Nizhal (2021) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

The car accident leaves Baby with psychological trauma that manifests as unsettling visions. These visions are initially dismissed as lingering effects of the crash, but they continue throughout the investigation. The visions serve as a narrative device that connects him to the deeper mystery, and they only cease once the threat from Viswanathan is eliminated.

• john baby
• visions
• car accident
• trauma
• psychological

Nitin hears the murder stories from his mother Sharmila, but not in a normal way. Sharmila unconsciously tells these stories to Nitin while she is asleep. This is because the stories were implanted in her own subconscious mind when she was a baby, passed down through her mother's memories.

• nitin
• murder stories
• sharmila
• sleep talking
• subconscious

Sharmila has no conscious knowledge of these stories. She tell them to Nitin because they were embedded in her subconscious from infancy. When Viswanathan would confess his murders to her mother while she rocked baby Sharmila to sleep, those confessions became part of Sharmila's subconscious mind, which later resurfaces when she sleeps.

• sharmila
• sleep
• subconscious
• stories
• memory transmission

Viswanathan is the elderly caretaker who raised Sharmila after her mother's death. He was also the former lover of Sharmila's mother, Radhamma, but never married her because she was widowed. Most importantly, he is the serial killer who murdered multiple people under a political party's name and killed Sharmila's mother.

• viswanathan
• sharmila
• caretaker
• killer
• radhamma

Viswanathan killed Sharmila's mother, Radhamma, as part of his political murders. Though he loved her, he carried out killings for the political party he served. He would confess these murders to her while she rocked baby Sharmila to sleep, unknowingly passing the traumatic stories into the child's subconscious.

• viswanathan
• radhamma
• murder
• political party
• confession

The transmission happened through three generations. Viswanathan confessed his murders to Sharmila's mother while she cared for baby Sharmila. Those stories became embedded in Sharmila's subconscious. Decades later, Sharmila unconsciously retells these same stories to her son Nitin while sleeping, completing the cycle of memory transmission.

• memory
• transmission
• subconscious
• generations
• stories

Sharmila helps Viswanathan escape because she is moved by his remorse and the tragic story of his relationship with her mother. Despite learning he killed her mother, she feels compassion for the elderly man who raised her and shows him mercy, allowing him to slip away before the police can arrest him.

• sharmila
• viswanathan
• escape
• mercy
• remorse

After Viswanathan's death, Sharmila begins to experience the same hallucinations that Baby had. While Baby finds relief from his visions, the psychological burden now passes to Sharmila, suggesting the trauma has been transferred. This creates an ambiguous ending where the cycle of trauma continues.

Foreshadowing: The story hints early on that the murder narratives have been living inside Sharmila's subconscious.

• sharmila
• ending
• hallucinations
• trauma
• cycle

Baby's visions were connected to the unresolved trauma surrounding Viswanathan's crimes. Once Viswanathan falls to his death and the immediate threat to Sharmila is neutralized, Baby's subconscious is no longer troubled by the unresolved mystery. The connection between his psychological state and the case is severed with the villain's death.

• baby
• visions
• viswanathan
• death
• resolution

Radhamma is Sharmila's mother, who was murdered by Viswanathan. She is the missing link that connects the past murders to the present. Baby realizes Radhamma's identity when Nitin overhears her name at the hospital, which triggers the final confrontation. Her role is central to understanding how the murder stories became embedded in the family.

• radhamma
• sharmila
• mother
• murder
• connection

The skull belongs to one of Viswanathan's victims from his political murders. When Baby and police investigate the location described in Nitin's story, they discover the skull submerged in the pond. This confirms that Nitin's fictional-sounding tales are actually based on real crimes, setting the investigation into motion.

• skull
• pond
• nitin
• crime
• investigation