1000 Babies, the 2024 Malayalam-language investigation drama, is another addition to the crime thriller lineup on Disney+ Hotstar that circles around a confession letter left by an elderly nurse just before she died. The 2023 series, Kerala Crime Files, that investigated a number of different crimes throughout its runtime, had created quite the hype at the time of its release, and this year Disney+ Hotstar once again brings forward a similar investigation story that is indeed going to leave its viewers puzzled. So, without any further ado, let’s explore everything that took place in 1000 Babies through a detailed recap of the series.
Spoilers Ahead
Who was Sarah?
1000 Babies began with an elderly woman named Sarah living with her son Bibin in rural Kerala. Bibin worked as a lab technician and was close to his mother. Even though he was a brilliant student growing up, Sarah never allowed her son to go away from her. The prologue of the show was set in the year 2010. Sarah from time to time kept imagining many infants in cradles around her. She also heard the cries of the babies in her head. This would make the audience assume she was probably schizophrenic. Sarah kept writing some details from her diary onto a wall. The wall was in one of the rooms of her home, and Bibin never questioned this activity of hers.Â
Sarah one fine day confessed something to her son that made Bibin harm her out of rage after which Sarah was admitted to the hospital with head trauma. On the hospital bed, she requested that the two letters she had written, to be given to the local police and the local magistrate. Police officers Nawaz and Anil, along with Magistrate Samuel, were shocked to read the contents of the letters and chose not to act on it. Sarah succumbed to her injuries, but the contents of the letters were also not revealed to the public.Â
How did Aji Kurian crack the Ancy murder case?
1000 Babies moves to 2022, when Aji Kurian, a senior police officer, was assigned the sensational murder case of a woman. Ancy’s death was initially dubbed a heart attack, but the postmortem report stated she’d been stabbed in the heart. One of the main suspects was her husband Sanjeev, who was once a popular actor but most of whose movies were currently bombing. The police found a female dummy in the trunk of Sanjeev’s car, which helped Aji narrow it down to him being the murderer and bring him in for interrogation till he confessed. A terrified Sanjeev confessed to having killed Ancy but using a meticulous method. It involved someone named Bibin making an acquaintance with him wanting to discuss stories for a screenplay. Sanjeev confessed that Bibin implanted the idea of murdering his wife, which was presented to him in the form of the story. Sanjeev was also receiving images of Ancy with her boyfriend and the chats they shared. This forced Sanjeev to practice the murder on a female dummy, following which he successfully carried out the murder.Â
How did Aji come across Bibin’s letters?
Even though the Ancy murder case was solved, Aji was fixated on Bibin, who’d manipulated Sanjeev into committing the crime. A woman named Merlin approached Aji and discussed the similarities between the details of Ancy’s murder in the newspaper and several letters she had been receiving from an old colleague named Bibin. Aji was curious and wanted to dig deep into this matter because of the common name that emerged, Bibin.Â
What was the secret confession left by Sarah?
Aji’s investigation took him to the village where Bibin grew up, and the hospital where his mother, Sarah, passed. The hospital PRO redirected Aji to Nawas, Anil, and Samuel and mentioned the letters Sarah had written to them. Anil, Nawaz, and Samuel decided to meet Aji and chose to reveal the contents of the letter. The letter was a confession written by Sarah a long while before she died. She stated that, from the years 1980-1985, while working as a head nurse in Alappuzha, Kerala, she swapped 1000 babies and gave all the families the wrong kids. The letter stated she was jealous of the mothers who gave birth, and that was the reason behind the crime she committed forty years ago.Â
The three men chose to keep the confession to themselves and not reveal it to the public to avoid the chaos that would ensue. The letter also stated Bibin was the son of one of the patients, and Sarah swapped him at birth. Since the family he was supposed to go with was not keen on keeping him, she chose to raise him as her own. Aji was shaken as well, but he was quick to deduce Ancy’s death was connected to Bibin’s letter which Merlin received, and he wanted to find out more about him and if he was up to any mischief.Â
Who were the victims?
Aji was given a small task force to look for Bibin, but the investigation was discreet to prevent Sarah’s confession letters from coming out. Aji was joined by officers Vinod Pankajakshan and Muhammad Anzari, who located the girl Renuka, who was swapped with Bibin at birth. Aji, Vinod, and Ansari located Renuka and her family in Bangalore; they came to know Renuka had died of a drug overdose a few years ago. They spoke to her old friends who recognised Bibin as Harshan. Harshan had been a close friend of Renuka for a long time. Renuka, according to her friends, was rude to her parents, and Harshan had been a witness to this too. Renuka unfortunately died on the night of her birthday, and Harshan was with her friends when they discovered her body. Aji and his team found many lab equipment in the old room Bibin had rented during his stay in Bangalore. The police now had all the evidence to believe Bibin killed Renuka.
The next victims were Devan Kupleri and Suneer, who were swapped at birth. On reaching Palakkad, Suneer immediately recognized Bibin as his friend Naisam Ali. Suneer hadn’t been killed because he was leading a tough life as the son of a meat seller, and Naisam sympathized with him. Devan Kupleri was a religious fundamentalist who died a few years ago on the night of his birthday just like Renuka. His death was dubbed suicide as a video of him eating beef was leaked, which led to his party and family abandoning him. Devan’s fundamental ideology drew Naisam towards him. Naisam shared his plight of being ostracized by his community and approached Devan for help converting him and his family to Hinduism. An impressed Devan wanted to use this as an opportunity to win votes. Devan’s popularity did not last because of the leaked video, and eventually he was found dead in his car while his postmortem report said his alcohol contained high levels of pesticides.Â
What was Aji and his team’s assumption?
Aji and his team were sure there was a serial killer scenario developing, and they needed permission to start a manhunt to catch Bibin. Aji and his team concluded that Bibin had not had an ideal childhood, and somehow it may have affected his mental health. He had a certain idea of how children were supposed to be and how adults in love were supposed to be with each other. He was a witness to Renuka being a bad daughter. Bibin also learned Sanjeev and Ancy were not loyal to each other and dubbed all of them as incapable of living. Devan’s communally laced speeches and his hypocrisy were the reason why Bibin chose to lure him. He chose to kill all three of them as a result and used their ‘bad behavior’ to justify his actions.
Did someone leak the details of the investigation?
Aji received a letter which mentioned two names who were Bibin’s next targets. Since the letter reached him, the team was worried that someone had leaked the details of a discreet investigation being carried out to track Bibin. Merlin received the same letter, and both her and Aji had only CCTV footage of the man who had delivered the letters. Nawaz, Anil, and Samuel decided to kill Bibin if he was caught, as his arrest would reveal the contents of Sarah’s letter, and it was bound to severely damage the careers of the senior personnel.Â
Who was the next victim?
Sanal and Khalil Gibran were the next victims. Aji and his team tried to track down Sanal, but his family said Sanal had died during the floods. Aji and the team figured Khalil Gibran was the next target, but on reaching his home, his father had a sad story to narrate. Gibran was an alcoholic who harassed his parents relentlessly. During one of his alcohol-fueled rages, Gibran had killed his mother, and he was sentenced to jail for it.Â
Gibran met his father once after serving time in jail and moved away to start a life of his own. Gibran was the right kind of candidate for Bibin to target, as he’d never respected his parents. Since the ordeal Gibran’s parents went through was heartbreaking, Bibin will play God and take it upon himself to punish him for being ungrateful. It was Aji and his team’s duty to make sure Gibran was brought into protective custody to avoid Bibin committing any more murders. If Bibin was not arrested, he would go on a rampage, which would alert the police. This would force the Kerala police to reveal the confession letter left by Sarah, which was never investigated. Bibin’s arrest was essential to stop Pandora’s box from opening. The team got in touch with every lead they could find to locate Gibran, and he was finally traced to Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu. The show was similar to Kannur Squad because the police in this show and in that film were not willing to give up.Â
Was Bibin arrested?
From a tea shop, Aji and his team were able to locate Gibran’s location in rural Tamil Nadu. This was a solid lead, and the team hoped to find him alive and reach before Bibin could catch up to him. The young boy working at the tea shop also recognized Bibin, and revealed he had come to meet Gibran. Aji and his team feared Bibin would kill Gibran and escape. Ansari had his doubts and pointed out the journey to seek Gibran seemed too simple. There was a possibility that Bibin, who’d learned of the investigation, had orchestrated a plan to inadvertently make the police follow him.Â
Bibin was intelligent, which was the reason he could get away with all the crimes so far. There was a possibility of a mole present in Aji’s team who might have leaked the details of the investigation. On reaching Gibran’s hut, Aji and Vinod were shocked to find Bibin coming out. It played out just as Ansari feared. Bibin led Aji and his two-member team to him. Bibin was not afraid of the police because he knew Aji might try to go against the orders given to him, which were to kill the culprit on sight. Bibin admitted he killed Gibran a year ago and went on a rant and revealed his intentions behind killing four people, including his mother. Bibin was mentally not in a good state, which was why he killed his mother after she revealed her darkest secret. The guilt was killing her as she was finally a mother to a boy and realized the depth of the crime she’d committed in her younger days just out of spite. The revelation angered Bibin, and he confessed to having killed his mother as he believed that she did not deserve to live. Bibin was a sociopath who never received mental health counseling.
As Bibin began to talk, he revealed he had set things in motion and had people who would continue even if he was killed. If he was arrested, he would confess about his plans. Bibin may have wanted to force the Kerala police to reveal Sarah’s letters so that people would know the scale of the crime his mother committed, so someone would be accountable for it. Even though Sarah was killed, he wanted some kind of closure, which sadly got twisted with his idea of moral justice. Aji was keen on arresting Bibin but Vinod killed him on the spot, for he claimed he was strictly following the orders given to him. Vinod was not the rule-breaker kind. He was triggered by Bibin’s speech about playing God and deciding who needs to live and die. Aji was livid, as Bibin could have led them to the nexus and put an end to the madness. As a team leader, he was let down by Vinod.
Season one of 1000 Babies ended with Ansari being informed by someone about Bibin being killed. It could be speculated that Ansari may have been the mole planted by Bibin. Ansari killed the child who was working at the tea shop and identified Bibin and Gibran. Bibin probably did not want to keep any trail that could lead Aji and the rest of the Kerala police to end their plan. It was finally revealed that the man Sanjeev met was planted by Bibin, and so was the man who delivered the letters. Bibin’s plan to go after every child that was swapped had not ended. This would be a trial and a gruesome ordeal for Aji.Â