'CSI Sanatan' is out in theatres. In this section, we are going to review the latest BO release.

Story:

Vikram Chakravarthy (Tarak Ponnappa) is shot dead by an unknown assailant. His death shocks the State because he has been viewed as some sort of a God by many middle-class beneficiaries of his company's chit-fund schemes. In comes Sanathan (Adi Sai Kumar), the head of the Crime Scene Investigation. In no time, he catches hold of Divya (Nandini Roy), Minister Rajavardhan (Madhusudan Rao), Sudeeksha (Misha Narang), an auditor, an accountant and others who worked with the victim in different capacities. Of them, Divya looks like the most potential murderer owing to her stakes in the chit-fund company. But the truth might not be straightforward.

Analysis:

Firstly, what is CSI? As a character says, we have heard of NIA and CBI, but what on earth is CSI? It's a fictional entity created by the writer of this film on the lines of the Homicide Investigation Team conceived by Sailesh Kolanu, the maker of the 'HIT' franchise. In the case of HIT, its investigators (played by Vishwak Sen and Adivi Sesh) really looked like they are the only ones capable of cracking murder mysteries and stuff. In contrast, CSI's Numero Uno sleuth Sanatan can investigate a murder only if others come with the IQ of an LKG student.

A major flaw is that CSI is generic and Sanatan is shown doing the regular job of a run-of-the-mill investigator. He is never confronted with challenges. And even when something is right in front of his eyes, he and his colleagues fail to see it. It is amply clear that the Minister, who is a sleeping partner at the company, is a notorious scumbag who is prone to committing realty sector frauds. There is no pressure from the above to shield him. Yet, our heroic investigator doesn't know how to ask him pointed questions. He doesn't know how to navigate the investigation even when his opponents are toothless and feckless. Yet, he behaves as though he is a smartass sleuth who can't be deceived. Sanatan has direct access to the Home Minister, by the way.

CSI is described as a body that solves the maximum number of cases and yet a senior constable hasn't heard about it. Sanatan has studied Criminology (we mean, the first two paras of the Wikipedia page on Criminology). He says basic stuff like this to cops: "Any crime is committed with one of the four motives: Money, lust, power, revenge. In the beginning, he is shown to be a unique problem-solver. For the rest of the film, his destiny turns out to be this: Question as many suspects and their uncles as possible, subject himself and his fellow cops to confusion, and so on and so forth.

When he is tired of scratching his brain, he calls an ethical hacker who readily hacks any system under the sun. The cops miss obvious points (like the fact that the chit fund company is into scamming the public) for weeks on end and, when Sanatan flashes a 'Eureka!' moment, they pensively ask why middle-class people trust financial scammers.

Sanatan never runs out of pearls of wisdom though. "Personal agenda is a motive for any crime." Nandini Rai attends an interrogation in party wear. The film never stops giving.

Verdict:

'CSI Sanatan' is a senseless investigative thriller with poor technical output.