Oru CBI Diary Kuripp : Reviewing the diary entry three decades later

TL;DR : Re-watching Oru CBI Diary Kuripp thirty plus years later was somewhat anti-climatic. 

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

Oru CBI Diary Kuripp was so influential that it led to 4 sequels, the latest one released in 2022, called CBI 5: The Brain. In all the five CBI movies, Mammotty plays the same character, Sethurama Iyer at various stages of his life. The other movies in the series are Jagratha (1989), Sethurama Iyer CBI (2004), Nerariyan CBI (2005) and the last one CBI 5 released this year. 

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.

Although the older me is not happy with a brahmin detective I recently read that it was the business acumen of the actor Mammootty (who btw is a Muslim IRL), when approached to play the lead, made the suggestion to change the character to that of a Brahmin detective. Originally the makers had named the character Ali Imran, a Muslim CBI officer. But Mammootty felt the film will be more successful and unique, if the lead character was a Brahmin. The man had foresight and knew the pulse of his audience. No wonder even in his seventies, his choice of scripts/roles is impeccable and he still rules the Kerala box office.

Mammootty as Michael, a 'retired' don in 2022 movie Bheeshma Parvam

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.  

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Mattoral -a K.G. George film

K.G. George movies explore the darker side of human nature. If you go to the movies for the popcorn, you should never go watch a K.G. George movie in the theater. Not that they are playing in movie-halls anymore unless there is a retrospective of old 80s movies. These movies are heavy, the kind where it is better to nurse a whiskey on the rocks and chew the cud on the vagaries of human mind the film showcases. 

 

I have been on a K.G. George rediscovery spree during the past one year. I think I am old enough to understand them now. Except for his Yavanika, Adaminte Variyellu, Panchavadi Palam and Ulkkadal - the four I had watched a million times during my childhood, I have re-watched most of K.G. George's filmography in the last 12 months. He directed a total of 18 films during the period from mid-seventies to 1990 and one in 1998.  

K.G.G's films are not intended for 8 year olds or 12 year olds for that matter. No wonder I was scared of them as a kid, not in the Frankenstein kind of way,  but more like being made aware of the human monsters in our midst. The unfathomably dark depths of human mind was not an area I wanted to be made aware of that early. The seemingly ordinary themes and characters of his movies made me uncomfortable with their layers of psychological intrigue.

 

Seema and Karamana Janardhanan Nair in Mattoral

Mattoral (The Other Guy along the lines of the other woman) is a study of a husband-wife relationship in the 1980s Kerala. Karamana Janardhanan Nair and Seema essay the lead pair. There are other husband-wife pairs in the film, as if to show the contrast and variety of the same relationship between different sets of people.  Karamana is a government officer while Seema is a typical Malayali housewife toiling away in the kitchen, without much exposure to the outside world. Their relationship have reached a plateau after having done the necessary procreation to propagate the species. 

Mammootty and Urvashi play a younger couple who are the family friends of Karamana-Seema duo. Theirs is a more modern and liberal relationship with Veni (Urvashi) working at an ad company and Balan (Mammootty) is an intellectual and Karamana's best friend. Also making appearance is Jagathy and another lady whose name I do not know, as his wife, whose raison d'être is to interfere in other people's lives. 

The director has taken the actors from their comfort zones and placed them in roles we do not usually see them doing. Seema as the naive house-wife and not playing Mammotty's love interest is unusual, so is Mammootty playing second fiddle to Karamana's more central character. This is a film that would make no sense to teens or younger audience. There are so many nuances and subtleties in the frames, dialog and the story. No wonder I went to sleep when I had watched it for the first time thirty plus years ago.

 

There is more to the story, but I will leave it here. The revelation I had as I tick off my list of K.G.George movies is that he was/is a director or a man who could truly think like a woman and bring out the woman's perspective through his female characters. There have only been a few men authors or directors that I have come across who understand and can present believable women characters in their work, K.G. George is one of those rare species, especially in Malayalam movie world.

 

 

 

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Mummy and Me

Kunchako is almost ready to taken on Shivaji Ganesan. Used to be a time in Tamil cinema when a 60 year old Mr.Ganesan will wear shorts and show up nonchalantly at the neighborhood primary school reciting Thiruvalluvar verses and no one will even bat an eyelid. At that time a 60 year old playing his 6 year old self was perfectly normal, even if he had a mustache that might have taken 50 years to reach its full bloom.

Kunchako Boban is not Mr.Ganeshan's competition yet, but with every passing year he is getting closer to that goal. His time machine is stuck at Aniyathipravu and Guinness book of Records is about to award him the MBA student of the century, which is given to people who take 100 or more years to complete an MBA.

All said Kunchako is the most bearable of the characters in this film. Urvashi needs a shoot-at-sight restraint issued against her, she is just plain unmanageable. Archana Jose Kavi had chosen a movie that had the spotlight on her, can't blame her for the director or the audience who made this movie a roaring success at the box-office. Malayalam movie goers, you deserve this and nothing better, you are the culprits. Suffer biatches!

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