Nizhalkuthu (English: Shadow Kill, French: Le Serviteur de Kali) is a 2002 Indian film in Malayalam directed, written and co-produced by Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

It stars Oduvil Unnikrishnan in the lead with actors Narain, Murali, Sukumari, Reeja, Nedumudi Venu, Vijayaraghavan, Jagathi Sreekumar and Tara Kalyan in supporting roles.

Kaliyappan, the last hangman of Travancore is dragging his remaining life by consuming alcohol and worshipping the Mother Goddess.

His motivations are not spelt out, but the choice of title hints that the son perhaps punishes the father by reminding him that any of his prior executions may have been a farce just like this.

Just like the witch hunter's wife in Mahabharata, the son's sense of punishment completely ignores the innocent victim who would be executed.