The Best Malayalam Crime Thrillers Streaming in India, from Drishyam to Officer on Duty

Rosshan Andrrews's film, written by Bobby–Sanjay, has Prithviraj Sukumaran as a police officer who is investigating the murder of a fellow officer, played by Jayasurya, loses his memory in an accident, and has to work the case again without knowing what he had already found. The final reveal about who he is was unusual for a mainstream Malayalam star film in 2013 and is still the reason people recommend it. It was later remade in Telugu as Hunt (2023) and in Hindi as Deva (2025).

Jeethu Joseph made this a few months before Drishyam. Prithviraj plays an alcoholic police officer, broken by his family's murder, who is pulled back to work to catch a serial killer who carves Biblical messages in Aramaic on his victims. It is a more conventional thriller than Drishyam but a well-built one.

Mohanlal plays Georgekutty, a cable-TV operator with a fourth-grade education who has learnt everything he knows from films, and who uses it to protect his family after his daughter accidentally kills a boy. It is a thriller where the audience knows what happened and watches the cover-up hold. Jeethu Joseph's film was remade in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Hindi, and a sequel, Drishyam 2, went straight to streaming in 2021.

Not a whodunit. Dileesh Pothan's second film turns on a stolen gold chain, swallowed by a thief, played by Fahadh Faasil, on a bus, and the hours a small-town police station spends trying to recover it. Suraj Venjaramoodu and Nimisha Sajayan play the couple who were robbed. It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam and is the best film here about how a police station actually works.

Joju George, until then a character actor, plays a retired police officer whose skill at reading crime scenes leads him to a case closer to home. M. Padmakumar's film begins as a procedural and turns into something angrier about organ trafficking. It was remade in Tamil as Visithiran.

Midhun Manuel Thomas, known until then for comedies, made a serial-killer film in which the killer targets police officers. Kunchacko Boban plays a criminal psychologist assisting the investigation. It was a large hit, and it was Kunchacko Boban's highest-grossing solo release until Officer on Duty, at the end of this list.

Tovino Thomas plays a forensic expert and Mamta Mohandas a police commissioner, working on a series of child killings in Thiruvananthapuram. Directed by Akhil Paul and Anas Khan, it leans on lab work rather than legwork, which sets it apart from most Malayalam police films.

Three police officers, played by Kunchacko Boban, Joju George and Nimisha Sajayan, are made scapegoats for a death during an election campaign and go on the run from their own force. Martin Prakkat directed and Shahi Kabir wrote it. It is a chase film and a bleak one about how politics uses the police. It was remade in Telugu as Kotabommali P.S.

Manu Warrier's film skipped cinemas and premiered on streaming. A grieving man, played by Roshan Mathew, is forced to hide a murder suspect in his house for one night, and Prithviraj arrives to take the suspect back. It is a siege thriller about communal hatred, and most of it takes place in and around a single house.

Shahi Kabir's debut as a director is set at a police wireless station on a remote hilltop, where two officers, played by Soubin Shahir and Sudhi Koppa, are posted. It is slow and atmospheric for most of its length and then not slow at all. The outpost is a real place, in Melukavu in Kottayam district, more than 3,000 feet up and known for its thunderstorms.

Dinjith Ayyathan directed from Bahul Ramesh's script. Asif Ali plays a forest officer who marries into a family whose father, a retired army officer played by Vijayaraghavan, has lost a licensed gun, and whose memory is failing. It is a mystery without a police investigation at its centre, and one of the best-reviewed Malayalam films of 2024.

Jofin T. Chacko's film sends a suspended police officer, played by Asif Ali, after a body buried in 1985, and the trail leads to the shoot of Kathodu Kathoram, a real Mammootty film made that year, and a junior artiste who disappeared from it. Anaswara Rajan plays her. The climax uses a digitally recreated young Mammootty. It grossed an estimated ₹57.30 crore worldwide.

Jithu Ashraf's first film as director, from a Shahi Kabir script. Kunchacko Boban plays a demoted inspector investigating a fake-gold case that turns out to be connected to his own family's tragedy. Priyamani co-stars, and Vishak Nair plays the antagonist. It became Kunchacko Boban's highest-grossing solo release.