CBI (film series)

CBI is an Indian Malayalam-language film series of mystery films directed by K. Madhu and written by S. N. Swamy featuring Mammootty as Sethurama Iyer, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer in the title role. The series started off in 1988 with Oru CBI Diary Kurippu. The character Sethurama Iyer is said to have been inspired by a police officer named Radha Vinod Raju, who in 2009 was appointed as the first chief of India's National Investigation Agency.^[1][2]

CBI
Directed by	Madhu
Written by	S. N. Swamy
Produced by	M. Mani (1 - 2) K. Madhu (3 - 4) Swargachitra Appachan (5)
Starring	Mammootty Mukesh Jagathy Sreekumar
Cinematography	Vipindas (1 - 2) Saloo George (3 - 4) Akhil George (5)
Edited by	V. P. Krishnan (1 - 2) P. C. Mohanan (3 - 4) A. Sreekar Prasad (5)
Music by	Shyam (1 - 4) Jakes Bejoy (5)
Production companies	Sunitha Productions (1 - 2) Krishnakripa (3 - 4) Swargachithra Films (5)
Distributed by	Aroma Movies (1 - 2) Swargachithra Films (3 - 5)
Release dates	1988 (1) 1989 (2) 2004 (3) 2005 (4) 2022 (5)
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Films

The films depicts a team of three CBI officers led by Sethurama Iyer investigating into a murder case. All the films feature Mammootty as Sethurama Iyer. The other two members of the team vary in the series. All the five films that were released have Vikram, the character played by Jagathy Sreekumar as a CBI officer. But he is not part of the three-men team in the third film and fifth film but appears in the films for a short length. Chacko played by Mukesh appears in the first film but is not part of the team. But Chacko becomes part of the team from the second film onwards. Harry played by Suresh Gopi is present in the first movie as part of the team, but later transferred to Madras in the second sequel.

The films of the franchise are:

Year	Film	Director	Screenwriter	Producer	Composer
1988	Oru CBI Diary Kurippu	K. Madhu	S. N. Swamy	M. Mani	Shyam
1989	Jagratha
2004	Sethurama Iyer CBI			K. Madhu
2005	Nerariyan CBI
2022	CBI 5: The Brain			Swargachitra Appachan	Jakes Bejoy

Sethurama Iyer (Malayalam: സേതുരാമയ്യര്‍) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the CBI film series. The character was played by Mammootty in all the films. He is an investigative officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Iyer's popularity is attributed to the fact that he uses his brain rather than brawn to solve cases.

Cast and characters

 

Central characters Mammootty, Jagathy and Mukesh as CBI officers.

Character	Oru CBI Diary Kurippu (1988)	Jagratha (1989)	Sethurama Iyer CBI (2004)	Nerariyan CBI (2005)	CBI 5 (2022)
Introduced in Oru CBI Diary Kurippu
Sethurama Iyer	Mammootty
Vikram	Jagathy Sreekumar
Chacko	Mukesh
CI Harry	Suresh Gopi
DySP Devadas	Sukumaran
K. A. Ouseppachan	Janardhanan
Narayanan	Prathapachandran
Omana	Lissy
Annie	Urvashi
John Thomas	Bahadoor
Joy Mathew	Vijayaraghavan
SP Prabhakara Varma	Captain Raju
SP of CBI	Jagannatha Varma
C.I Alex	K. P. A. C. Sunny
Sunny	Sreenath		Sreenath
Home Minister Bhargavan	C. I. Paul
Police Surgeon	Kollam Thulasi
Padathalam Mathai	Poojappura Ravi
Mary	Adoor Bhavani		Adoor Bhavani
Sreedharan	T. P. Madhavan
Driver Vasu	Kundara Johny
Nun	Sukumari
Mohammed	Kothuku Nanappan
Introduced in Jagratha
Ashwathy		Parvathy Jayaram
Babu		Babu Antony
Adv. Janardanan Nair		Babu Namboothiri
I.G		K. P. A. C. Azeez
Vishwam		Devan
Kumar		K. B. Ganesh Kumar
Mohan		Jose
Anchor		Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri
Kurupu		M. S. Thripunithura
Thomas		Paravoor Bharathan
Vandana		Sreeja
Rukmini		Kanakalatha
Fake policeman		James
Suryan		Tony
Rajendrababu		Vishnuprakash
Hotel boy		Poojappura Radhakrishnan
Union leader		Adinad Sasi
Introduced in Sethurama Iyer CBI
Balagopal			Siddique
Isow Alex			Kalabhavan Mani
Ganesh			Vineeth Kumar
DySP Sathyadas			Sai Kumar		Sai Kumar
Mani			Jagadish
Rachana			Navya Nair
Reshmi			Nandana
Adiyodi			Oduvil Unnikrishnan
CBI Director			Kalasala Babu
Bahuleyan			Rajan P. Dev
Manikunju / Zakariah			Paravoor Ramachandran
Mosi			Geetha Vijayan
Krishan Iyer			Kunchan
Meenakshi Iyer			Urmila Unni
Dr. Vijayalakshmi			Poornima Anand
Vijayamma			Kalpana
Kuzhivetty Mathai			Mala Aravindan
Fr. Gomez			Bharath Gopi
Crime branch C.I			Shammi Thilakan
Sharngadaran			Subair
Varkey			Punnapra Appachan
Broker			Suraj Venjaramoodu
Introduced in Nerariyan CBI
Kapra Valiya Narayanan				Thilakan
Mythili				Samvrutha Sunil
Anitha				Gopika
Devaswam				Indrans
George C. Nair				Cochin Haneefa
DYSP Dhanapalan				Augustine
ASP Saikumar IPS				Jishnu
Velu				Mohan Jose
Dr. Krishnan Nair				P. Sreekumar
Mythili's Father				M. R. Gopakumar
Dr. Krishnan Nair				P. Sreekumar
Dr. Babu				Rizabawa
Banjamin C. Nair				Madhu Warrier
Poopparathy Vasu				Baburaj
Reshmi				Suja Karthika
Lakshmiyamma				Bindu Ramakrishnan
Elizabeth C. Nair				Bindu Panicker
Mythili's mother				Shobha Mohan
Anitha's Kin				Ambika Mohan
Maya				Suvarna Mathew
Introduced in CBI 5
Balagopal, C.B.I. Officer					Renji Panicker
I.G. Unnithan I.P.S					Anoop Menon
Adv. Prathibha Sathyadas					Asha Sarath
Paul Meijo / Mansoor / Sandeep					Soubin Shahir
Vinay, C.B.I. Officer					Ramesh Pisharody
Chief Minister					Dileesh Pothan
SI Iqbal					Sudev Nair
Mamman Varghese , C.B.I. Officer					Edavela Babu
Sudhi, C.B.I. Officer					Alexander Prasanth
Anwar					Ramesh Kottayam
CI Josemon					Jayakrishnan
Dr. George Abraham					Prathap Pothen
Home Minister Abdul Samad					G. Suresh Kumar
Journalist Bhasuran					Chandhu Karamana
D.Y.S.P. Babu Raj					Santhosh Keezhattoor
Susan George / Ambika Unnithan					Kaniha
Anitha, C.B.I. Officer					Ansiba Hassan
Aparna					Malavika Menon
Merlin					Swasika
Anuja					Malvika Nair

References

1. "NIA chief inspired hit film 20 yrs ago". Hindustan Times. 18 January 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
2. "A crack investigative team". hindu. Retrieved 20 August 2010.

Timeline

CBI film series released timeline

1	-
2–1987
1988	Oru CBI Diarykkurippu
1989	Jagratha
1990–2003
2004	Sethurama Iyer CBI
2005	Nerariyan CBI
2006–2021
2022	CBI 5: The Brain