Malabar Police is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language crime comedy film written and directed by P. Vasu. The film stars Sathyaraj in a dual role, Abbas, Khushbu and Mumtaj. It was released on 6 August 1999, and turned out to be one of the most successful Tamil films of the year.[1]
The film is primarily set in Chennai. An eloping couple witnesses the murder of a minister, and evades an attack by the killer. An officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation investigates the murder, and suspects that it is connected to the rivalry between two businessmen.
Raja and Julie are lovers in Palakkad. Raja is of Tamil ancestry, while Julie is from a Syrian Christian family. Julie's rich parents vehemently oppose their marriage and keep her in confinement. They eventually follow with their plan to elope at dawn, to get married. On the way, they witness the murder of minister Madhavan Nair; The murderer Varadappan tries to kill Raja and Julie too as they witnessed the murder; however, they escape and reach Chennai by train.
Chinnasamy is a CBI officer who is appointed to investigate the murder of the minister. He is also from a Tamil family, residing for three generations in Kerala. He comes to Chennai and starts to search for Raja with assistance from constable Govindan. Meanwhile, Nagarajan and Sivashankar are leading businessmen in Chennai but are business rivals. Chinnasamy sets his eyes on Nagarajan, boss of Varadarajan, doubting him to be the murderer of Varadarajan when he is killed in a blast after his arrest. Sivashankar joins hands with Chinnasamy and helps him gather evidence against Nagarajan due to his business rivalry. Meanwhile, Raja and Julie accidentally get separated, and they keep searching for each other. Chinnasamy spots Julie and employs her as a maid in his home.
Finally, Chinnasamy solves the case and finds that Sivashankar is the actual murderer. Chinnasamy pretended to doubt Nagarajan, which made him close to Sivashakar, helping him gather evidences. It is revealed that Sivashankar used Varadarajan as a spy employed with Nagarajan to know his business secrets and he was the real murderer. Sivasankar was a covert friend of Madhavan, and Madhavan had recently given Sivasankar a huge amount of black money for safekeeping. To prevent the money being returned, Sivasankar used Varadarajan to finish off Madhavan Nair. In the end, Raja and Julie are united with the help of Chinnasamy as the return to Kerala, while Govindan is promoted to Inspector rank as he assisted to solve the 'criminal case'.
Malabar Police was released on 6 August 1999.[4] K. P. S. of Kalki wrote that viewers could enjoy the last 10 minutes if they could endure old fashioned sentiments and lengthy dialogues.[5] D. S. Ramanujam of The Hindu wrote, "Sathyaraj is quite at ease in delivering the Malayalam mixed Tamil while unravelling the mystery of the murder of a Kerala Minister, the involvement of a young pair of eloping lovers making it more interesting". Ramanujam concluded, "Ashok Kumar handles the camera with his known efficiency while S. A. Rajkumar has scored the music which is adequate".[6]
