As people are cooped up in their houses due to the lockdown to slow down the spread of COVID-19, many are glued to screens. However, with most television channels airing repeats of shows, viewers are hunting for something new to watch on OTT platforms and social media.
The Secret Eye, a Malayalam web series that was launched on YouTube last month, has piqued the interest of fans of whodunits. It is a crime series in which a group of people discuss various police cases narrated over two episodes.
Tiju Thomas Thumpamon | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Says Tiju Thomas Thumpamon, who has conceptualised The Secret Eye: “The actors share details regarding a case, their suspicions, drop clues... A USP of this series is that it has been designed like a game and it involves audience participation. The viewers need to pay keen attention to the actors’ interaction to guess who the culprit is. They then key in the culprit’s name at the end of Part I of an episode. Part II of the episode announces the culprit and how the crime was committed. The top five correct answers is announced by a celebrity guest in the second part of the episode.”
The series has delved into three cases so far. “Many have written in saying that they feel like detectives as they don their thinking caps to solve a case,” he says.
Jose P Raphael | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
If the first episode garnered 2,630 views, case number two had 1,457 views. The third case, which was released a few days ago, is close to touching a thousand in viewership.
Twenty five theatre actors and activists have gathered for the project. There are familiar faces like Kannan Nayar, Viju Varma, Krishnan Balakrishnan...in the team.
Keeping it real
“As we have lawyers, doctors and policemen who are also theatre artistes in our group, we have managed to keep the show as realistic as possible. All of us decided on working on The Secret Eye as we wanted to keep ourselves creatively engaged during the lockdown. We have divided ourselves into two teams that takes turns to handle an episode,” says Tiju, who scripts the episodes.
Shanthi S | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Each episode is based on a real act of crime. For instance, case one, Benjaminte Thirodhanam, inspired by a real case, revolves around a person who went missing under mysterious circumstances.
Shanthi S, a lawyer, helps him pick out cases for the audience. Says Shanthi: “I try and select a mix of cases. If one is on domestic abuse, another is on a kidnapping. Most of these cases are familiar to the viewers as they have been widely covered by the media. So we fictionalised those for the screen.”
Dr. Sujith Babu | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Sujith Babu, assistant professor, Department of Psychology in the University of Kerala, helps Tiju flesh out the characters in the cases. “The plot, the victim and those involved in the cases have to be well developed so that the audience can recreate the crime scenes in their mind. It helps them narrow down the suspects,” says Sujith.
According to theatre artiste Jose P Raphael, as each episode has just dialogues, and no role play, dialogue delivery is essential to retain the viewers’ attention. “I also found the whole idea rather innovative as there is no real camerawork or technology involved to make the series. We shoot our dialogues with our mobile phones and send it to Tiju who edits and uploads it.”
While part I of a case is released every Wednesday at 10 pm, part II is out on Monday. Says Tiju: “Right now, we hope to shoot 10 episodes. Once we have completed the episodes, we plan to step into a larger OTT platform.”