''C.B.I. Shankar'' is a 1989 Indian

Kannada language Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native sp ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by P. Nanjundappa. It stars

Shankar Nag Shankar Nagarakatte (9 November 1954 – 30 September 1990) was an Indian actor, screenwriter, director, and producer known for his work in Kannada-language films and television. A popular cultural icon of Karnataka, Nag is often referred to as ...

in the titular role as Shankar, an officer with the CBI, who investigates a murder case closed down by the local police. The supporting cast features

Devaraj Devaraj (born 20 September 1953) is an Indian actor and theatre actor who works in Indian film industry. He has largely featured in Kannada films performing various roles as a lead character, supporting character and villainous character. He ha ...

Doddanna Doddanna (born 11 November 1949) is an Indian actor in the Kannada film industry who has acted in about 800 films. He started his career as a theatre actor. During this time, he entered the Kannada film industry as a character actor. Early lif ...

Vajramuni Sadananda Sagar (11 May 1944 – 5 January 2006), better known by his stage name Vajramuni, was an Indian actor who appeared in Kannada films. He portrayed negative characters during most of his career and was considered one of Kannada cinema's ...

Suman Ranganathan Suman Ranganath is an Indian model and actress. She has starred in Kannada, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi films. Personal life Suman Ranganath was born in Tumakuru, Karnataka. She was married to Bunty Walia, an Indian film pro ...

and

Shashikumar Shashi Kumar (born 2 December 1965) is an actor and politician from Karnataka. He works predominantly in Kannada films. Acting career Shashi Kumar's first released film was ''Chiranjeevi Sudhakara'' starring Raghavendra Rajkumar. In 1989 h ...

. The film was a blockbuster and further established Nag as a leading actor in

Kannada cinema Kannada cinema, also known as Sandalwood, or Chandanavana, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Kannada language widely spoken in the state of Karnataka. The 1934 film ''Sati Sulochana'' directed ...

Plot

Sub-inspector Sub-inspector (SI), or sub-inspector of police, is a rank used extensively in South Asia: in the police forces of Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka, which is primarily based on the British model. It was formerly used in most British col ...

Galappa Doddamani stumbles at Sathya's

filming location A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, in addition to or instead of using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage. In filmmaking, a location is any place where a film crew wil ...

in a forest, of the film ''CBI Shankar''. The president of the local Zilla Parishad Narayana Gowda (

) reaches the spot with a businessman Amar (

), and grant the crew permission to continue filming. Following Gowda's inappropriate behavior with Tara (as herself), the film's female lead, at a party hosted by the film producer, she storms out of the party and walks out of the film. Sathya, also the film's director, persists Amar's sister Asha (

) to replace her, to which an initially hesitant Asha agrees in her brother, Amar's absence, who had other plans for her. Amar away from home strikes a business deal with an agency with the help of Radha, who has a crush on him. Filming with ''CBI Shankar'', Asha, while performing a scene in the film, falls unconscious on seeing blood-stained clothes and backs out of the film. Sathya woos her and convinces her to overturn her decision, and is successful. Amar, on returning home, is furious to find Asha acting and confronts Sathya. He gets the police to the filming location to arrest Sathya on grounds of having forced Asha to act in the film. Sathya then reveals his real identity of Shankar, a CBI officer who, with his team have come down to the town to unearth the murder case of Santosh (

), having been closed down previously by the local police calling it a

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

. In a series of flashback sequences as narrated by the potential suspects to Shankar as part of the investigation, it is seen that Santosh was a dancer who was given a ticket by a political party to contest at the local Zilla Parishad elections. Foreseeing his win, the opposition political party led by Gowda plans on giving him cash in return for his withdrawal. Reluctant to withdraw, Gowda asks Bullet Basya (Sudheer) to "deal with Santosh". Basya tails him and involves him in a fistfight, and shockingly finds Amar stabbing Santosh from behind killing him. Cut to the present, Basya reveals to Shankar that it was Amar who killed Santosh for the reason that the latter pursued Amar's sister. The CBI team proceed to arrest a newlywed Amar only to find him stabbed by Radha, his wife, who reveals that she did so, to avenge her ex-husband's murder by Amar, who had murdered him owing to a business-related dispute. An unhurt Amar manages to escape, who is pursued by Shankar and hands him over to the police.

Cast

as Sathya / Shankar *

(credited as Suman Ranganath) as Asha *

as Santosh *

as Narayana Gowda *

as Amar *

as Sub-inspector Galappa Doddamani *

Avinash Avinash Yelandur (born 22 December 1959) is an Indian actor who stars predominantly in South Indian language films, notably in the Kannada and Tamil film industries. He has been in the industry for two decades and has acted in over 200 films. Kn ...

as Vikram *

Sudheer Sudheer is an Indian given name. People *Sudheer (Kannada actor) *Sudheer (Malayalam actor) *Sudheer Babu, Indian actor and former professional badminton player *Sudheer Karamana, Indian actor of Malayalam films *Sudheer Sharma, Nepali author and ...

as Bullet Basya *

Lohithaswa Lohithaswa T. S. (5 August 1942 – 8 November 2022) was an Indian Kannada film actor and playwright and an English professor. He acted in more than five hundred Kannada movies, stage plays, and television serials. He was popularly known for h ...

Dinesh Dinesh (Devanagari: ') is a common Hindu male given name. The Sanskrit word ' is a compound of ' 'day' and ' 'lord', meaning 'day-lord', an epithet of the Sun. Notable people with the name include: * Dinesh, Indian film actor * Dinesh Baboo, Indi ...

as Subramanya * K. V. Manjayya *

Kunigal Nagabhushan Kunigal Nagabhushan (6 December 1945 – 23 June 2013) was an Indian actor in the Kannada film industry. Some of the notable films of Kunigal Nagabhushan as an actor include '' S.P. Sangliyana 2'' (1990), ''C.B.I. Shankar'' (1989), ''Daari Tappi ...

as Seenappa * Tara as herself in a cameo appearance *

Rockline Venkatesh Thirupathi Narasimhalunaidu Venkatesh (born 23 March 1963), better known by his stage name Rockline Venkatesh, is an Indian actor and producer known for his works in Kannada, and Hindi cinemas. He is the founder and owner of the production and d ...

(uncredited)

Soundtrack

Hamsalekha Gangaraju (born June 23, 1951), professionally known as Hamsalekha, is an Indian film composer and a songwriter who works in South Indian cinema, predominantly in the Kannada film industry since the late 1980s. He is also a screenplay writer, di ...

composed the background score for the film and the soundtrack. The soundtrack album consists of five tracks.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1319067 1989 films 1980s Kannada-language films Indian drama films Films scored by Hamsalekha Central Bureau of Investigation in fiction Indian nonlinear narrative films