Mammootty reprises his role as the calm and collected Tamil Brahmin sleuth, Sethuraman Iyer. “Jagratha” is the second movie in the Malayalam CBI movie series and a sequel to “Oru CBI Diary Kurippu”. Like its predecessor, “Jagratha” is a slow-burn whodunit thriller that sharply focuses on the crime investigation without irrelevant subplots.

Iyer returns in this film, investigating the mysterious death of a popular female actor . While the death seems to be a case of suicide, buried secrets come to the surface, as the investigation proceed indicating that there is more to the fatality

The first hour of the movie takes its time setting up the context for the crime investigation that will follow. Ashwathi (Parvathy Jayaram) is a popular Malayalam star who is now considered a ‘pan-Indian’ star, an actor who stars in movies made in many Indian languages. Not one to hold back, Ashwathi has ended the career of Bhargavan, a former minister, by exposing his involvement in the murder of a movie director. Through an intrepid journalist Kumar (K. B. Ganesh Kumar) and his newspaper, she has now exposed actor and superstar Viswam(Devan) as an adulterer who uses his ‘star-power’ to exploit women. She is engaged to Mohan(Jose), a producer whose family disapproves of their relationship.

Mohan, angered over the ruining of his image and fall from grace, hires Babu, a local thug, to murder Ashwathi. Aswathi is staying at a hotel and working on her new film. One night, as Babu breaks into her room, he is shocked to find that someone else has beaten him to the devilish task. Aswathi is found dead in the room, hanging from a saree used as a noose. Racked with fear, Babu rushes out of the room, goes to the room of Vishwam, who is staying at another hotel near Ashwathi’s, and lies that he killed Aswathi. He is given a generous payoff in cash.

The police officer SP Devadas (Sukumaran), who reprises his role from the previous movie), who is leading the investigation, is compromised as he owes favors to Minister Bhargavan and does not want to engender public outcry by implicating Mohan. Devadas rules Ashwathi’s death a suicide.

With mounting public outcry, the Kerala government entrusts the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the case. As expected, the CBI entrusts Sethuraman Iyer (Mammootty) to solve the mystery. We now get a glimpse of Sethraman’s home life before duty calls, where he is playing chess with his geeky, spectacled young son. Sethuraman Iyer is soon on the case.

Assisted by two subordinate officers, Chako (Mukesh) and Vikram (Jagathy Sreekumar), Iyer plunges into the investigation, much to the disdain of Devadas, who is upset that he will no longer handle the investigation. This is the second time that Iyer has taken over from Devadas. In “Oru CBI Diary Kurippu”, while Vikram was one of Iyer’s assistants, Chako was a constable. Harry, Iyer’s other assistant, played by Suresh Gopi, is not in this film, but his name is mentioned.

Iyer and his associates begin their work at Ashwathi’s room by reenacting the crime and uncover that it was not a suicide. Next, Iyer interrogates each guest who was staying at the hotel when the crime occurred. Among the guests, Bhargavan, who was also staying at the hotel, seems very suspicious.

Also among the guests are Ouseppachan (Janardhanan), a businessman, and his friend Narayanan (Prathapachandran), both seen in “Oru CBI Kurippu”. Ouseppachan, a producer in the movie Ashwathi was working on, is trying his hand in the movie industry, which has not been profitable for him.

Iyer then interviews the staff of the hotel. As the CBI team pieces together the events of the fateful night, their investigation ultimately leads them to Babu.

Will Iyer believe Babu’s implausible story that while he went to Ashwathi’s room with murderous intent, he did not kill her and discovered her corpse suspended by a saree from a hook on the ceiling?

There are no prizes for answering that question. However, one possible criticism of the movie is that the murderer’s motives are not immediately apparent and are revealed through this person’s narrative as a flashback. Personally, I think there are a few clues throughout the movie with who the murderer could be.

Iyer and his crew, like the shrewd viewer, identify ‘who’ did it, rather than ‘why’ this person did it. While it was not as good as the first movie in the series, “Jagratha” is a decent sequel worth watching. It was a success in two Indian states, Kerala and Tamilnadu.