavers – the corpses used for medical learning – serve.
Cadaver is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
Watch the trailer of Cadaver here:
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