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Season 2 now streaming, the season has already garnered praise for its gripping narrative and striking visuals—largely thanks to the cinematographic vision of Jithin Stanislaus. A graduate of LV Prasad Film Academy and a former assistant to DOP Om Prakash, Jithin has brought a cinematic edge to the series.
The second season of Kerala Crime File, subtitled The Search for CPO Ambili Raju, marks a significant leap in Malayalam web storytelling—not just in narrative, but in visual language. Streaming now to glowing reviews, the series owes much of its cinematic polish to cinematographer Jithin Stanislaus, who approached the project with the rigor and artistry of a theatrical feature.
With Bahul Ramesh’s taut, immersive script, Jithin’s lensing gave the visuals a haunting, textured soul. “I never treated this like episodic TV,” says Jithin. “Visually, it had to feel like a full-length feature.”
Shot using the ARRI Alexa Mini LF as the main camera and the RED V-Raptor XL for higher frame rate sequences, the show’s deep, moody tones were beautifully rendered through Cooke S8/i lenses. For Jithin, the S8/i was transformative:
“The lens gave me incredible clarity and texture, even in the shadows. Especially in darker regions with green and blue hues, the Cooke held the color depth in ways other optics just can’t.”
A standout feature of the S8/i was its remarkable minimum focus distance, which allowed Jithin to shoot intimate close-ups using a 35mm focal length—bringing emotional immediacy while retaining wide context. He avoided traditional eye-level compositions, instead choosing frames slightly above or below, paired with off-center blocking, to build visual tension and unease.
“We had to frame at least six dogs together in several shots, many of them handheld and shot wide open at T2.8,” he explains. “The S8/i lenses handled it all—the unpredictability, the movement, the chaos—with absolute precision and sharpness.”
The final grade was done in Dolby Vision HDR, and the S8/i optics stood strong through every stage. From stunning clarity in close quarters to atmospheric detail in dark environments, the lenses supported every bold choice.
Jithin, who has evolved through Cooke’s lineage—from S4/i to S7/i, and now S8/i—calls this the finest Cooke glass yet. “It invites you to go further. It’s not just sharp—it’s soulful.”
*Kerala Crime Files: Season 2* redefines what Malayalam OTT content can visually aspire to be. With Jithin Stanislaus behind the lens and Cooke S8/i lenses in front of it, the series has set a new benchmark in web-series cinematography—rich in tone, layered in mood, and distinctly cinematic.
