After months of anxious wait, Prithviraj Sukumaran's new movie Cold Case had its premiere on Amazon Prime Video on June 30. As the trailer indicated, this Tanu Balak directorial tried to mix various genres like horror, crime, and investigation. However, the only question in the minds of audiences was whether the director succeeded in blending these multifarious genres perfectly on screen.
Cold Case: An attempt to blend crime and horror
Cold Case begins in a very interesting manner where the director shows exorcism methods practiced by Hindu and Islamic religions. Later, the movie shifts to Kerala where a fisherman discovers a skull in a polythene bag. As expected, the investigation was handed over to Sathyajith IPS (Prithviraj Sukumaran), the dashing cop in Kerala police. In the meantime, the director also shows a parallel story where Medha Padmaja (Aditi Balan), a freelance journalist experiences some paranormal activities in her life.
The rest of the movie revolves around the life of Sathyajith and Medha, as they both try to unveil the mysteries surrounding these usual events.
Cliched police officers and a routine attempt to scare viewers
Prithviraj Sukumaran's Sathyajith IPS in Cold Case seems very similar to the character of Niranjan IPS, a character which he portrayed in the movie The Thriller. The actor looked stylish, but the seemingly artificial dialogues and the spoon-feeding approach embraced by the director spoiled the show. The interaction between Sathyajith and his subordinates was too cliched, and audiences might have seen similar scenes an umpteen number of times, even in age-old Mollywood crime thrillers.
Aditi Balan's characterization was also weak. In the initial moments of the movie, she was seen portrayed as an atheist, but suddenly due to no reason (the director believes that a jump scare moment or even a bad dream could make a person believe in ghosts), she decides to visit a paranormal investigator. The scenes in which Aditi and the paranormal investigator discuss scrying and other communication methods were interesting, and to make things clear, these were the only scenes where the director succeeded in making the audiences sit at the edge of their seats.
Cold Case: High production values and mindblowing background score
Amid all these flaws, Cold Case is such a movie that is top-notch in its production values. The director has crafted this film in international standards, and it could help the movie to get viewers from other states as well, especially considering its OTT release. The background score of the film was awesome, especially during the climax scenes.
Final Verdict
Cold Case is not an impeccable crime thriller. It is just that average film that can be watched when you get some free time for Prithviraj Sukumaran and Aditi Balan.
