Spoiler Alert: Read through only if you have watched the movie already
At the beginning of the movie, we can see the famous Hollywood director Robert Zemeckis's name and his movie Contact (1997) mentioned in the thanks card.
As per my assumption, the most vital information regarding the story of trance is lying on this thanks card. I will explain it at the end of this answer.
Once again, I tell you all that what I am going to tell is my assumptions only. I know a lot of you guys won't be able to agree with me. So if you guys have a different explanation, please write it as another answer, so that it will be helpful for me and other readers as well.
For your better understanding, we can divide the movie into 2 Parts
Part -1 In the opening scene, we can see this quote.
It says, there is no easy path to success. You really need to work hard in order to become successful.
After that, we see Fahad's character Viju Prasad, who is standing in front of a mirror and saying this dialogue below. Note that he says the dialogue looking downwards with a sad face.
Then he looks into the mirror and smiles...
They say great directors often hide vital clues of a movie's theme in the opening scene itself. So if we think that way, we can interpret this scene that, Fahad's character looking downwards without smiling indicates he is looking into his real life and he is obviously not happy with it. When he smiles at the mirror, it implies he is optimistic about the future, and he believes he can be successful in the future. The mirror here represents a virtual world of success he is looking forward to. (I know, I am stretching it too far here, but really it makes sense to me.) This scene also establishes here that Fahad's character thinks that success is something that can be achieved as easily as reciting a quote looking at a mirror, contrary to the quote we saw earlier which says there is no easy path to success.
The story of the movie is taking place in different realities. If you see, the incidents from the beginning of the movie till Fahad's character reaches Mumbai is in fact the real-life incidents happening in the life of Viju Prasad. From this part of the movie, we can see that even though his ambition is to become a successful motivational speaker, his real life is in fact a failure.
In one scene, we can see him telling his brother his plan for the future:
Did you hear it right? "Viju's Success Juice". What do you think about the cheesy name he found for a million-dollar company!? So now it is very clear that even though he has ambitious dreams, his vision is not at all promising and not based on his current reality. He thinks that his knowledge of the motivational books is enough to become successful. We can see a lot of such books in his home by the way. I am not getting into other details the director used to establish Viju's character and his life situation. If you observe, everything in this portion of the movie tells in detail about the character and life of Viju Prasad.
After his brother's suicide, Viju falls into depression. In one scene, we see that his brother tells him that it is because of these psychiatric drugs that he became ill. After the suicide, those words from his brother prompts him to start taking his brother's drug pills due to remorse. Later he starts showing signs of mental illness(like he gets disturbed in the presence of ceiling fan, etc) and he left Kanyakumari to Mumbai. He still takes the drugs and now he is suffering from insomnia also. His past tragic life, mental trauma, depression, the effects of psychotropic drugs he takes, etc took him to a hallucination or lucid dream kind of state. That's what we see in the movie after the title Trance is shown with a voice-over of someone saying TRANCE in the background. Here ends our part1 and the real TRANCE begins from here onward:
Part 2 From now onwards, please note that everything after this is all imagination or hallucination of Viju Prasad:
Part 2 can be divided into two parts. Part a and Part b.
Part a At the end of part 1, we know Viju is in a terrible mental state. But from the beginning of part 2, he seems to be recovered from his depression or mental illness he was suffering earlier. From this we can assume he is not the same Viju we saw in the first part. So I think, everything that happens in this part is Fahads imagination or hallucinations he is experiencing in a trance state of mind. All the incidents, characters, etc in this reality might be inspired by his past life. Even it can be inspired by his own life experience or stories he heard or anything. We know his ambition in his real-life was to become a successful motivational speaker, but now when Solomon asks him to join their gang, he reluctantly says yes and decides to take the shortcut to success. This in fact, is contrary to the quote we saw at the beginning of the movie. So rest of the movie's story tells what happened in the life of Joshua Carlton (JC) after he takes a shortcut to success.
In this part, the incidents start to become a bit dramatic like his meeting with the lady he met earlier in the lift that too in a busy traffic junction and she happens to be a model coordinator and he learns the bible within a 6 month of crash course from Dileesh Pothen, etc. Even though these scenes are a bit overboard, it's still believable and logically possible. In this part we can see, Joshua Carlton achieves almost everything Viju had dreamt of. As we knew, there is no elevator to success and you have to take the stairs right. So Joshua has to pay the price for taking the shortcut. So he is hit by Solomon and is hospitalized and is almost on the verge of death. We can consider that the part ends here.
Part b We know Joshua Carton is at a near-death situation at the end of part b. So here, If we assume, after the accident, Joshua Carlton went into Coma state. But he wanted to take revenge against Solomon and the team, but his current bedridden position makes him unable to take revenge. So here also, like earlier happened in Viju's life, the hit in his head and the drugs Solomon gave him and all (Jinu Joseph's character tells this in the movie), Joshua also falls into another trance state and what we see now is kind of another hallucination or imagination in Fahad's mind. (like a dream within a dream in Nolan's Inception)
Everything happens in this part is logic-less and unbelievable compared to part a, because all incidents that are happening in this portion is controlled by Joshua's mind. Also in dreams, there is no explanation for what's happening right and this is a dream within a dream, so more chaos? So, as he could not be able to take revenge against his enemies in real life, he takes revenge against them in this imaginary world and everyone has to take orders from JC's mind.
We can see Solomon and others kind of obeying what Joshua said. If it was real, Solomon would have killed JC right away rather than obeying him. What is holding them back from killing him now? Even they had almost done that earlier.
So everything that is happening in this part b is not real respect to part a. (Not to forget part a is also not real). Even Joshua says this explicitly in the movie itself that he is not living in reality.
So here in this part b, Nazriya's character comes into the movie. But if you think, if everything happens in this movie is all real life, like some of the audience who did not like the movie, believe, Solomon might not need Nazriya's character to find out whether Joshua is faking his mental illness or not, Debbie was enough right? The movie also implies that Nazriya's character can also be a hallucination of Joshua 2.0 It can be also interpreted that Nazriya's role is a representation of Viju's brother from his real-life as well. In real life of Viju couldn't save his brother but here try to save her, who also had a suicidal history. Vinayakan's story might also be inspired by Viju's earlier life that we do not know. The movie does not tell why Viju's mother committed suicide. So like in Vinayakan's life, Viju also might have experienced that kind of tragedy related to religion or demigods in his real life also. The movie does not tell much about this in detail. We can see some flashback shots like Viju's mother praying in front of a mosque and a Christian church.
So Vinayakan's story might be a reference to some tragic incident that happened in Viju Prasads's real life. Also we can interpret Nazriya's character as an angel who came to make JC realize how his pseudo miracle works affecting the lives of common people who believe blindly.
Almost every scene in this part b is logic-less and unexplainable. You can see so many plot holes here like Solomon and team obeying JC, Nazriya's character, Vinayakan's call reaching JC, Vinayakan finds JC in the church, Soubin, and Dharmajan episodes, Nazriyas letter reaching him, how he got the money to reach Amsterdam, etc. If you see it as a normal movie, all these scenes do not make sense. Even Anwar Rasheed's worst movie Annan Thambi movie didn't have as many plot holes as in this portion. So if you saw it as a dream within a dream kind of perspective, it is understandable. Also this portion has a hell lot of Christianity references. Like JC's initials, his resurrection, Nazraiya's character also can be interpreted as Mary Magdalene, also she can be considered as an angel, etc. There might be more references related to Solomon and the team. But I don't have much knowledge in Christianity so I won't be able to point it out.
If we move on to climax, we can see JC reaches Amsterdam and from his point of view we see Nazriya's Character running towards him and when she about to touch him, we hear a glass breaking sound and the film ends there with a voiceover of someone saying "Trance".
At the beginning of the movie, we can see the famous Hollywood director Robert Zemeckis's name and his movie Contact (1997) mentioned in the thanks card.
As per my assumption, the most vital information regarding the story of trance is lying on this thanks card. I will explain it at the end of this answer.
Once again, I tell you all that what I am going to tell is my assumptions only. I know a lot of you guys won't be able to agree with me. So if you guys have a different explanation, please write it as another answer, so that it will be helpful for me and other readers as well.
For your better understanding, we can divide the movie into 2 Parts
Part -1 In the opening scene, we can see this quote.
It says, there is no easy path to success. You really need to work hard in order to become successful.
After that, we see Fahad's character Viju Prasad, who is standing in front of a mirror and saying this dialogue below. Note that he says the dialogue looking downwards with a sad face.
Then he looks into the mirror and smiles...
They say great directors often hide vital clues of a movie's theme in the opening scene itself. So if we think that way, we can interpret this scene that, Fahad's character looking downwards without smiling indicates he is looking into his real life and he is obviously not happy with it. When he smiles at the mirror, it implies he is optimistic about the future, and he believes he can be successful in the future. The mirror here represents a virtual world of success he is looking forward to. (I know, I am stretching it too far here, but really it makes sense to me.) This scene also establishes here that Fahad's character thinks that success is something that can be achieved as easily as reciting a quote looking at a mirror, contrary to the quote we saw earlier which says there is no easy path to success.
The story of the movie is taking place in different realities. If you see, the incidents from the beginning of the movie till Fahad's character reaches Mumbai is in fact the real-life incidents happening in the life of Viju Prasad. From this part of the movie, we can see that even though his ambition is to become a successful motivational speaker, his real life is in fact a failure.
In one scene, we can see him telling his brother his plan for the future:
Did you hear it right? "Viju's Success Juice". What do you think about the cheesy name he found for a million-dollar company!? So now it is very clear that even though he has ambitious dreams, his vision is not at all promising and not based on his current reality. He thinks that his knowledge of the motivational books is enough to become successful. We can see a lot of such books in his home by the way. I am not getting into other details the director used to establish Viju's character and his life situation. If you observe, everything in this portion of the movie tells in detail about the character and life of Viju Prasad.
After his brother's suicide, Viju falls into depression. In one scene, we see that his brother tells him that it is because of these psychiatric drugs that he became ill. After the suicide, those words from his brother prompts him to start taking his brother's drug pills due to remorse. Later he starts showing signs of mental illness(like he gets disturbed in the presence of ceiling fan, etc) and he left Kanyakumari to Mumbai. He still takes the drugs and now he is suffering from insomnia also. His past tragic life, mental trauma, depression, the effects of psychotropic drugs he takes, etc took him to a hallucination or lucid dream kind of state. That's what we see in the movie after the title Trance is shown with a voice-over of someone saying TRANCE in the background. Here ends our part1 and the real TRANCE begins from here onward:
Part 2 From now onwards, please note that everything after this is all imagination or hallucination of Viju Prasad:
Part 2 can be divided into two parts. Part a and Part b.
Part a At the end of part 1, we know Viju is in a terrible mental state. But from the beginning of part 2, he seems to be recovered from his depression or mental illness he was suffering earlier. From this we can assume he is not the same Viju we saw in the first part. So I think, everything that happens in this part is Fahads imagination or hallucinations he is experiencing in a trance state of mind. All the incidents, characters, etc in this reality might be inspired by his past life. Even it can be inspired by his own life experience or stories he heard or anything. We know his ambition in his real-life was to become a successful motivational speaker, but now when Solomon asks him to join their gang, he reluctantly says yes and decides to take the shortcut to success. This in fact, is contrary to the quote we saw at the beginning of the movie. So rest of the movie's story tells what happened in the life of Joshua Carlton (JC) after he takes a shortcut to success.
In this part, the incidents start to become a bit dramatic like his meeting with the lady he met earlier in the lift that too in a busy traffic junction and she happens to be a model coordinator and he learns the bible within a 6 month of crash course from Dileesh Pothen, etc. Even though these scenes are a bit overboard, it's still believable and logically possible. In this part we can see, Joshua Carlton achieves almost everything Viju had dreamt of. As we knew, there is no elevator to success and you have to take the stairs right. So Joshua has to pay the price for taking the shortcut. So he is hit by Solomon and is hospitalized and is almost on the verge of death. We can consider that the part ends here.
Part b We know Joshua Carton is at a near-death situation at the end of part b. So here, If we assume, after the accident, Joshua Carlton went into Coma state. But he wanted to take revenge against Solomon and the team, but his current bedridden position makes him unable to take revenge. So here also, like earlier happened in Viju's life, the hit in his head and the drugs Solomon gave him and all (Jinu Joseph's character tells this in the movie), Joshua also falls into another trance state and what we see now is kind of another hallucination or imagination in Fahad's mind. (like a dream within a dream in Nolan's Inception)
Everything happens in this part is logic-less and unbelievable compared to part a, because all incidents that are happening in this portion is controlled by Joshua's mind. Also in dreams, there is no explanation for what's happening right and this is a dream within a dream, so more chaos? So, as he could not be able to take revenge against his enemies in real life, he takes revenge against them in this imaginary world and everyone has to take orders from JC's mind.
We can see Solomon and others kind of obeying what Joshua said. If it was real, Solomon would have killed JC right away rather than obeying him. What is holding them back from killing him now? Even they had almost done that earlier.
So everything that is happening in this part b is not real respect to part a. (Not to forget part a is also not real). Even Joshua says this explicitly in the movie itself that he is not living in reality.
So here in this part b, Nazriya's character comes into the movie. But if you think, if everything happens in this movie is all real life, like some of the audience who did not like the movie, believe, Solomon might not need Nazriya's character to find out whether Joshua is faking his mental illness or not, Debbie was enough right? The movie also implies that Nazriya's character can also be a hallucination of Joshua 2.0 It can be also interpreted that Nazriya's role is a representation of Viju's brother from his real-life as well. In real life of Viju couldn't save his brother but here try to save her, who also had a suicidal history. Vinayakan's story might also be inspired by Viju's earlier life that we do not know. The movie does not tell why Viju's mother committed suicide. So like in Vinayakan's life, Viju also might have experienced that kind of tragedy related to religion or demigods in his real life also. The movie does not tell much about this in detail. We can see some flashback shots like Viju's mother praying in front of a mosque and a Christian church.
So Vinayakan's story might be a reference to some tragic incident that happened in Viju Prasads's real life. Also we can interpret Nazriya's character as an angel who came to make JC realize how his pseudo miracle works affecting the lives of common people who believe blindly.
Almost every scene in this part b is logic-less and unexplainable. You can see so many plot holes here like Solomon and team obeying JC, Nazriya's character, Vinayakan's call reaching JC, Vinayakan finds JC in the church, Soubin, and Dharmajan episodes, Nazriyas letter reaching him, how he got the money to reach Amsterdam, etc. If you see it as a normal movie, all these scenes do not make sense. Even Anwar Rasheed's worst movie Annan Thambi movie didn't have as many plot holes as in this portion. So if you saw it as a dream within a dream kind of perspective, it is understandable. Also this portion has a hell lot of Christianity references. Like JC's initials, his resurrection, Nazraiya's character also can be interpreted as Mary Magdalene, also she can be considered as an angel, etc. There might be more references related to Solomon and the team. But I don't have much knowledge in Christianity so I won't be able to point it out.
If we move on to climax, we can see JC reaches Amsterdam and from his point of view we see Nazriya's Character running towards him and when she about to touch him, we hear a glass breaking sound and the film ends there with a voiceover of someone saying "Trance".