Oru CBI Diary Kuripp (transl: A CBI Diary entry) is a Malayalam police procedural movie from 1988. It introduced one of the iconic film characters of Malayalam movie world - Sethurama Iyer, a CBI officer (Central Bureau of Investigation, India's premier investigative agency, like the FBI in the U.S) and a master investigator par excellence.
L to R: Mammootty as CBI officer Sethurama Iyer, Janardhanan & Prathapachandran, Oru CBI Diary Kuripp (1988) |
Oru CBI Diary Kuripp has a decent storyline, albeit slow paced. At the center was a murder that looked like a suicide which a corrupt nexus of policemen and rich businessmen were trying to quash. In addition to Mammootty as the lead, there were some memorable performances like Sukumaran's DySP Devadas and Captian Raju's DySP Prabhakara Varma. The script was alright, nothing I would go ga-ga about. At the time though it was considered a pathbreaker in terms of how the story was presented and had several one-liners that were often repeated and re-used in other movies and in real life.
One of the most recycled concepts from the movie was the detectives' use of a humanoid dummy to rule out the possibilities of suicide vs murder. Several movies, plays, comedians and even us little kids would bring up the need for using a dummy for anything that required any sort of investigation. From missing erasers to stolen vehicles to movie murders, the dummy test was an essential requisite to solve the issue at hand. The most famous nod to the dummy test is from another super hit Malayalam movie released later that same year, Pattanapravesham, here it is @22:10 min.
Suresh Gopi and Mammotty - the CBI detectives attempting the dummy test from the terrace of the victim's house |
With the kind nostalgic buildup yesteryears' hits bring up, I was hoping to get the same feel for the first Sethurama Iyer movie I had experienced as a kid. But I had overlooked 30+ years of steady and diverse movie diet I had been consuming and the experiences of the person I am now. In fact some other Malayalam investigative movies from the same era like Padmarajan's Kariyilakkattu Pole (1986) or V. K. Pavithran's Utharam (1989) or Joshiy's Ee Thanutha Veluppan Kaalathu (1990) are investigative crime dramas that have aged better. In the last two Mammootty plays the role of the investigator.
The biggest bone I have to pick with the movie is with the character of Sethurama Iyer. He is a la Sherlock Holmes with a government job (much coveted in India) and a Brahmin to the boot. The latter part is crucial in establishing the ace detective's credentials since no Indian worth the centuries of casteist indoctrination will dare to question the wisdom or intelligence of a Brahmin, since these qualities are god-given to Brahmins and therefore indisputable.
Whether Oru CBI Diary Kuripp belongs to the fine wine category or not, whether Sethurama should have been an Iyer (a Brahmin last name) or not, the CBI series of movies gave Malayalam movie industry a long running, unforgettable character with charismatic gravitas that fit Mammotty's acting style to a T.
2 comments:
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