A wily thief, a striving police constable, his laidback boss, a neurotic coffin maker, a pair of wannabe YouTubers – Kaakee Circus has a bunch of investment-worthy players. Written and directed by Ameen Barif, the latest ZEE5 mini-series is as good-natured as it is good-humoured.

Word is spreading through a small town in Tamil Nadu about a daring theft at the local jail. The robber has a way of slipping into places and sauntering off with the loot unnoticed.

Prison constable Arjun (Subash Selvam), having watched too many movies and therefore gung-ho, is keen on solving the crime. Arjun also wants to prove himself to his girlfriend Sridevi (Vinsu Rache). Arjun’s superior officer Anbuselvan (Munishkanth), a fan of crime novels and the author of self-published books that he foists on the prisoners, is less enthusiastic.

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The leads are actually in the singular: a shadow spotted in the dark speaking Malayalam. The sole witness, Varghese (Abdool Lee), is more concerned with patching up with his wife alongside furthering his business. Arjun suspects the Malayalam-speaking bus conductor Manoj (Rajesh Madhavan), but has no proof.

The mix of merry mayhem-makers include Rama (Savithri) and Sindhu (Amrudha), who are very keen on increasing the views on their YouTube channel from single digits. Nearly everyone in the show is agreeably kooky, but in a normalised way.

Kaakee Circus is in both Tamil and Malayalam. Ameen Barif keeps the laughs coming and deftly directs his ensemble cast, ably led by Subash Selvam’s hardworking constable.

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Barif extracts as much chaos possible from a slim premise. Everybody runs around in circles over crisp episodes of roughly 20 minutes each. There is avoidable flab even within the truncated length, overcome by warmly observed characters and actors fully apprised of the cock-eyed nature of the comedy.

The show isn’t consequential, nor is it aiming to be. Kaakee Circus promises its guests modest pleasures, and never disappoints in this regard.