spoilers !
Given Prithviraj’s obsession with all
things occult, the supernatural element was hardly surprising. He can deny it all he wants but from Christopher Moriarty to Illuminati, the recurring themes in his films tells us that he’s no different from any other 90s kid who’s read his share of popular english fiction or watched TV shows and movies from the Cable TV era. The trailer looked like the film was trying too many things, at least to me and that is exactly how it turned out to be too. They should have stuck to the police procedural genre and would have maybe even made a worthy successor to Yavanika, though even the very mention of these two films in a single sentence could be considered blasphemy.
The only time Prithviraj lost his scorn on screen was when he was around Alencier, I felt. Except for Lakshmipriya Chandramouli, everyone else looked totally out of their elements, especially when it came to lip synch. Aditi Balan behaved around the child like she was adopted, I thought, chemistry was non existent. The pandemic must have definitely contributed to the disintegration of the director’s original vision and design for the film I presume and he deserves the benefit of the doubt here. The movie did come into its own when it got to the forensic scenes and it sounded like the makers had done their bit of research. I was particularly impressed by the detailing into the DNA test types, something that I had taken note of in that stellar procedural on Netflix, Unbelievable.
Coming to the “pièce de résistance” of the film, if you were okay with Johnny Depp transferring his conscience onto a mainframe, what’s a refrigerator anyway. But have to admit that the climax was unintentionally funny too. And why do high ranking police officers on screen throw about fancy phrases like “ pandoras box” totally out of context, just for the heck of it. Looks like Prithviraj still has a hangover of his “Fountainhead” days, if you know what I’m talking about. And who makes these fancy PowerPoint presentations in the police station, I’m curious. Another lost opportunity and this article about the incident that most probably served as an inspiration might drive home that point.
And personally i feel that everything that went wrong with Adam Joan is what went wrong with Cold Case too. Tracing back my thoughts on Adam Joan here, and I’ve been rather vicious I admit.
https://gopakumarpurushothaman.com/2017/09/16/adam-joan-the-review/
gopakumarpurushothaman 