CBI 5

I'm a huge fan of CBI series. Perhaps this was the first movie which I ever saw on first day first show without seeing the IMDB ratings and reviews.

Writing a sequel for a popular film series is an extremely tough task. Expectations are always high and we expect a better ones than the previous or at least a matching one. Here nostalgia is the marketing strategy. Films including James bond series work on this principle.

The movie revolve around a series of not so obviously related murders which police fails to resolves and thus case was handed over to CBI.

The script was weak and lagging through out the movie. Even the opening scenes featuring an induction session for the IPS trainees was badly written and executed.

Only beautiful and memorable scene in this movie is that of Jagathy. We miss you Sir!

The movie end with a lot of questions unanswered.

At the end I wish to set up another CBI investigation to find the missing script!

CBI 5: The Brain is actually CBI: The Greatest Hits. All ideas, including the climax twist, have been rehashed from the previous films. SN Swamy tries to contemporize one of the kills, but once certain things become evident in the more briskly paced second half, I realized that he was only harking back to another script of his (from the '90s) starring Mammootty himself. The film is exposition-heavy, and those vague close-up shots, which may have worked 15-20 years ago, fail to work here. The setting, the playout of events, and the not-so-novel idea of the killer having accomplices are all picked up from the earlier entries and Swamy's other works. But the most disappointing factor here is the motive for the killings - not only is it the weakest element but it also struggles to firmly bind everything together. Even when there were loopholes and questionable climaxes in the earlier ventures, at least the murderer's motive was one that made sense.

P. S - It was a pleasure seeing Jagathy Sreekumar (as Vikram) for that wonderfully effective but short scene. Even Mukesh (as Chacko) showing up for just a couple of scenes felt nice.

The story started good. Twists and turns were making the story interesting. But I felt they were trying to create a lot of misdirections to keep the suspense alive. Which in turn left lot of open ended threads. At one point the writer just hastily grabbed one thread and reached a conclusion. Its not even logical ending.

The entry of the main protagonist Sethuraman Iyer is delayed for a better effect. But it was too delayed. At one point of time I started feeling when will the story begins. They had a good story with good actors to give us a great movie. But they failed spectacularly.

Editing could have been much better. This is the worst part of the movie.

Its an ok one time watch. That too being generous.

CBI series for me is something different. Oru CBI Diarykurup set the benchmark for investigative thrillers. Jagratha failed to get much attention like its predecessor but it was a really good film and was successful in the box office. Sethurama Iyer CBI was also a really good film. After Sethurama Iyer CBI, Nerariyan CBI came which disappointed me. But CBI 5 really exceeded my expectation because I went with no expectation. I will be saying about the good and bad of the movie in a non-spoiler way.

The Bad

Some subplots was started but was left unanswered which left me scratching my head. Also the motive of the killer is a little generic and dumb. The first half is very lagging and nothing is thrilling in it. But after the first half, it goes smooth and great. This is the only movie in the series which has less or no action sequences, which is not a bad thing but I just mentioned it. The pattern of the killing and how they presented it is very poor and disappointing. Soubin, Asha Sharath, Ansiba and Anoop Menon were miscasts.

The Good

Technically this film is really good. The remixed background score of Iyer by Jakes Bejoy reminded me of the original score from the original one. The cinematography is great. Screenplay wise, this one has an average one but is better than Nerariyan CBI. The second half is really good and gives us some thrills. Some of the performances are really good. Mammootty gives the same vibe of Iyer from the predecessors and also gives a restrained performance. They have tried to do something different with the character of Iyer and have succeeded with it. Loved the scene in which Jagathy was there. It was a pivotal moment in which Jagathy appeared and had a good role. Jagathy did his best and was good. Mukesh and Sai Kumar had a limited appearance but they did a good job. Sai Kumar brings some nostalgic memories. Others did an average job. The climax twist was really unexpected, interesting and good.

So I recommend all of you to watch it but it isn't very good but you can get entertained and the fans and haters of Nerariyan will love this film and should see it but those who are fans of the first three, it is up to you to decide.

An one time watchable average movie.. If you have watched all cbi series, this would be definitely disappoint you.. Script and story telling is too weak that it feels like lagging just after few minutes of movie. Climax is somewhat expected but still okay...