''Cold Case'' is a 2021 Indian

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

-language

crime thriller Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

directed by Tanu Balak and written by Sreenath V. Nath, that stars

Prithviraj Sukumaran Prithviraj Sukumaran (Help:IPA/Malayalam, /pr̩t̪ʰʋiɾaːd͡ʒ/; born 16 October 1982) is an Indian actor, producer, director, and playback singer who primarily works in Malayalam cinema, in addition to Tamil cinema, Tamil, Bollywood, Hin ...

and

Aditi Balan Aditi Balan is an Indian actress who mainly works in Tamil and Malayalam films. Aditi is best known for playing the titular role in the film ''Aruvi''. Her performance in the film is regarded as one of the "100 Greatest Performances of the Dec ...

in the lead roles and also features

Pooja Mohanraj Pooja Mohanraj is a film and theatre actress working primarily in Malayalam films. She made her debut in the Malayalam film ''One'' but is noted for her role in the Malayalam film '' Aavesham'', ''Sookshmadarshini'', '' Oru Jaathi Jathakam'', ''M ...

Anil Nedumangad Anil Nedumangad (also known as P. Anil; 30 May 1972 – 25 December 2020) was an Indian actor who appeared in Malayalam films. Acting career He made his debut in '' Thaskaraveeran'' with an uncredited appearance. His breakthrough was in the ...

Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli is a ''National Award'' winning Indian actress who predominantly works in Tamil films. A post graduate in human resource management from Madras School of Social Work, she joined the English theatre company Evam as a ...

Anand Anand may refer to: People * Anand (name), a surname and given name (including a list of people with the name) * Anand (clan), a clan of an Indian caste * Anand (actor), Indian actor * Anand (Maoist), Indian communist * Anand (writer) (born 1936 ...

, and

Rajesh Hebbar K. Rajesh Hebbar (born 18 November 1967) is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Malayalam film and television industry. He was also the lead vocalist of a rock band named Primitive Knights. Biography Hebbar was born in a family settled ...

in supporting roles. The plot follows two parallel investigations of a

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

murder case by IPS officer M. Sathyajith (Prithviraj) and investigative journalist Medha Padmaja (Aditi), who eventually cross paths. The film marks the directorial debut of cinematographer Tanu Balak. With a formal announcement made in September 2020, the principal shooting of the film began on 31 October, and was completed on 7 December 2020. It was filmed mostly in

Trivandrum Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the largest and ...

, with filming lasting around 36 days. Prakash Alex composed the film score while Gireesh Gangadharan and Jomon T. John jointly handled the cinematography, and Shameer Muhammed edited the film. ''Cold Case'' was released on 30 June 2021 on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

, bypassing theatrical release due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

-related cinema closures.

Plot

The movie opens with a Hindu

exorcism Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be do ...

ritual in

Varanasi Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.* * * * The city has a syncretic tradition of I ...

and a Muslim exorcism ritual in

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. Medha, a journalist leaves her news office while talking to her mother-in-law who is at an

ashram An ashram (, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions, not including Buddhism. Etymology The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (< ACP M. Sathyajith is called in to investigate a murder, as a result of a skull being found in a bag from a river. Forensic analysis reveals that the murder was committed over a year ago and the skull belongs to a female aged 25–30 years. The identity of the deceased is then sought. The

dental implants A dental implant (also known as an endosseous implant or fixture) is a prosthesis that interfaces with the bone of the jaw or skull to support a dental prosthesis such as a crown, bridge, denture, or facial prosthesis or to act as an orthod ...

on the skull, indicate that the victim was a female named Eva Maria, who was from a wealthy family and that her father had left her a fortune before his death. The police investigate her location and traces her family. Her stepmother tells him that she had married a Hindu and remained estranged from them for a while and that during the Easter of 2019, her father met her and possibly patched up things between them. The police also learn that all the land that Eva had inherited was quietly sold to an outsider. On the other hand, Eva's spirit tries to contact Medha, a journalist currently seeking help for her daughter's custody case from Advocate Haritha, who is also a friend of Medha, as Eva's spirit needs Medha's help. After Eva tries to signal Medha via paranormal occurrences in her house, Medha takes the help of an occult researcher, Zara Zacchai, who tells her the name of the soul as Eva Maria and Medha with the help of Advocate Haritha (who was Eva's lawyer for her divorce case) and Asif, a colleague starts her own investigation in parallel, unaware that the Police are investigating the case. Sathyajith later meets Eva's ex-husband and finds out that he was deep in debt because of his divorce proceeding as he had to return 25 million that he had earlier borrowed from Eva to start his own production house. This debt was settled by his now father-in-law who is the owner of the media house where Medha works. Sathyajith traces Eva's last known location to a working women's hostel and through multiple witnesses concludes that she was last seen in September 2019 which is the period of her death. However, her phone was active till April 2020 and her Facebook account showed pictures posted in Varanasi till April 2020. He then traces a list of tourists who due to the

lockdown A lockdown () is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison protocol that us ...

were brought to the home state by a special government bus service. He finds Eva's name in that list and concludes that an imposter was posting pictures and sending messages to her friends so that no one reports her missing. Meanwhile, the dental advisor who helped them with the dental implants on the skull, tells him that sometime back they had recovered a human hand in Tamil Nadu and this possibly could link to this case. On analysis, it is found that the hand belonged to Eva and had strands of hair that might belong to the murderer. During the investigation Sathyajith learns that Medha is also in search of the truth. While they are discussing each other's findings, Sathyajith gets a phone call from his uncle who had seen the impersonator for Eva while returning from Varanasi. All the pieces of the puzzle fit into the place and Sathyajith detects that the killer is none other than Advocate Haritha. Haritha was neck-deep in debt when she was handling Eva's case. Her father died when a real estate project was mid-way in construction and she fears if the project is not delivered within a month's period she may be arrested. One day she takes Eva home on the pretext of talking her out of her grief and strangles her to death. Haritha then dismembers Eva's body, stores it in the fridge, and later scatters the pieces. She then creates fake documents assuming Eva's identity and sells off Eva's inheritance and restores her father's business, She takes Eva's phone to Varanasi and posts the pictures on Facebook, after which she throws Eva's phone into the river. She later boards a special government bus service for the trip back to Kerala. Now alerted Haritha goes to Medha's home to clean up the evidence. While she was there alone, she sees the same

refrigerator A refrigerator, commonly shortened to fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermal insulation, thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to ...

that she had used to store Eva's remains and then, Haritha is killed when the refrigerator explodes. In the final scenes, we see Medha saying she was right about her beliefs that the refrigerator was possessed with Eva's soul. Sathyajith tells her that there would always be a conflict between faith and logic, as a police officer he can only rely on logic and terms this incident as an extraordinary accident. Later at Medha's ancestral house, her dead sister's picture breaks into pieces after Medha plays her radio.

Cast

Production

Development

In September 2020

was reported to play the lead in an investigative thriller film produced by Anto Joseph, and cinematographer Tanu Balak was assigned to helm the project, making his directorial debut. Sreenath V. Nath scripted the film's story and screenplay, which is based on real-life incidents, although being stated by the makers as a fictional project and the team added that the film does not have action sequences. Cinematographer Jomon T. John, was the first crew member to be announced as part of the technical department, as the rest of the cast and crew were yet to be revealed.

was assigned as the female protagonist, whose character was based on journalism. Another cinematographer, Girish Gangadharan, joined the team, as did music composer, Prakash Alex, and editor,

Shameer Muhammed Shameer Muhammed is an Indian film editor and producer predominantly working in Malayalam cinema. He was an alumnus of Chethana Media Institute, Thrissur. He worked as a spot editor in several movies and his debut as an independent editor was ' ...

Filming

Balak added that Prithviraj's portions were set mostly indoors and the film has mostly few scenes with crowds, which is set in

. The film was launched on 31 October 2020, without Prithviraj as the actor was quarantined for a week, after being recovered from

. He later joined the shoot on 13 November. Stills from the film featuring Prithviraj in a

khaki The color khaki (, ) is a light shade of tan (color), tan with a slight yellowish tinge. Khaki has been used by many armies around the world for uniforms and equipment, particularly in arid or desert regions, where it provides camouflage rela ...

uniform was positively received by fans and the character name was further revealed as ACP M. Sathyajith. The first schedule of the film completed on 24 November 2020 and second schedule started subsequently. The second schedule was completed on 7 December 2020, by which production has been wrapped within a duration of 36 days.

Music

The film's soundtrack and score is composed by Prakash Alex and lyrics written by Sreenath V Nath and Anand Sreeraj. The music album features two songs "Eeran Mukil" sung by K. S. Harisankar, and ''Fire'' sung by Anand Sreeraj which was released on 25 June 2021.

Release

The film was initially planned for a direct-to-digital release in December 2020, was later delayed due to post-production difficulties. In the process, the producers later planned for a theatrical release, since theatres were allowed to operate with 50% occupancy, and fixed the date as 4 March 2021. But the film was postponed indefinitely, and producers reinstated the decision to release on

over-the-top media service An over-the-top media service (also known as over-the-top television, or simply OTT) is a digital distribution service of video and audio delivered Direct-to-consumer, directly to viewers via the public Internet, rather than through an Terrestria ...

as the functioning of theatres were affected due to the second wave of

. Anto Joseph officially announced the plans of digital release, with the streaming rights of ''Cold Case'' and the

Fahadh Faasil Abdul Hameed Mohammed Fahad Fazil (born 8 August 1982), professionally known as Fahadh Faasil, is an Indian actor and producer who primarily works in Malayalam films. Noted for his diverse portrayals, Fahadh is among the highest-paid and most ...

-starrer ''

Malik Malik (; ; ; variously Romanized ''Mallik'', ''Melik'', ''Malka'', ''Malek'', ''Maleek'', ''Malick'', ''Mallick'', ''Melekh'') is the Semitic term translating to "king", recorded in East Semitic and Arabic, and as mlk in Northwest Semitic d ...

'', were sold to

. On 16 June 2021 the makers announced the release date as 30 June 2021, with the teaser of the film being unveiled on the same day. The trailer was later unveiled on 18 June 2021. ''Cold Case'' released worldwide on Amazon Prime Video on the midnight 29 June, ahead of the original release, and was made available from streaming in 240 countries.

Reception

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

''-based critic Anna Mathews gave a rating of 3 out of 5 saying "the film has an innovative story track, with the investigative thriller running on two very different propositions, but in a parallel narrative".

Sowmya Rajendran Sowmya Rajendran is an Indian writer. She is the winner of Sahitya Akademi's 2015 Bal Sahitya Puraskar and has written over 20 books. She has written young adult fiction, picture books and inspirational books for children. Career Rajendran's w ...

of ''

The News Minute ''The News Minute'' is an Indian digital news platform based in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded by Vignesh Vellore who is also the current CEO in 2014. Apart from Karnataka, it also has bureaus in the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, ...

'' wrote that the screenplay in the first half is "intriguing", but criticised the writing as it had "failed to live up to the ambition of the script" with "the plot becomes less convincing as the film progresses". She rated 3 out of 5 in her review. S. R. Praveen of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' called the film as an "underwhelming horror-thriller that squanders the promising premise that it had". He further called "The script is rather weak not just in using the thriller elements, but in the dialogue department too. Quite a few of the sequences have the characters, especially the police officers, stating the obvious to each other. This is compounded by the not so great dubbing for some characters." Haricharan Pudipeddi of ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media Limited, an entity controlled by the Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia, the daughter o ...

'' called that the film "did take the road less taken with the identity of the murderer", but "the experiment needed a bit more work for the role was poorly written". Manoj Kumar R of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' gave 1-star rating out of 5 and pointed that the film has "a very conventional premise of a dead person seeking justice from beyond the grave or, in this case, out of a rickety fridge". Giving 2.5 out of 5 stars,

Anna M. M. Vetticad Anna Marie Mathew Vetticad is an Indian journalist, film critic, and cultural commentator. She has been in the field of journalism since 1994. Vetticad is known for her political critiques of Indian cinema and the Indian film industry. She is a ...

of ''

Firstpost Firstpost is an Indian news website owned by Network18 Group, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC TV18. It has posted misinformation on multiple occasions. The Network 18 group was originally owned by Raghav Bahl. In January 2012, the gro ...

'' called that the film is "wisely controlled when it dips into paranormal horror clichés such as sudden loud sounds, ominous music and abrupt movement" and called the film as a "reasonably engaging thriller, but it had the potential to be so much more". Critic Ramya Palisetty of ''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media, Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' laun ...

'' gave 3 out of 5 saying "the film has the right ingredients to keep you on the edge of the seat, but the lazily-written second half tests your patience". Roktim Rajpal of ''

Deccan Herald ''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by businessman K. N. Guruswamy and launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printers Mysore, a privately hel ...

'' rated 1.5 out of 5 and called "the film fails to make an impact due to the lousy execution". Gauthaman Bhaskaran of ''

News18 Network18 Media & Investments Limited, ( d/b/a Network18 Group) is an Indian media conglomerate owned by the Reliance Industries, headed by Mukesh Ambani. Rahul Joshi is the managing director, chief executive officer and group editor-in-chief ...

'' called the film as an "extremely amateurish attempt" with a "shoddily-written script that completely wastes Prithviraj's potential, which transformed him into a robotic-run-of the mill man". Meera Jacob, for the news magazine ''

The Week ''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...

'', gave 3 out of 5 rating and called "the movie does hold the attention of the viewer, particularly during the first half. However, moving toward the climax, it seemed to have been a bit of a let-down 'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''.. he mixing of genre holds an optimistic future when executed properly." Sajin Srijith of ''Cinema Express'' gave 2 out of 5 rating, and said "The film's eagerness to get to the final twist comes at the cost of not-so engaging storytelling". Sangita Nambiar of ''The Quint'', gave 2.5 out of 5 stars rating, calling it as "a paranormal thriller meets police procedural, is a better-than-many watch but definitely not the best or one of the best, it is a watchable thriller, just have reasonably low expectations from it". Arjun Menon of ''

Pinkvilla Pinkvilla is an Indian entertainment and lifestyle platform. As of June 2022, Pinkvilla has over 50,000,000 visitors on its website and app. Overview Pinkvilla covers entertainment and lifestyle stories. Its coverage extends to Hindi cinema, ...

'' gave 3 stars out of 5 calling the film as "an old fashioned crime thriller that is designed to evoke the feel of a horror flick and murder mystery simultaneously which does offer a fairly neat premise with little fuzz and great precision in storytelling". Giving 3 out of 5, ''

Sify Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology (ICT) company providing telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation integration services, and ...

'' called the film as an "okayish thriller", with "an almost predictable track and cliched moments".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 13391696 Indian crime thriller films 2020s Malayalam-language films 2021 films 2021 crime thriller films Fictional portrayals of the Kerala Police Films shot in Thiruvananthapuram Films not released in theaters due to the COVID-19 pandemic Amazon Prime Video original films