Kerala Crime Files

Season 1: Shiju, Parayil Veedu, Neendakara

The first season is a murder mystery centered on the killing of a sex worker named Swapna in a dilapidated lodge in Ernakulam city. The only lead the police hold is an address, "Shiju, Parayil Veedu, Neendakara", given by the suspect at the lodge, and the six-episode screenplay by Ashiq Aimar follows the investigation over the six days after the body is found.² The story is set in Kochi in 2011, a choice that limits the role of modern technology in crime-solving; most information comes from local inquiries and connecting details rather than digital forensics.^{6 • 2}

Characters and structure. Aju Varghese plays Sub Inspector Manoj Sreedharan, who heads the investigation, and Lal plays Circle Inspector Kurian Avaran, his short-tempered superior who craves publicity. Each episode is titled after a stage of police investigation: Crime Scene, Mahazar, Detection, Findings, Evidence, and Charge Sheet, reflecting research into how Kerala police actually work a case.^{6 • 2} Reviewers noted that the series also weaves in the personal lives of the officers, and that it avoids many standard crime-thriller tropes.^{7 • 8}

Origins. Khabeer and Aimar found the story thread while visiting the Central Police Station in Kochi for reference on another project. Although the premise came from material picked up from the police, Khabeer has said the series is not based on a true story.⁹ The team deliberately cast actors who were audience favorites but not superstars, so the investigators would read as ordinary human beings rather than figures whose success the audience takes for granted.¹

Season 2: The Search for CPO Ambili Raju

The second season premiered on June 20, 2025 on JioHotstar, with story, screenplay, and dialogues by Bahul Ramesh, the writer of the film Kishkindha Kaandam (2024), and production by Hassan Rasheed, Ahammed Khabeer, and Jithin Stanislaus under the Monkey Business banner.³ It was the first Malayalam show on a streaming platform to be renewed for a second season; Khabeer approached Ramesh after reading an early draft of Kishkindha Kaandam.¹⁰

The season abandons the Season 1 case entirely and follows the disappearance of civil police officer Ambili Raju (Indrans) from a rural police station in Thiruvananthapuram, investigated by the newly posted SHO Kurian Avaran (Lal) and SI Noble (Arjun Radhakrishnan).^{11 • 12} Unlike Season 1, it is set in the present day, so call detail records, tower locations, CCTV footage, and forensics all enter the investigation.¹² Ramesh set himself two constraints in writing it: the word "post-mortem" never appears, and the actual crime is never shown on screen.¹⁰