Never Say Never Again

The makers then waited for another 15 years to make the third part. By that time, a new age had dawned, and Sethurama Iyer, being a character out of history, was automatically a legend. Sethurama Iyer CBI, released in 2004, was an overwhelming success. It also marked the resurrection of its three principal players—Mammootty, K Madhu and writer SN Swamy—who, today, are all set to create a national, if not a world record. They have begun shooting for Nerariyan CBI (In pursuit of truth, CBI), the fourth edition of the CBI series.

There is no instance, at least in the history of Indian cinema, of a director-writer-hero team coming together for the fourth time for a movie based on the adventures of a single character. Satyajit Ray and Soumitra Chatterji had teamed up for the Detective Feluda movies, but just twice. The Malayalam comedy Nadodikkattu spawned a couple of sequels, but Mohanlal, Sreenivasan and Sathyan Anthikkad combined only for the first two parts. It was Priyadarshan who helmed the third.

‘‘The thrill I experience now is the same as that in 1988. Nothing has changed except my increasing waistline,’’ laughs K Madhu. Swamy’s hair has grown greyer, he forgets to add. But the 50-plus Mammootty looks like he has just walked in from 1988. ‘‘What can I say except that it is a blessing,’’ says Mammootty, seemingly embarrassed at the mention of his evergreen quality. But the actor in Mammootty is not particularly pleased with Sethurama Iyer.

‘‘Personally, I prefer to get rid of a particular character after the movie is over. But this bloody thing is following me again and again. It is a lot limiting too. I cannot give a new dimension or nuance to the fellow. He is static,’’ he says.

‘‘Mammootty has no choice but to bear the burden of success, especially since Sethurama Iyer was his creation. I originally visualised the character as an aggressive Muslim cop by the name Ali Imran. It was he who made the cop a pious Brahmin and posted him in the CBI,’’ Swamy clarifies. This explains why Mammootty never ran out of epithets to describe Sethurama Iyer. ‘‘He is brilliant. He is brave. He is bold. He is wise. He is intelligent. He is strong. He is good. He is…’’ We had to cut him short.

If the first film was about a sensational murder case that rocked the state in the late ’80s, the second one was more fictional, revolving around the death of a film star. Swamy wracked his brains for years before he came up with the twin-family massacre plot in the third part. Does he have any more options left? ‘‘The fourth movie is not a whodunit. Who the killer is, is not the suspense. It is a scientific and logical exploration of the supernatural. The film will deal with subjects never before touched in cinema,’’ says Swamy.

When Nerariyan CBI releases during Onam, this August, one of the movies competing with it stars talented young actor Prithviraj, who incidentally, was in kindergarten when Sethurama Iyer first graced the silver screen.