Christopher is an 2023 Indian Malayalam-language vigilante action thriller film directed by B. Unnikrishnan and written by Udaykrishna. It stars an ensemble cast of Mammootty, Vinay Rai, Sneha, Amala Paul, Aishwarya Lekshmi and Aditi Ravi. The film marks the debut of Vinay Rai in Malayalam cinema. The film chronicles about the life journey of a senior ranking IPS officer, ADGP Christopher from his childhood to an encounter specialist who uses vigilantism to safeguard the civilians.
Principal photography began on 10 July 2022 and finished on 29 September 2022. Faiz Siddik and Justin Varghese handled the cinematography and the music of the film.
Christopher was released in theatres on 9 February 2023 and received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
Past: During a riot in Kerala, a group of young men uses the situation to brutally murder Christopher's sister. They also kills his parents and set his house on fire. A young Christopher seeks to avenge his loved ones and chases the perpetrators with a butcher's knife, but is stopped by SP Vetrivel. When Vetrivel learns about the injustice that happened to Christopher's family, he shoots the perpetrators to death. This incident inspires Christopher to become a police officer by using vigilantism and police encounters to safeguard the civilians. Vetrivel takes care of Christopher's education, and later clears the civil service exam to become an IPS officer.
After Christopher completes his police training, Vetrivel, who is on deputation in the Central Government, intervens to get Christopher receive his first posting as ASP in Madhya Pradesh, where many women were killed by the feudal landlords. Christopher uses instrumental techniques in capturing and killing the real perpetrators behind the brutal happenings and becomes an encounter specialist. He is assisted by SI Ismail, who became his right hand man. Later, Christopher shifts his base to Kerala and was promoted to the rank of SP. One day, Christopher meets Beena, who is the Pondicherry District Collector, regarding a series of robberies and murders which constantly took place in a densely forested area.
Christopher and his team decides to take up the mission. The operation is completed successfully, but Ismail succumbs to his injuries. At Ismail's funeral, Christopher learns that Ismail's relatives were dead against accepting his daughter Amina after her parents died, which leads Christopher to adopt Amina as his own child. Christopher was posted as the SP of Crime Branch. After some days, Beena also shifts her base to Kerala. Upon Beena's request, Christopher married Beena and they lived a happy family life. At a hotel in Kochi, a group of girls are found heavily doped by a young men. From the investigation, it is found out that the real culprit is Beena's younger brother Sebastian, a drug addict. Along with her father MP Chackochan and ADGP Abhilash Balakrishnan, Beena settles the issue by providing a huge sum of money to each of the girls.
A maid, who works at Chackochan's home, tells Christopher that her daughter has been missing for a few days. Christopher decides to investigate and learn that Sebastian has brutally killed the girl under the influence of drugs and destroyed her body using a crusher and had also hidden the remaining body parts and hair in some statues in his father's ceramic factory. Sebastian is arrested by Christopher. The next day at the court, Sebastian tries to escape from the clutches of the police by behaving violently and snatches a rifle from a cop in order to kill the victim's mother by hitting her on the head, but she was saved by Christopher, who shoots Sebastian to death. After this incident, Christopher and Beena get separated. With this, Christopher loses everything, but the only person who was with him was Amina.
Few months later, Christopher rejoined the force service, but is made to stay away from law and order, and is posted in the DPCAW. After some years, he gets promoted to ADGP.
Present: One day, Christopher kills 4 people in an encounter for brutally assaulting and murdering a woman. Under pressure from the Human rights activists, CM Rajashekaran Menon is pressured by Beena, who is the present Home Secretary, to launch an investigation into the deaths of 4 youngsters. ACP Sulekha is appointed to lead the investigation, where unearths Christopher's past and the previous encounter killings instead of probing by looking into the case files.