Sethuramaiyer CBI- A Taut Thriller

Produced and Directed by K Madhu- Sethuramaiyer CBI is the third in the 4 part CBI series from the formidable team of K Madhu, S N Swamy and Mammootty. This film had its theatrical release in early 2004 and it is only after 2.5 years that I could finally catch up with this cracker of a movie. The CBI series started with Oru CBI Diarykurippu (1988) that established Mammootty's Sethuramaiyer as the Sherlock Holmes of Malayalam cinema. A quickly made Jaagratha (1990) followed and its less than appealing box office performance forced the CBI team to take a short break. The advent of mobile phones and the CBI theme making a comeback as one of the most common dial tunes made S N Swamy wake up from his slumber. Inspired by Arthur Healy, he scripted the third part of the series- Sethuramaiyer CBI. K Madhu and Mammootty were equally keen though the producer of the first two parts- M Mani (Sunitha Productions) was not. Thus, K Madhu took up the mantle of producing the movie up on himself and came out with Sethuramaiyer CBI which brought Mammootty back into the limelight and proved as the starting point for the mega star to deliver more than a dozen hits one after the other within a short span of 2 years. In spite of the movie becoming a huge success at the BO, I could not watch it in theatres, thanks to my busy days as a nouveau professional on the hunt for a satisying job. Finally I managed to catch up with the movie on Surya TV in one of its umpteenth telecasts. Needless to say, I was impressed once again with the mastery with which the murder mystery was solved. The movie starts with Sethuramaiyer (Mammootty) coming to his home town in Kerala for a vacation with his sister and family (Urmila Unni, Kunjan, an irritating Navya Nair and an over the top Nandana). One fine morning, Iyer has an unexpected visitor in the form of a pastor (Bharat Gopi wasted in an inconsequential role) who wants Iyer to visit a culprit (an effective Kalabhavan Mani) who is waiting for his death sentence for having committed 6 murders in 2 families. The culprit calls on Iyer for making a confession, a real shocking one at that- he has killed only 5 and the 6th murder was not committed by him. What adds more shock value to the revelation is the fact that the murder mystery was earlier investigated by CBI themselves and the culprit was booked following the investigation which they thought was fool proof. After obtaining the consent from his authorities, Iyer sets out on a re- investigation of the crime aided by his favorite subordinate Chacko (Mukesh) and the newly recruited Ganesh (Vineeth Kumar looking lost and confused). How Iyer and his team manage to successfully find out the culprit is what the rest of the movie is all about. S N Swamy is widely considered the Agatha Christie of Malayalam filmdom. He has every right to be described so since no other writer in Indian cinema has been able to contribute so effectively to the crime thriller genre like Swamy has. Here also, Swamy's script is wonderful and the methodology of the mystery being solved has an onion peel effect to it. The multi layered script contributes immensely to the success of the movie, though a few hitches like the Navya Nair- Vineeth Kumar romance and the Mala Aravindan episode could have been avoided. K Madhu proves yet again that there is no one like him when it comes to directing crime thrillers. The pacing of the movie is just perfect and the importance given to the aesthetics and production design deserves special mention. Mammootty stands tall amongst the cast, as far as performances are concerned. His interpretation of Sethuramaiyer is effective but what is awe inspiring is the fact that he looks straight out of the 1988 movie- Oru CBI Diarykurippu which started it all. Jagathy Sreekumar's brief appearance as the CBI officer in disguise is another feather in the versatile actor's already overcrowded cap. Saikumar as Inspector Sathyadas, the son of Inspector Devadas (the late Sukumaran) who appears in the prequels is equally effective. Technically also the movie stands out. The camera work (Anandakuttan, if I am right) rightly complements the mood of a crime thriller and the background music by Shyam is effective. The editing could have been crisper though. Sethuramaiyer was so big a success that it prompted the team to come up with a 4th part- a quickie called Nerariyaan CBI (2005) which left the theatres quicker than one could say 1-2-3.